THE POVERTY OF POVERTY STUDIES.

If you see a big house and a lot of little houses, does it suffice to complain about how big the big house is?  In the potted political economy popular with Common Dreams types, the answer is probably yes.

A landmark report on global inequality published Wednesday shows that the chasm between the richest slice of humanity and everyone else continued to expand this year, leaving the top 0.001%—fewer than 60,000 multimillionaires—with three times more wealth than the poorest half of the world’s population combined.

The global wealth gap has become so staggering, and its impact on economies and democratic institutions so corrosive, that policymakers should treat it as an emergency, argues the third edition of the World Inequality Report, a comprehensive analysis that draws on the work of hundreds of scholars worldwide. Ricardo Gómez-Carrera, a researcher at the World Inequality Lab, is the report’s lead author.

“Inequality has long been a defining feature of the global economy, but by 2025, it has reached levels that demand urgent attention,” reads the new report. “The benefits of globalization and economic growth have flowed disproportionately to a small minority, while much of the world’s population still face difficulties in achieving stable livelihoods. These divides are not inevitable. They are the outcome of political and institutional choices.”

The richest 10% of the global population, according to the latest data, own three-quarters of the world’s wealth and capture more income than the rest of humanity. Within most countries, it is rare for the bottom 50% to control more than 5% of national wealth.

“This concentration is not only persistent, but it is also accelerating,” the report observes. “Since the 1990s, the wealth of billionaires and centimillionaires has grown at approximately 8% annually, nearly twice the rate of growth experienced by the bottom half of the population. The poorest have made modest gains, but these are overshadowed by the extraordinary accumulation at the very top.”

“The result,” the report adds, “is a world in which a tiny minority commands unprecedented financial power, while billions remain excluded from even basic economic stability.”

Ah, yes, would you rather be Adam Gimbel or Sam Walton, making your money by reducing the price those billions pay for their staples, or Louis Faberge, jeweller to the Tsars?  Market processes reduce poverty and lift up middle classes.  World poverty has declined in the first quarter of this century.  That is something to hail.  Indeed, we might have Trumpian populism and the trade protectionism that infects both major U.S. political parties as a consequence of that nasty neoliberalism.  "In India and China, the past three decades of freer markets have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, a feat the previous three decades of left-leaning development economics had singularly failed to accomplish."

OPTING OUT OF YET ANOTHER CARTEL?

Very interesting.  "Notre Dame opts to skip postseason entirely after being left out of College Football Playoff."  Why?

The Fighting Irish played in last season's national championship game but were on the playoff bubble this fall after a 10-2 record, including an opening-week loss at Miami. Notre Dame was ranked in the top 10 of every ranking by the playoff selection committee until Sunday's final rankings, when it fell to 11th and was the first team left out. Meanwhile Miami (10-2) earned the final at-large berth.

The Fighting Irish had won 10 consecutive games and were idle Saturday but fell anyway. Athletic director Pete Bevacqua called the previous rankings a “farce and total waste of time” to ESPN.

How the committee would view Miami and Notre Dame had been a subplot all season. The committee’s chairman, Hunter Yurachek, had said Miami’s head-to-head win wasn’t a significant factor — until Sunday, when BYU’s drop in the rankings after its loss in the Big 12 championship moved Miami up, creating a head-to-head comparison between the schools.

Notre Dame joined Iowa State and Kansas State in declining bowl bids despite being eligible, although the circumstances were far different; the Cyclones and the Wildcats are each going through coaching transitions. The Big 12 Conference fined both schools $500,000 for saying no to the postseason.

Last year, an early season loss to Northern Illinois didn't keep Notre Dame out of the playoffs.  That year's Northern Illinois team ended its season with a bowl victory.

WHICH BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT DOES THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE EXTEND?

The Supreme Court heard arguments in Trump v. Slaughter ostensibly focusing on the powers a president has to fire supposedly nonpartisan experts in government agencies.  The case offers lots of material for a student of the independent regulatory commissions, not that I'm going to come out of retirement and do so.  Power Line's John Hinderaker, a lawyer, summarizes as "The case tests the constitutionality of the 'independent agencies' that Congress has established over the years–independent, because their commissioners are not under the control of the president."

