While cash use has been declining in many places for years, the trend may have reached its apogee. In some countries, including the UK and Spain, it even appears to be making a fragile comeback.
Saturday, July 25, 2026
80% of US Voters Across Party Lines Support Expanding Social Security
Social Security is so popular that an overwhelming majority wants more. But that’s apparently one of the nice things we can’t have.
“Housing Recession”: NAHB. Homebuilders Cut Prices as Traffic of Prospective New-House Buyers Plunges, Cancellations Spike
Housing sales and prices continuine on their grim slide.
CDC Rigs Its Own Monkeypox Case Reports by Not Including Questions on Airborne Transmission
A careful examination of CDC’s data collection on monkeypox transmission.
2:00PM Water Cooler 8/15/2022
~ Today’s Water Cooler: Open Thread ~
More US Eyepoking of China with New Congresscritter Visit to Taiwan; What Will China Do Next?
The US is still escalanting with China over Taiwan. And China most assuredly is keeping score.
For Medically Vulnerable Families, Inflation’s Squeeze Is Inescapable
Inflation is putting families with big ongoing medical costs under terrible stress.
Researchers Ask: Does Enforcing Civility Stifle Online Debate in Social Media?
As toxic as political discourse has become, it seems almost quaint that a little over a decade ago, many social scientists were hopeful that by allowing political leaders and citizens to talk directly to one another, nascent social media platforms would improve a relationship tarnished by distrust.
A Marine’s Assessment of Russia’s Military “Operation” in Ukraine (a “Profound Appreciation of All Three Realms in Which Wars Are Waged”)
A dissident view on Ukraine. The first of many?
Striking a Bargain: Narrative Identification of Wage Bargaining Shocks
Workers and employers bargain over the surplus income generated by an employment relationship. This column uses information about key events in Germany relevant for wage negotiations, like labour strikes and the introduction of a minimum wage, to pinpoint changes in bargaining power between workers and employers. It finds that such wage bargaining ‘shocks’ are important drivers of unemployment and inflation and that their effect on wages is almost fully reflected in prices. Furthermore, they reduce the vacancy rate and increase firms’ profits and the labour share of income in the short run, but not in the long run.
Climate Bill Passes: It Could Short-Circuit EV Tax Credits, Making Qualifying for Them Nearly Impossible
Did Joe Manchin sneak an EV poison pill of sorts into the just-passed climate legislation?
The Fervent Debate Over the Best Way to Confront Global Warming
Supporters of cutting carbon emissions to tackle global warming have long struggled against advocates of climate-change adaptation strategies
