“America’s budget deficit is set to balloon as its population ages, the cost of handouts swells and the government’s interest rate bill rises.” — The Economist, May 6, 2023 issue
Special Announcement: You have only one more week before the $77 discount for FreedomFest ends (May 31). See below — our new celebrity speaker will be revealed!
What is the most pressing problem facing the United States today? Pundits and presidents have suggested the following nominees:
–Global warming
–Nuclear war
–Another pandemic
–Poverty and inequality
–Unfunded liabilities
There’s plenty to choose from, but the one big elephant in the room that has been largely ignored by politicians is the ballooning national debt, which is now approaching $32 trillion. Watch it grow here: https://www.usdebtclock.org/
The debt-ceiling debate has brought this issue to the forefront: When is the government going to learn to live within its means? It can’t even do it when we have full employment. Nobel Prize-winning economist James Buchanan rightly called it “Democracy in Deficit,” as the legacy of Keynesian economics. And yet, even Keynes favored balanced budgets and even surpluses during the good times of full employment.
Friends like columnist George Will and financial writer Alex Green of the Oxford Club are natural optimists, but when it comes to the national debt, they are worried.
According to George Will, federal spending is out of control and unsustainable. He notes, “The American Main Street Initiative, a think tank, says the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations compiled more debt held by the public, adjusted for inflation, than did all previous presidents combined. And if the national debt rises for 60 years at the rate it has risen during the previous 30, it will then exceed $1.5 quadrillion. (A quadrillion is a thousand trillions).”
And Alex Green agrees: “I am a long-term optimist. Except for one issue: the debt. It is now politically impossible to reform our runaway entitlement spending. Not hard. Not tricky. Impossible. The Democrats — and the public — will not stand for it. And that cannot help but have extremely negative consequences down the road. The only question is when …”
America Needs Two More Amendments to the Constitution
State governments solved the problem long ago by adopting a balanced budget amendment to their state constitutions. Every state has one except Vermont. The only downside to these balanced budget requirements is that most state legislators resort to raising taxes when they are in deficit instead of cutting spending. That’s why sales tax rates have been rising over time.
Governments of all sizes need two weapons to control their spendthrift habits: a balanced budget amendment and a tax limitation amendment. The federal Constitution has neither.
The debt-ceiling requirement is a must in a de facto balanced budget amendment, but the fact that Congress repeatedly raises the debt limit suggests there is no real fiscal discipline in Washington.
As a result, inflation will remain a persistent and permanent feature of our country. It means that the dollar will continue to lose its purchasing power over time, and the best inflation hedges are investment assets, such as gold, silver and stocks in the long run. I wouldn’t be selling any of them any time soon.
Announcing Our ‘Great Catch’ at FreedomFest
FreedomFest is famous for attracting top celebrity speakers — William Shatner, George Foreman, Kevin O’Leary and John Cleese, to name a few.
I’ve been dying to tell you who our celebrity speaker is for FreedomFest this July 12-15 in Memphis.
Now, finally he’s confirmed, and you are in for a treat. I call him “the man who has restored my faith in America.”
Yes, Mike Rowe, Executive Producer of such TV series as “Dirty Jobs,” “Somebody’s Gotta Do It,” “How America Works” and “The Story Behind the Story,” will appear in person at FreedomFest.
Mike Rowe is the author of the New York Times bestseller “The Way I Heard It” and podcaster extraordinaire (https://mikerowe.com/podcast/). I’m reading his book right now, and it’s fun to read every page.
He is one of the most in-demand speakers in the world, and he’s coming to Memphis.
An American Hero Liked Across the Political Divide
One thing I really like about Mike Rowe is that he brings Americans together. Here’s an American hero for hard working men and women and someone who can talk comfortably with Chris Cuomo on NewsNation (and CNN before that) and Tucker Carlson on Fox News. How rare is that!
You won’t want to miss his upbeat message about how he is making a difference in reinvigorating America’s work ethic. His mikeroweWORKS Foundation (https://www.mikeroweworks.org) is committed to improving skilled trades and has awarded over $6 million in work ethic scholarships to over 1,500 men and women. (He even donates part of the online profits from the sale of his Knobel Tennessee Whiskey (https://knobelspirits.com/) to his foundation; go online and grab a bottle, or stop by their booth at FreedomFest!)
Here’s your chance to hear and meet the man behind the “Dirty Jobs” and the incredible stories about successful skilled tradesmen and entrepreneurs in America. He’s an inspiration and proof that the American dream is still alive.
After his general session talk and interview, you will get a chance to ask him a question… and then an opportunity to “meet and greet” him afterward. Only at FreedomFest.