WRITE THE BOOK, MATT!

A column about serendipity during college noting, "Early-career breaks are largely accidental; you’re likelier to be accident-prone if you’re where the action is. An otherwise-wonderful school in the middle of nowhere won’t have the same sorts of accidental opportunities as one in or near a major city." that might be as much about the importance of a core curriculum to help students figure out their strengths and weaknesses as it is about agglomeration economies at large universities includes one of Matt Reed's pet parenthetical asides that might be an advertisement for a survey course about Western Civilization.  "(Someday, somewhere, I’ll get the chance to teach my dream course: Money, Sex and Power: An Introduction to the Social Sciences. If you can’t find anything interesting among those three topics, I really don’t know what to tell you.)"

Well, yes, if you didn't already know it, economics has no boundaries.  I prefer the formulation "sex, death, and why the lines are longest at the roller coaster," but yes, you can probably work either my formulation or his into any of the traditional social sciences.  Well, "relentless combination of mischief and logic" might also work.  But you can't let the Critical Theory types who destroyed English anywhere near such a course.

LET'S JUST SAY WE REMEMBERED.

I've maintained that the Packers might do better if they have to work to win their division.  It helps that the Bears field a good team; it helps even more to beat the Bears.

The Packers, though, have to win.

That photo is from eleven years ago.  It's representative of conditions on the ground here today.  That stringy little maple seedling has grown some since.

AS THE WORLD TURNS.

It takes forty-eight hours for a calendar day to be ticked off all the world's calendar pages, from 12.01 am immediately west of the International Date Line to 11.59 pm immediately east of that line.  The Santa Tracker we hear about at Christmas only has to be active for twenty-four hours, as Santa is delivering those toys in the midnight hours of each time zone.

Historian Stanley Weintraub uses that concept, and borrows from Eugene O'Neill to create Long Day's Journey into War: December 7, 1941.  Yes, Book Review N^o. 9 might have better been offered yesterday, but per his logic, it was already December 8 in Tokyo when the first air strikes reached Oahu.

THAT UNDENIABLE TRUTH.

I refer, dear reader, to the late Rush Limbaugh's Undeniable Truth of Life N^o. 24, "Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream."  That's been useful in a variety of ways, including some sort of squabble among the intersectional wokies over the way male-to-female crossers generally present themselves as well as some sort of Theorized argument about why working out is an oppressive regime.  Recently, Marie Claire offered its own twist on "the personal is political" with "The MAGA Beauty Aesthetic Tells the Story of America Today."

II. ADVENT.

And in those days a decree went out from Gavin Newsom that all the rich be taxed.  Warned by the Magi, they fled to Texas.

California was once known as the destination for anyone seeking a fortune, from the Gold Rush to Hollywood. The image of a line of wagon trains heading West has now been replaced by a line of U-Hauls heading anywhere but California. Unable to stem the exodus, California is again toying with retroactive taxes — targeting the wealthy regardless of whether they flee the state. Welcome to Hotel California, “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

California democrats have long faced the same dilemma of constantly tapping the wealthy to cover their deficit spending: these individuals and their wealth are mobile. They can simply leave and many are doing so.

Herod had no authority in Egypt, but California's taxing authorities seek the powers of Cæsar Himself to hunt down inconvenient exiles anywhere.  The political economy of inequality and taxation has long been material for Cold Spring Shops meditations.

English language translations of Luke sometimes have Caesar's subjects being enrolled, and sometimes they're taxed.  Does it therefore follow that when we journey to the county clerk to enroll as voters, or when the census-taker knocks on our door, in order that seats in the House of Representatives or the Illinois Legislature be properly apportioned, that we are Governor Pritzker's cattle or Donald Trump's sheep?

No, dear reader, it is that we have moral authority as humans, whether that comes from our very existence or as an endowment from Divine Providence, to exercise control over the situation.  Furthermore, the concept of "possession" requires concepts of ownership and accounting that Luke, the apostles, or Great Caesar himself did not grasp.  As an exercise, work out how unequal wealth ownership was in the days when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.

Today's lesson draws on an observation by Don "Cafe Hayek" Boudreaux in The Daily Economy.

