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The Butchers of Bucha will never face justice. That’s the lesson of history | Opinion
By Karl Qualls Don’t be fooled by the righteous indignation of politicians decrying the slaughter of civilians in Ukraine. They pledge greater sanctions and diplomatic aid, and they even promise war crimes trials. But there will be no justice. Evidence is being collected and a series of trials will likely take place, but what we […]
Why the Fed can’t stop prices from going up anytime soon – but may have more luck over the long term
By Jeffery S. Bredthauer The Federal Reserve has begun its most challenging inflation-fighting campaign in four decades. And a lot is at stake for consumers, companies and the U.S. economy. On March 16, 2022, the Fed raised its target interest rate by a quarter point – to a range of 0.25% to 0.5% – the […]
MLB’s new collective bargaining agreement fails to address players’ biggest grievances
By Victor Matheson “People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball,” second baseman Rogers Hornsby once said. “I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” For a while, it was looking like the start of spring would come and go without any baseball on […]
America’s cost of ‘defending freedom’ in Ukraine: Higher food and gas prices and an increased risk of recession
By William Hauk Americans may be tempted to view the war in Ukraine as an unfortunate, but far away, crisis. As an economist, I know the world is too connected for the U.S. to go unaffected. On Feb. 22, 2022, President Joe Biden warned Americans that a Russian invasion of Ukraine – and U.S. efforts […]
Where are all the substitute teachers?
By Suzanne McLeod and Lawrence Dake As a result of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, many school districts across the country are finding themselves short of teachers, who are quitting, getting sick or even dying. Some schools have even called on parents to step in to provide adult supervision in classrooms. In New Mexico, […]
Vaccine mandates have always faced resistance and saved lives
By Randy Olson Health care professionals had high hopes that rapid vaccination of our entire U.S. population would slow COVID-19 transmission and stem the disproportionately high death count in the United States. We also hoped to avoid more concerning mutations that are inevitable when viruses multiply unchecked. I lost my mother to COVID-19 in November […]
How the Vietnam War pushed MLK to embrace global justice, not only civil rights at home
By Anthony Siracusa On July 2, 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. stood behind President Lyndon Baines Johnson as the Texan signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although not the first civil rights bill passed by Congress, it was the most comprehensive. King called the law’s passage “a great moment … something like […]
Inflation inequality: Poorest Americans are hit hardest by soaring prices on necessities
By Jacob Orchard The fastest rate of inflation in 40 years is hurting families across the U.S. who are seeing ever-higher prices for everything from meat and potatoes to housing and gasoline. But behind the headline number that’s been widely reported is something that often gets overlooked: Inflation affects different households in different ways – […]
Lurking behind lackluster jobs gain are a stagnating labor market and the threat of omicron
By Christopher Decker The first U.S. jobs report of 2022 showed continued – if lackluster – growth. But perhaps of greater significance for the economic year ahead are two factors that lurked behind the headline unemployment rate: a stagnating labor pool and the impact of omicron. First, the good news. The economy did add jobs […]
The metaverse offers a future full of potential – for terrorists and extremists, too
By Joel S. Elson, Austin C. Doctor and Sam Hunter The metaverse is coming. Like all technological innovation, it brings new opportunities and new risks. The metaverse is an immersive virtual reality version of the internet where people can interact with digital objects and digital representations of themselves and others, and can move more or […]
How democracy gets eroded – lessons from a Nixon expert
By Ken Hughes Now that a full year has passed since the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, the 2020 election and the republic, it’s evident that the attack never really ended. Instead, it spread out to other, less visible, more vulnerable targets. Donald Trump had hoped to reverse his election loss in a […]
The best way to follow through on your New Year’s resolution? Make an ‘old year’s resolution’
By Mark Canada and Christina Downey If you’ve made a New Year’s resolution, your plot for self-improvement probably kicks into gear sometime on Jan. 1, when the hangover wears off and the quest for the “new you” begins in earnest. But if research on habit change is any indication, only about half of New Year’s […]