Applied Rationality

From Applied Rationality:

Woody Allen had a great quip in Annie Hall. "A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark."

A similar thing applies in job growth, and what we've got on our hands in terms of North Carolina job growth is a dead shark.

The Republican vision for North Carolina was on full display this week in a report by the NC Justice Center that Tarheel employers screwed their workers out of millions of dollars, just because they could. These are the same employers that the GOTP Wrecking Crew will "hire" to take over our roads, hospitals, schools, parks, water systems, rivers, and more. Because private enterprise is oh-so trustworthy.

Dr. Ribar 'splains the snakiness.

The loss of customers is undoubtedly bad news for BofA and surely must have been anticipated by its management. Nevertheless, the new fee might still improve BofA's bottom line and leave BofA laughing all the way to, well, um, itself.

Practical thinking from one of my favorite North Carolina bloggers.

None of these actions would be a magic bullet. However, action on each is needed, could make modest improvements to the country's economic functioning, and is achievable in short order. Despite their "small ball" nature, completion of each would be a vast improvement over lurching from one self-inflicted crisis to the next.

Economically challenged Republicans in the General Assembly are so concerned about the high cost of early voting that they're making up facts to bolster their anti-democratic policies. Dave Ribar, professor of economics at UNC-Greensboro, sets them straight. From Applied Rationality.

• Voting is a fundamental right. While it's hard to place an exact value on how much early voting contributes toward extending this right, it seems that it would be worth at least a nickel.