Evidence of social unrest in pre-industrial and nonmarket societies doesn’t count. Economic arrangements in such societies are fundamentally different than in our own. And unlike in our market economy, the amount of wealth in nonmarket economies is largely fixed. Therefore, in nonmarket economies, more wealth for some people does indeed mean less wealth for other people. Our economy differs categorically: Because the amount of wealth in market economies isn’t fixed, people get rich by creating more wealth rather than by seizing the wealth of others. In market economies, more wealth for rich people means, not less, but more wealth for other people.

When I'm feeling puckish I'll challenge people to find a passage in Scripture that has anything positive to say about a tax collector.  The corrupt thee shall always have.  So, too, shall ye have conscience-cowboys who hold a zero-sum view of wealth or judge all of contemporary life by the fictional stylings of Charles Dickens.

IT IS DECEMBER, AND IT IS BEARS WEEK.

How many times must I remind readers that the weather weenies love to scare people?  "Triple polar vortex sends temperatures plunging in central and eastern U.S. as 1st Arctic cold blast moves in."

Oh, please.

The first of three rounds of cold Arctic air from a shifting polar vortex has sent temperatures plunging across the central and eastern U.S., threatening centuries-old record lows in cities and towns from Iowa to Maine.

And meteorologists forecast two more blasts of frigid temperatures for millions of people over the next two weeks.

“The week will end with some of the coldest air of the season so far, as a front advances from the Midwest into the Northeast and mid-Atlantic,” said Renee Duff, AccuWeather senior meteorologist.

“A displacement of the polar vortex is allowing Arctic air to seep into the central and eastern U.S.,” Duff said. “A second cold outbreak is in the forecast next week, and a third round of frigid air is likely during the middle of the month.”

Which raises the possibility of a White Christmas at Cold Spring Shops headquarters, just like the ones we used to know.

Right in time for professional football's title drive.  The Packers host Chicago, play at Denver, then play Saturday evening at Chicago, and after Christmas host Baltimore (the former Browns, not the Colts).  Foul weather cities with outdoor stadiums all.

WHY HIGHER ED GETS MORE TURNING POINT CHAPTERS.

Defending a student who gets zero points for writing a bad answer might not be the hill to die on.

On the other hand, the woke parody of the Consciousness Revolution never fails to provoke Normals.

An a cappella group at Kent State University in Ohio allegedly banned white students from auditioning for certain solos and disciplined a longtime member for questioning the race-based policy.

Emails obtained by Campus Reform display how Vocal Intensity A Cappella limited certain solos to “people of color,” claiming white students would be engaging in “cultural appropriation” if they were to perform them.

The article is from two days ago and as we publish there have been no responses from Kent State's deanlets.  In the Oppression Olympics, there are no medalists.  Everybody loses.

THE PROFESSOR'S JOB IS TO SAY NO AND UPHOLD STANDARDS.

Outside the Beltway contributor Steven Taylor, who has both classroom and administrative experience, weighs in on the Oklahoma grading controversy, with a professional judgement that matches my impressions of the "reaction paper."

In simple terms, the student received a poor grade not because of her beliefs, but because she didn’t answer the question that was asked and did not fulfill any of the stated criteria. The assignment was to react to a specific article. Apart from making a few references to “the article,” there is almost nothing about the article’s content (the closest specific appears to be the student disagreeing with the article by endorsing children teasing other children over gender issues, which the article criticized). There is therefore no clear link back to the article (worth 10 points), nor is there a specific reaction to the content of the article (worth 10 points). The piece is just a rumination, in super vague terms I would note, about the student’s views, and so I can see why the instructor took off the 5 points for clarity. I could make a case to give the essay maybe a 3 to 5 instead of 0 (there is some tenuous connection to the general topic of the article, with one very weak reference and her point is clear, to a point), but the 0 is perfectly defensible. This is, after all, a reaction paper with very little direct reaction taking place.

Exactly.

EMERGENCE IN REAL TIME?

Some years ago, the fishapod, Tiktaalik roseae, had its fifteen minutes of fame as the possible missing link between sea and land animals, as well as being the spittin' image of those Darwin badges people put on their tailgates.

