America

America is going through enormous change. As I sat down to write a description what is going on, I realized I could not do better than the following four pieces I recently read. The first of these is from a...

State of the Nation

70% of respondents say that the country is on the wrong track. 24% say the country is headed in the right direction. [NBC/WSJ 4/10-14] First, let’s take a look at the “official” official unemployment numbers. The official BLS seasonally adjusted...

President Obama

The public’s grading of President Obama’s job approval (as found by Gallup 4/14) is 48% approval/47% disapproval. Obama’s approval rating at the time of his first inauguration was 67% approval/14% disapproval. [Gallup] Here are other approval/disapproval scores going back 3+...

Congress

Currently, 77% of Americans disapprove of the job being done by Congress, while 14% approve. [CBS4/1216] Americans disapprove of the job being done by Democrats in Congress by 59% to 36%. They disapprove of the job being done by Republicans...

Looking Ahead to 2016 – Contest for President

Hillary Clinton’s strong victory in New York virtually assures her nomination as the Democratic candidate in 2016. Trump’s solid win in New York makes it more likely that he can put together a first ballot win at the Republican convention...

This and That

Lee sent me a promotional piece about the English language edition of the weekly newsletter of EL PAIS, a very large Spanish newspaper. It is translated by a team of native English-speaking journalists, with added context and background. The promotion...

The Future of Restaurants?

There are no restaurant reviews this month, but here is one piece of relevant information. The day of being able to pick up the phone and call your favorite restaurant for a reservation or going to Open Table and doing...