Society & Governance

This article first appeared at National Review. Ron Swanson is having a good year. The smug anti-social meat-and-potatoes libertarian protagonist in the NBC series Parks and Recreation prides himself on being a do-nothing saboteur in his Pawnee (a fictional town in Indiana) municipal job and also, among other things, on having stashed away untold amounts of … Read more Ron Swanson is Smiling

A weekly commentary on current events. Follow populyst to receive notification. This week: Gold price; Coronavirus – USA; Market risks; Beirut explosion. Gold price We recently published at National Review a new opinion on the surge in the gold price. Read it here >>> Ron Swanson is Smiling. Coronavirus – USA The number of USA nationwide … Read more Wednesday Briefs – 5 August 2020

A weekly commentary on current events. Follow populyst to receive notification. This week: Southern surge fading; Gold price; S&P 495. Please contact us for data or other information concerning the views below. Southern surge fading The number of reported cases appears to have peaked in Arizona, Florida and Texas. Each surge lasted five to seven … Read more Wednesday Briefs – 29 July 2020

A weekly commentary on current events. Follow populyst to receive notification. This week: Leaving New York City; 1999 market redux; Election 2020. Please contact us for data or other information concerning the views below. Leaving New York City Trends that began in the recent past because of the pandemic may not endure beyond the pandemic. … Read more Wednesday Briefs – 8 July 2020

A weekly commentary on current events. Follow populyst to receive notification. This week: Coronavirus in June; Accidental winners; New York City budget. Please contact us for data or other information concerning the views below. Coronavirus in June June was another month of great progress against the virus, albeit with some fresh concerns in a handful … Read more Wednesday Briefs – 1 July 2020

A weekly commentary on current events. Follow populyst to receive notification. This week: Coronavirus new hospitalizations and deaths; Coronavirus seasonality; Geopolitical tensions. Please contact us for data or other information concerning the views below. Coronavirus new hospitalizations and deaths Although the numbers are too small to call this a second wave, reported coronavirus cases are … Read more Wednesday Briefs – 24 June 2020

A weekly commentary on current events. Follow populyst to receive notification. This week: The media’s second wave; Case fatality ratio; The coming meltup. Please contact us for data or other information concerning the views below. The media’s second wave Both the New York Times and Bloomberg News wrote this past weekend that the US was … Read more Wednesday Briefs – 17 June 2020

A weekly commentary on current events. Follow populyst to receive notification. This week: Intrinsic value; King Leopold’s statue; Influenza and WW2. Please contact us for data or other information concerning the views below. Intrinsic value Several famous investors have completely missed the stock market rally. Their main reasoning had to do with the valuation of … Read more Wednesday Briefs – 10 June 2020

This article first appeared at National Review. Some sectors have fared better than others. The general market thrust was greatly assisted by the trillions of dollars of stimulus. A shrewd market participant, and one whom we know as a fine fellow, recently quipped that he would stop researching companies and instead start investing by acting … Read more Why the Market is Rallying

A weekly commentary on current events. Follow populyst to receive notification. This week: Equity market; Protests and election; Coronavirus – USA. Please contact us for data or other information concerning the views below. Equity market The recovery in markets has been faster than most expected. After falling from their February 19 peaks 34% and 30% … Read more Wednesday Briefs – 3 June 2020

A weekly commentary on current events. Follow populyst to receive notification. This week: The shrinking pandemic; Second wave – Virus mutation; Is Twitter a utility? Please contact us for data or other information concerning the views below. The shrinking pandemic The pandemic is fading quickly, in particular in New York State, where the daily death … Read more Wednesday Briefs – 27 May 2020

A weekly commentary on current events. Follow populyst to receive notification. This week: Milestones in the re-opening; Russia, Brazil; United States deaths; Bearish billionaires. Please contact us for data or other information concerning the views below. Milestones in the re-opening Every country, state or locality has set itself some milestones before it lifts its lockdown … Read more Wednesday Briefs – 20 May 2020

A weekly commentary on current events. Follow populyst to receive notification. This week: High growth companies; Coronavirus – United States outside New York; Coronavirus – BRIC countries. Please contact us for data or other information concerning the views below. High growth companies As long as there is no shortage of liquidity in the market, growing … Read more Wednesday Briefs – 13 May 2020

Decency is of little value without a foundation of honesty. Albert Camus’ masterful novel La Peste (The Plague) is enjoying a resurgence in the current pandemic. Published in 1947 in the immediate aftermath of WW2, it was not, or not only, about a biological plague but also about the plague of Nazism or other ideological cancers … Read more Camus Against the Virus

What are the odds that the coronavirus will recede on its own during the spring because of warmer temperatures or a higher ultraviolet (UV) index? This has been a question from the beginning. There has been some research in support of the idea that the warmer season would force the virus to retreat. And there … Read more On the Seasonality of the Virus

There is plenty that we do not know about the coronavirus. But let us take stock of the things that we do know for sure, and of some other things that we will soon know. Real-world Exponentiality By now, a child understands exponential growth. If you start with one apple on March 1st and double every … Read more A Few Certainties About Covid-19

“The paradox of the Gray Rhinos is that the further they are down the road, the less likely you are to do something about them. But that is the time when it will cost the least and you are most likely to be successful.” ____ Michele Wucker Sami J. Karam speaks to best-selling author Michele Wucker about … Read more The Pandemic as a ‘Gray Rhino’ Event, with Michele Wucker

An occasional commentary on the 2020 US Presidential Election in which demographics and identity politics play a bigger role than ever before. Here, we explain why primary and convention rules make it difficult for a frontrunner to emerge in a crowded field. Today, President’s Day, is as good as any to draw some lessons from … Read more 2020 Election: Democrats Heading to a Brokered Convention?

Or how Greta Thunberg can create more converts. “Nature is not a temple. It is a workshop, and a human being is the worker in it.”                               _                           … Read more De-Politicizing Climate Activism

“You go to some of these places [Midwestern cities], the question they ask when they meet you is ‘where did you go to high school’?… The fact that where you went to high school is a social marker places you in a community. You go to Washington DC and nobody cares where you went to … Read more Talking About Cities, with Aaron Renn