Zach Carter, who was supposed to be our guest this week, has a cold. So we have a grab-bag: vaccination & votes, NIMBYism & California growth, aversion to continuing UI, Google’s quality as a search engine, & Wilhelmine Germany & Contemporary China

Key Insights:

* Red states will see a lot of COVID-hurt this summer fall and winter for… reasons we still find incomprehensible…

* NIMBYism has not killed California growth because monkey-smarts are becoming, relatively, less important as a factor of production…

* The right response to those who advocate cutting off UI now is Ezra Klein’s: “My God! Let people have a minute!”…

* Google can be a useful search engine, if only for your own backlist, if you can remember eight unusual words you used to write down your thoughts the last time you thought seriously about something…

* There are too many parallels between Wilhelmine Germany back before World War I and China today for us to sleep easy; the best we can hope is that Marx was right when he said that, when history repeats, the first time it is tragedy, the second time farce…

* Hexapodia!

References:

* Geoffrey Fowler: Google’s Search Results Have Gotten Worse: <https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/19/google-search-results-monopoly/>

* Michael Hiltzik: Is California Really Anti-Business? Don’t Tell Our Economy <https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-05-10/ceos-california-business>

* Ezra Klein & Betsey Stevenson: Transcript <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-betsey-stevenson.html>

* Seth Masket: Correlation of Biden vote share & adult Covid vaccination rate [state-by-state] is now at .847. (CDC data)… <https://twitter.com/smotus/status/1404483957647831046>

* Chad Stone: May Job Growth Strong But Unemployment Insurance Reform Still Needed <https://www.cbpp.org/blog/may-job-growth-strong-but-unemployment-insurance-reform-still-needed>

* Matthew Winkler: California Defies Doom With No. 1 U.S. Economy <https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-14/california-defies-doom-with-no-1-u-s-economy>

&, of course:

* Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon the Deep <https://books.google.com/books?id=fCCWWgZ7d6UC>

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