We expect a full crowd in July. We will honor our $77 discount for subscribers. Use the code EAGLE77 to get $77 off the registration fee by going to www.freedomfest.com. Or call Hayley at 1-855-850-3733, ext 202.
The $77 discount will end in six days on May 31. No exceptions. So, sign up now, and the join me at “the world’s largest gathering of free minds.” We expect over 200 speakers, 180 exhibitors and 2,000 attendees.
And there’s more…
Our line-up also includes Steve Forbes, John Fund (National Review), Steve Moore (Heritage Foundation), Tulsi Gabbard (a former Democratic congresswoman), Michael Shermer (Skeptic magazine), Enes “Freedom” Kanter (a former NBA basketball player), David Boaz (Cato Institute), Bryan Kaplan (GMU), Douglas Brinkley (“America’s Historian”), Grover Norquist (Americans for Tax Reform), Art Laffer (famed economist), Richard Epstein (New York University law professor), Amity Shlaes (historian), Magette Wade, Barbara Kolm (VP of the Austrian central bank) and many more. Go here for the full lineup.
Our master of ceremonies is Lisa Kennedy, host of Fox Business.
We also have the Anthem film festival, a libertarian comedy festival and a full three-day investment conference, including such financial gurus as Alexander Green (Oxford Club), Louis Navellier and David Bahnsen. Plus, there will be a special interview with Jeremy Siegel, the “Wizard of Wharton,” and Burt Malkiel (Princeton). Our financial editors at Eagle Publishing will all be at FreedomFest — Jim Woods, Bryan Perry, George Gilder, Roger Michalski and Paul Dykewicz as part of our three-day investment conference. Stop by our booth!
FreedomFest is three glorious days of “great ideas, great thinkers and great fun”! See you in Memphis.
P.S. Come join me and my Eagle colleagues on an incredible cruise! We set sail on Dec. 4 for 16 days, embarking on a memorable journey that combines fascinating history, vibrant culture and picturesque scenery. Enjoy seminars on the days we are cruising from one destination to another, as well as dinners with members of the Eagle team. Just some of the places we’ll visit are Mexico, Belize, Panama, Ecuador and more! Click here now for all the details.
When I was a student at BYU in 1971, my economics professor Larry Wimmer arranged for me and one other student to do research for Stanley Engerman, co-author of “Time on the Cross,” with Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Fogel. I never met him, but we talked on the telephone several times.
Here’s what I wrote in my diary:
“At the end of the month, I had another job opportunity for the summer — really exciting. This involved working as a research assistant for Robert Fogel of University of Chicago and Stanley Engerman of Rochester on their econometric studies of the slave trade and industry in the ante-bellum South. We were instructed to go through court and probate records in the Salt Lake Genealogical Society’s microfilm section and write down names, dates, places, description of slaves. This was surprisingly interesting work. I worked with Keith Allred most of the time, and we’d go up to Salt Lake each day. One time we made a particularly lucrative find and our joy was so apparent that several Mormons asked what we had found — when they saw we were talking about slaves, they really wondered [about our lineage].”
The work was quite fascinating. You could see how some slaves were valued more than others, depending on their age and occupation.
You could also see the inflation going on during the Civil War with prices going up for everything.
>What surprised me the most was that slaves were still listed on probate records after the Civil War, as if nothing had happened. On the official estate records, slaves were still considered property past 1865, and well into the 1880s! It was a real shock.
Their book came out in 1974, and caused a sensation. Fogel and Engerman argued that slavery was highly profitable, so much so that it required a civil war to end it. They questioned the view that slavery would die out on its own.
Fogel won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1993 as a developer of “cliometrics” (quantitative economic history). Because of “Time on the Cross,” Fogel was sometimes accused of being a racist, even though he was married to an African-American woman. Fogel died at age 87 in 2013.
Elon Musk wants to create and control an artificial superintelligence and guide humanity in an effort to colonize Mars. But before we get there, he wants to solve the problem of traffic right here on Earth.
In 2016, the tech billionaire tweeted himself into a new company: "Traffic is driving me nuts. I am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging..." he wrote. A series of tweets followed this proclamation as the idea germinated and cemented in Musk's head: "It shall be called 'The Boring Company.' I am actually going to do this."
The firm's goal is to "solve the problem of soul-destroying traffic," by creating a series of underground transportation tunnels. Taking transportation underground, the company says, should additionally "allows us to repurpose roads into community-enhancing spaces, and beautify our cities."