Now consider those scary giant Asian hornets of a few years ago.  Snack time for the right kind of Japanese frog.

Researchers expected danger when they watched the frog hunt, bracing for stings and preparing for drama. Instead, the frog cannonballed the hornet without panic or a second of hesitation, behaving like a regular at a diner who has ordered the same spicy dish for 20 years and sees no reason to act surprised now.

Soon, the scientists learned the frog doesn't worry because it carries a natural resistance to the hornet's venom. Generations of frogs living near hornet nests built that skill the same way old towns build traditions: slowly, quietly, and without sending anyone a memo.

David Manney quips,

It helps to remember that nature has a sense of humor that humans rarely match. A creature no larger than a handful of change solved a problem that once filled many search bars with fear. Somewhere, a committee still plans meetings, while the frog ate the threat and called it a day.

All of which is true, although that's not good news for people who like the idea of Intelligent Design when the Design is a consequence of Their Intelligence.

Closer to home, urban trash pandas are also adapting to their environment.

Studying photos of raccoons from crowdsourced wildlife platforms, scientists noticed that city animals had shorter snouts, a trait often seen in species that learn to live near people.

Shorter snouts, calmer behavior, more curiosity, and fewer jitters around humans. When garbage trucks roar past, you can nearly hear raccoons shrug.

People living in larger cities might not need a paper to confirm that theory. That animal that once ran from porch lights now stares back like a teenager who knows you can't make him leave.

Don't plan on a new sort of house pet any time soon, though.  Mutation, selection, and adaptation still take place in geologic time.

Raccoons may continue down this path, with faces that may shorten further. Behavior may mellow, while curiosity may sharpen. None of that means raccoons line up for bath time or belly rubs. Evolution moves like a slow train, while urban life may nudge raccoons toward something tame in a different century.

Right now, though, the raccoon you meet near the trash cans still belongs to the wild.

Admire the wit, respect the claws, and, for all that's holy, close the lids.

David Manney concludes that post with, "The messy world people built created smarter scavengers.  The scary part?  We shaped them without meaning to."

Let that be a caution to the Men of System who mean to shape reality.

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA.

It's instructive, and sometimes scary, to look at the stencils on railroad tank cars or to become familiar with what those numbers on the placards mean.  But Maine Central safety supervisor Geoffrey Doughty gets a different sort of fish story to tell.  First, though, he shares the experience that comes with being the FNG.

Frequently the job involved hazardous materials, and every call made me wish I had paid greater attention to my high school chemistry teacher. Any time a car containing hazmat derailed the safety department became involved. One of my first experiences was in early May when a tank car of liquefied petroleum gas derailed near Twin Mountain, N.H. As it was morning, my more experienced partner said he’d go up and suggested I follow in the afternoon so he could go home. I was the low man on the seniority list, so I had no reason to object. It was a lovely day in Portland; the sun was out and it was a balmy afternoon in the high 70s as I drove north. By the time I arrived in the White Mountains (near the famed Mt. Washington Hotel), the temperature was hovering around 35 degrees and snowflakes were falling. I was wearing a short-sleeve shirt and a light jacket.

Lesson of the day: Have warm clothes in the trunk of your car. Although there was no spill or leak, I still had to babysit the scene until the car was back on the rails. By dusk, it was sent on its way.

On other occasions, the 3 am phone call involves biological, not chemical, spills.  “We just dumped 10,000 gallons of fish oil in the Penobscot River. What do you want to do about it?”  After business hours, the Coast Guard are the controlling authority.

Fish were processed at a facility in Eastport, Maine, at the far end of Maine Central on the soon-to-be abandoned Eastport Branch. Tank cars of fish oil were filled there and shipped to some other plant that used it in fertilizer.

“Why did we dump 10,000 gallons of fish oil in the Penobscot?” I asked.

Apparently, the spill occurred in Bangor Yard during switching moves. The cap on the bottom of the car wasn’t seated properly and came off, dumping the smelly fluid on the ground, into a sewer, and into the adjacent river.

