Matt Bruenig Dot Com

Societies have grappled with concerns over low or declining fertility since as far back as Ancient Rome. More recently, these concerns have been discussed most intensely in places like Japan, which has had sub-replacement fertility since the 1970s, South Korea, which has the lowest fertility in the world, and in parts of Europe where fertility… Continue reading The Fertility Question

Matt Yglesias has a piece at Slow Boring where he criticizes the idea that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), enacted by Clinton, is a major driver of working class disaffection with the Democratic party. Chronology Yglesias’s first critique is about the chronology of it. NAFTA was enacted in the 1990s while this most… Continue reading Yglesias on the Politics of NAFTA

In 2021, I had solar panels installed on my roof. They began generating electricity in January of 2022. In early 2023, I wrote a piece detailing how the finances of all that worked based on the first year of solar production. This is a follow up to that piece but now with three years of… Continue reading Three Years of Solar Panels Reduced My Electricity Bill $8,935

For me, this election differed from the last two in that my particular policy interests — a universalist welfare state, mass unionization, and socialization of wealth — were absent. The Biden administration achieved nothing significant on these fronts. There was no primary campaign that featured a candidate championing these causes. Harris did not run on… Continue reading Election Musings

Ten days ago, Kamala Harris released her Lowering Costs Agenda (LCA), a five-page list of various policy proposals that all ostensibly relate back to lowering prices. The LCA contains the following text about grocery costs: Lowering Grocery Costs Vice President Harris knows that rising food prices remain a top concern for American families. Many big… Continue reading The Stupid Price Gouging Discourse