The tunneling company broke ground on its first project in Feb. 2017 and has since completed three projects: the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), the Hyperloop Test Track and the R&D Tunnel. It is currently working on a 68-mile Las Vegas Loop station that will eventually connect 93 stations between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Once in operation, the Vegas Loop will transport 90,000 passengers every hour, according to the company.
Part of Musk's proposition is that, with the right technology, he can make tunneling a quick and relatively inexpensive process. The company's Prufrock machine allows Boring to "construct mega-infrastructure projects in a matter of weeks instead of years." The machine can mine one mile/week, with new iterations expected to further increase that output.
Elon Musk is looking to transform traffic and transportation with one of his many ventures.
By 2030, Youtuber and investor Warren Redlich wrote in a post on X, Boring will have more than 10,000 miles of tunnel. By 2035, he said, that number will rise to 100,000. With that increase in tunnel space, Redlich thinks that Boring will IPO by 2028 and hit a $1 trillion market valuation by 2030.
Musk said that this bullish prediction might actually be possible.
"This is actually possible from a technology standpoint," he wrote in response. "By far the biggest impediment is getting permits. Construction is becoming practically illegal in North America and Europe!"
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Artificial intelligence (AI) can help plant scientists collect and analyze unprecedented volumes of data, which would not be possible using conventional…
Artificial intelligence (AI) can help plant scientists collect and analyze unprecedented volumes of data, which would not be possible using conventional methods. Researchers at the University of Zurich (UZH) have now used big data, machine learning and field observations in the university’s experimental garden to show how plants respond to changes in the environment.
Credit: UZH
Artificial intelligence (AI) can help plant scientists collect and analyze unprecedented volumes of data, which would not be possible using conventional methods. Researchers at the University of Zurich (UZH) have now used big data, machine learning and field observations in the university’s experimental garden to show how plants respond to changes in the environment.
Climate change is making it increasingly important to know how plants can survive and thrive in a changing environment. Conventional experiments in the lab have shown that plants accumulate pigments in response to environmental factors. To date, such measurements were made by taking samples, which required a part of the plant to be removed and thus damaged. “This labor-intensive method isn’t viable when thousands or millions of samples are needed. Moreover, taking repeated samples damages the plants, which in turn affects observations of how plants respond to environmental factors. There hasn’t been a suitable method for the long-term observation of individual plants within an ecosystem,” says Reiko Akiyama, first author of the study.
With the support of UZH’s University Research Priority Program (URPP) “Evolution in Action”, a team of researchers has now developed a method that enables scientists to observe plants in nature with great precision. PlantServation is a method that incorporates robust image-acquisition hardware and deep learning-based software to analyze field images, and it works in any kind of weather.
Millions of images support evolutionary hypothesis of robustness
Using PlantServation, the researchers collected (top-view) images of Arabidopsis plants on the experimental plots of UZH’s Irchel Campus across three field seasons (lasting five months from fall to spring) and then analyzed the more than four million images using machine learning. The data recorded the species-specific accumulation of a plant pigment called “anthocyanin” as a response to seasonal and annual fluctuations in temperature, light intensity and precipitation.
PlantServation also enabled the scientists to experimentally replicate what happens after the natural speciation of a hybrid polyploid species. These species develop from a duplication of the entire genome of their ancestors, a common type of species diversification in plants. Many wild and cultivated plants such as wheat and coffee originated in this way.
In the current study, the anthocyanin content of the hybrid polyploid species A. kamchatica resembled that of its two ancestors: from fall to winter its anthocyanin content was similar to that of the ancestor species originating from a warm region, and from winter to spring it resembled the other species from a colder region. “The results of the study thus confirm that these hybrid polyploids combine the environmental responses of their progenitors, which supports a long-standing hypothesis about the evolution of polyploids,” says Rie Shimizu-Inatsugi, one of the study’s two corresponding authors.
From Irchel Campus to far-flung regions
PlantServation was developed in the experimental garden at UZH’s Irchel Campus. “It was crucial for us to be able to use the garden on Irchel Campus to develop PlantServation’s hardware and software, but its application goes even further: when combined with solar power, its hardware can be used even in remote sites. With its economical and robust hardware and open-source software, PlantServation paves the way for many more future biodiversity studies that use AI to investigate plants other than Arabidopsis – from crops such as wheat to wild plants that play a key role for the environment,” says Kentaro Shimizu, corresponding author and co-director of the URPP Evolution in Action.