“Let’s see,” I said groggily. “It’s not really hazardous, although the smell could start a stampede … [sleepy pause] … It’s only going back where it came from … [another sleepy pause] … Call the Coast Guard and ask if there’s anything we have to do.”

From the Penobscot to the Atlantic ... “Coast Guard says that it’s only going back to where it came from. Good night!”

MIDDLE SCHOOL REINFORCES SOCIAL STRATIFICATION.

Another day, another post featuring commonplace observations becoming controversial.  Today, the commonplace comes from an academic abstract, "Relations Among Gender Typicality, Peer Relations, and Mental Health During Early Adolescence," from the June 2013 issue of Social Development.

The current study examines whether being high in gender typicality is associated with popularity, whether being low in gender typicality is associated with rejection/teasing, and whether teasing due to low gender typicality mediates the association with negative mental health. Middle school children (34 boys and 50 girls) described hypothetical popular and rejected/teased peers, and completed self-report measures about their own gender typicality, experiences with gender-based teasing, depressive symptoms, anxiety, self-esteem, and body image. Participants also completed measures about their peers' gender typicality, popularity, and likeability. Results indicated that popular youth were described as more gender typical than rejected/teased youth. Further, being typical for one's gender significantly predicted being rated as popular by peers, and this relationship was moderated by gender. Finally, low gender typicality predicted more negative mental health outcomes for boys. These relationships were, at times, mediated by experiences with gender-based teasing, suggesting that negative mental health outcomes may be a result of the social repercussions of being low in gender typicality rather than a direct result of low typicality.

It's reassuring, I suppose, to have peer-reviewed research confirming what those of us who survived middle school or junior high have long known.

I do know that a middle school is a toxic environment in which kids try to recalibrate their place in the social hierarchy. Almost everywhere, the kids who have athletic potential might head it up. There might be cliques, with all the sometimes nasty dynamics of insiders and hangers-on, taking shape. There might be opportunities, somewhere, but not universally, for kids who show some kind of academic talent, or perhaps promise in the performing arts.

Then there are the kids who ... well, are none of the above.

Adolescence is like that, and the junior high pecking order might persist all the way to fraternity and sorority rush.

Today, though, it's an upper-division reaction essay out of the University of Oklahoma, rather than a correction or clarification about the world of greasers, freaks, jocks, and nerds that makes the commonplace observation controversial.

FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT'S SOCIALIST REALISM.

Common Dreams contributor John Murphy, deacon of the Church of Government, sounds the alarm.  "We Must Save the ‘Sistine Chapel of the New Deal’ From Trump Destruction."

No, we're not talking about a chamber where Cardinal Electors assemble in conclave, rather, we're talking about a superfluous nest for bureaucrats.

Painted figures haunt an empty building. A boy leaning on a pair of crutches. A father and son wandering a barren railroad track. A nuclear family at a picnic table. These poignant scenes were painted by two of the foremost American artists of the twentieth century, Ben Shahn and Philip Guston. No one is around to see them. They are on the walls of the Wilbur J. Cohen Building in Washington, DC, one of forty-five federal properties currently earmarked for sale. The staff who worked in the building have been mostly fired, furloughed, or relocated. Only the murals remain—and perhaps not for long.

The Cohen Building has been called the “Sistine Chapel of the New Deal” for its ambitious mural cycles. Shahn and Guston, as well as Seymour Fogel and Ethel and Jenne Magafan, gave indelible form to New Deal tenets: the dignity of labor, the benefit of public works, and the need for a social safety net. A detail of Fogel’s Wealth of the Nation, painted for the lobby, is on the cover of my survey of New Deal art: it crystallizes the period belief in the mutual power of mind and muscle to secure a prosperous future. If the Cohen building is sold, these masterpieces of public art will be in peril. As Timothy Noah has reported, a private developer is unlikely to bear the cost of renovating and maintaining the building, much less the murals. It would be cheaper to tear the whole thing down.

Our President's efforts to drain the swamp and hive off superfluous bureaucrats and buildings are more symbolic than substantive as long as rent-seekers covet real estate along the National Mall, such as the Cohen Building along Independence Avenue.

THE RECEIVERS ARE THAT GOOD.

The true professional concentrates on eliminating errors.

