A good read on the current state of the US economy and the bind that the Federal Reserve, and all of us, are in. From Boston review.

The Asset Economy Strikes Again

I’ve read a lot about Phoenix recently but never heard of this. Its 180 miles of canals go back thousands of years. From the BBC.

The watery secret of ancient North America

I’ve read some of Brad DeLongs stuff over the years. Might have to get his new book. Predicting beginnings and endings in history seems to be a bit arbitrary, but I do see (in my own world) an end, or at least a plateauing, of the computing and telecommunications technology cycle that probably began with the telegraph. Myself, I see clean energy as the next big wave, but who really knows?

The Economist Who Knows the Miracle Is Over

You may have to dig a little past this article to learn about the brutal dictatorship installed in a coup in Chile by the US. Much of this seemed to involve some sort of Free Market economics experiment by The Chicago Boys. After 50 years a shameful era in western politics seems to be coming to an end.

Vote on world’s most progressive constitution begins in Chile

Not sure why I keep following the hopelessly corrupt and dysfunctional Texas Power Grid. Seems there is a law that is trying to impede the building of new power lines. These would mostly be used to get power from places it is generated, like on wind farms in the panhandle, to places where it is needed, like cities. Seems to be a move to lock in existing grid players and exclude new ones.

A Texas law banning new transmission companies may violate the US Constitution

From The Baffler. A good read on regulating automation, mostly in the form of Artificial Intelligence.

Dystopia for Realists

From London Review of Books.

In Praise of Difficult Children

I see bits about this on the news but hadn’t realized the scope. From Axios.

China’s unrivaled 70-day heat wave

While still in a drought, Dallas has a “1,000 year flood”.

Dallas area hit by 1-in-1,000-year flood

The dirty (or perhaps clean) little secret is that solar is keeping the lights (or at least the A/C) on during this brutal Texas summer. It seems Texas solar is up over 39x in six years. And it’s on a steep upward curve.

Texas solar output is up 39x in six years:

June 2016: 69.8 gigawatt-hours

June 2022: 2,729 gigawatt-hours