The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration with LPIXEL, a company that specializes in AI image analysis, and Japanese research institutes at Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo, among others, under the Global Strategy and Partnerships Funding Scheme of UZH Global Affairs and the International Leading Research grant program of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). The project also received funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
Strategic Partnership with Kyoto University
Kyoto University is one of UZH’s strategic partner universities. The strategic partnership ensures that high-potential research collaborations will receive the necessary support to thrive, for instance through the UZH Global Strategy and Partnership Funding Scheme. Over the last years, several joint research projects between Kyoto University and UZH have already received funding, among them “PlantServation”.
Journal
Nature Communications
DOI
10.1038/s41467-023-41260-3.
Method of Research
Imaging analysis
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Seasonal pigment fluctuation in diploid and polyploid Arabidopsis revealed by machine learning-based phenotyping method PlantServation
How does voltage drive nonmetallic catalysts to perform electrocatalytic reactions?
Understanding how voltage drives nanoscale electrocatalysts to initiate reactions is a fundamental scientific question. This is especially challenging…
Understanding how voltage drives nanoscale electrocatalysts to initiate reactions is a fundamental scientific question. This is especially challenging when dealing with non-metallic electrocatalysts due to their low inherent carrier concentration, which leads to poor conductivity. When voltage is applied at the non-metal/solution interface, the situation becomes more complex than in the case of metal/solution interfaces. One notable complexity is the significant potential drop within the non-metal, causing the surface potential to often deviate from the back potential. Analyzing the driving force for chemical reactions by applying classical metal models to non-metals can result in substantial inaccuracies. Up until now, distinguishing the potential distribution between the nonmetallic catalyst and the EDL still relies on complex theoretical calculations. The actual potential drop across the semiconductor-electrolyte interface remains unknown, due to the lacks of in in-situ techniques. Moreover, conventional electrochemical characterization only provides the ensemble information for electrode materials, neglecting the spatial heterogeneity in the electronic structures of catalysts. Therefore, a spatially resolved in-situ characterization technique is highly needed.
Understanding how voltage drives nanoscale electrocatalysts to initiate reactions is a fundamental scientific question. This is especially challenging when dealing with non-metallic electrocatalysts due to their low inherent carrier concentration, which leads to poor conductivity. When voltage is applied at the non-metal/solution interface, the situation becomes more complex than in the case of metal/solution interfaces. One notable complexity is the significant potential drop within the non-metal, causing the surface potential to often deviate from the back potential. Analyzing the driving force for chemical reactions by applying classical metal models to non-metals can result in substantial inaccuracies. Up until now, distinguishing the potential distribution between the nonmetallic catalyst and the EDL still relies on complex theoretical calculations. The actual potential drop across the semiconductor-electrolyte interface remains unknown, due to the lacks of in in-situ techniques. Moreover, conventional electrochemical characterization only provides the ensemble information for electrode materials, neglecting the spatial heterogeneity in the electronic structures of catalysts. Therefore, a spatially resolved in-situ characterization technique is highly needed.
In a new research article published in the Beijing-based National Science Review, scientists at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Imperial College London autonomously constructed an in-situ surface potential microscope and successfully measured the surface potential of the basal plane of 2H molybdenum disulfide under various voltages. This achievement addresses the experimental challenge of directly measuring the potential distribution at the non-metal/solution interface. The research findings highlight a notable difference in how the surface potential of semiconductors changes with applied voltage compared to metals. When applying voltage from positive to negative, semiconductors shift from maintaining a stable surface potential to displaying variations, gradually resembling the behavior of metals. Scientists further clarified the differences in potential drop values at various applied voltages between the semiconductor (ΔVsem) and the double layer (ΔVedl). They vividly explained how, in a solution environment, the semiconductor’s Fermi level and band structure evolve, demonstrating a transformation of the semiconductor into a highly conductive semimetal.
To further investigate the role of voltage in electrocatalytic reactions, scientists employed atomic force-scanning electrochemical microscopy (AFM-SECM) to study electron transfer (ET) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) imaging on molybdenum disulfide. In ET imaging, the semiconductor’s basal plane exhibited strong electron transfer capability, comparable to that of the semimetal edge. However, HER imaging revealed catalytic inertness at the basal plane. Nano-electrochemical imaging results indicated that voltage only affects the ET step. Due to the absence of hydrogen adsorption sites on the basal plane (i.e., chemical sites), voltage cannot drive the electrons on the basal plane to further participate in chemical reactions. This work paves the way for the rational design of efficient nonmetallic electrocatalysts based on the understanding of how voltage acts on nonmetallic catalysts at the nanoscale.
See the article:
Visualizing the role of applied voltage in non-metal electrocatalyst Natl Sci Rev 2023; doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwad166
https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwad166
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