In Who Killed American Unions, on the Atlantic's website, Derek Thompson speculates about a connection between technological change and the rise and fall of union membership, which has shrunk to just 12 percent of the US workforce. I was struck by this graph, comparing the rate of union membership with the middle class share of aggregare income: Writes Thompson: The apogee of the unions was also the apogee of the middle class, when it commanded more than half of total income. As the union membership rate dropped, middle class share of income fell, too....

09 June, 2012

One in Brittany, France, the other in Cape Breton, Canada. One cleaned up in a month, the other untouched after four, with no cleanup in sight. Here's the TK Bremen shortly after it grounded on Kerminihy Beach, near Erdeven, Brittany, France, on December 11. 2011. And here's the M/V Miner after it grounded on Scatarie Island, Cape Breton, after a towing cable parted on September 14, 2011. The much larger Miner was under tow, bound for a scrapyard in Aliaga, Turkey. Here are the two ships' specifications: M/V Miner TK Bremen Launched 1965 1982 Type Bulk carrier General cargo & bulk carrier Built in Quebec, Canada Pusan, South Korea Length (LOA) 222.5 m 109 m Beam 23...

24 January, 2012

Filmmaker Tony Comstock goes contrarian on Contrarian: We've had a smattering of inbound links from the Dish going back to his days at Time, and our experience is that a link from Andrew Sullivan doesn't generate the volume of inbound traffic, or the cash, it used to. Not nearly. Whatever Tina paid Andy, I think he was smart to take it. I think he's selling while his stock is high, and with more downside than upside. Business is, after all, business. I'm not sure. One of the highest traffic days in Contrarian's short history came fon an inbound link from the Dish --...

24 March, 2011

Andrew Sullivan, who writes the Daily Dish blog on The Atlantic's website, is one of these rare commentators who's fun to read when you agree with him, more so when you don't. If he weren't the sole member of the selection committee, he'd be a perennial shoo-in for his own Yglesias Award, which honors partisans willing to criticize their own side when warranted. In that spirit, I'll register my disappointment at Sullivan's recently announced decision to decamp for Tina Brown's Daily Beast, which itself recently merged with the faded Newsweek. I'm a Dish addict, but following Sullivan to the Beast will...

22 March, 2011

[caption id="attachment_7540" align="alignright" width="200" caption="James Fallows"][/caption] Contrarian regulars know of my admiration for the eclectic James Fallows, who writes and blogs for The Atlantic. James is in China this winter, finishing up a book, and while he does that, rotating squads of unterbloggers are filling in for him. I'm in the rotation this week, and I've posted three items so far: A word about our sponsor Meet Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. Alexander Graham Bell Defends His Butler. My week of guest-blogging happens to fall amidst a crush of other work, so it's unlikely I'll get much posted here until things settle down. But...

17 March, 2011

Eamonn Fingleton, an ex-pat Irish financial journalist who lives in Tokyo, takes a decidedly contrarian view of the Japanese economy. Far from stagnating for 20 years, as received media wisdom would have it, Japan's economy has been ticking along just fine, he contends. Guest-blogging for James Fallows at TheAtlantic.com website (where Contrarian will take a guest-blogging turn the week of March 14), Fingleton cites a couple of inconvenient facts in support of his analysis: Japan's current account surplus in 1990, regarded as the onset of its 20-year economic malaise, stood at $36 billion. By last year, it had risen to $194 billion. Over the...

26 February, 2011