"The Coronavirus and the Conservative Mind" by Rous Douthat is worth reading, as a brief observation of the varying (and rather lost) "conservative" responses to COVID-19, though it centers on American conservatism. In terms of British conservatism, "Why coronavirus has deepened the crisis of the conservative mind" by Paul Mason also recently echoed this observation. …
Month: Jun 2020
Deaths of despair
The timing for reading the book "Deaths of Despair" (2020) by the economists Angus Deaton and Anne Case couldn't have been more suitable, but mostly for reasons that are presently ravaging the world in many different ways: the COVID-19 pandemic, protests and killings for civil rights, and reawakened debates on structural racism in our societies. …
Primary data collection during crises
On 5 June, the US Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) announced that the US employment rate was at 13.3%, with 2.5 million new (non-farm) jobs created in net effect in May. Given the astronomical net loss of over 20 million jobs recorded in April, which gave way to the highest spike in the US employment …