One of the referees from the Thanksgiving game between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions had an intriguing explanation for wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks’ touchdown play.

The highlight took place early into the second quarter. Wicks caught a 22-yard pass from quarterback Jordan Love as he had a great contest from the Lions defender. He maintained his balance while keeping his feet inside the end zone, preventing them from going out of bounds.

Lions reporter Colton Pouncy interviewed the NFL’s Vice President of Instant Replay Mark Butterworth after the game. One of the topics involved Wicks’ touchdown, which the referee explained why they upheld the call.

“What did you see on the second quarter touchdown to Dontayvion Wicks that led you to confirm he had possession of the ball and both feet in bounds?” Pouncy asked.

“The ruling on the field was a touchdown. We saw control with his right foot down and his left down in the end zone and then a third step out of the end zone,” Butterworth answered.

“Was there any discussion about a bobble?” Pouncy followed up.

“No. These receivers are that good. He controls the ball with his hand. But with his hands or arm above his body, while pulling it down, by rule, he can actually pull that ball into his body as he completes the process of a catch,” Butterworth replied.

Yes, on Thanksgiving, and Lion defenders can still get away with pass interference.

There is enough in the definition of a "catch," particularly that "completing the process" part that the next spectacular catch you see might not, after review, be a catch. A well-executed sideline catch with both feet inbounds and the receiver promptly going out of bounds can, by rule, be not a catch because the receiver has not made a proper football move.  Watch for something like that to present between now and the end of the Super Bowl.

NOT ALL MOSLEMS.

I told you I could post all week using only commonplace observations becoming controversial.  Today's example comes from Common Dreams.  “Exploiting a single incident to cast suspicion on Afghans—people who have already endured decades of displacement and America’s forever wars—is both irresponsible and cruel.”  The "single incident" involved an Afghan man formerly involved in Operation Enduring Freedom who was brought to the United States during Dementia Joe's bug-out and who is accused of killing one National Guard troop and seriously injuring another in the Federal Capital.

COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS DOING WHAT COMES NATURALLY.

Oh, did the North Atlantic hurricane season end Sunday?  Sorry, we were otherwise occupied.

That's the most snow recorded in one storm in DeKalb in November, courtesy of what the Weather Channel referred to as "Bellamy."  "Chan" is now churning up the Atlantic Coast, with ripples of annoying snow in here midafternoon, that after the consensus was for it all to have been done last night.

THE CROSS-BORDER RIVALRY FROM JANESVILLE TO WOODRUFF.

Pajamas Media's David Manney contemplates "Wisconsin's Greatest Football Feuds."

People growing up in western Wisconsin carry a unique brand of irritation towards Minnesota. Families near Eau Claire, Altoona, Hudson, and La Crosse feel the Vikings' rivalry more intensely because purple jerseys appear in grocery aisles, fishing docks, and workplace break rooms.

Folks living near Milwaukee, Racine, and Green Bay feel a stronger pull towards the Bears' rivalry.

Proximity dictates which fans get under your skin, except for a very close friend of mine who lives in Green Bay, a Vikings fan surrounded by a sea of green and gold.

Writers who've covered the rivalries for years, framing the battles, rarely capture how Wisconsin geography carves fans into two camps: one rolling its eyes at Minnesota pride, while the other spars with Chicago fans who NEVER whisper.

He didn't mention Marinette and Menominee, perhaps because the other rivalry of the Black and Blue Division comes into play somewhere along a line between Manistique and Marquette, along the old time zone divider, where the radios west of that line are tuned to Brewer and Packer broadcasts.

WHEN COMMONPLACES BECOME CONTROVERSIAL.

Reason's Jacob Sullum offers an example.  Six elected officials recently reminded citizens in military or intelligence service that they do not have to follow illegal orders.

The implication, of course, is that members of the armed forces might face situations in which they have to choose between following orders and adhering to the law. But the video does not get into specifics, and it never mentions Trump or anyone else by name, let alone refer to an official with "contemptuous words."

Under normal circumstances, each of the participants in that reminder could have demurred by noting they were offering a commonplace.  I could probably post for a week or two solely on such commonplaces turning into controversies owing to the context in which people offer them.