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INSANE: 3 - The Real Truth

Michael Hiltzik: The stupid and dishonest idea of raising the Social Security retirement age is back

The people who are in the forefront of pushing Social Security "reform" by cutting benefits have gotten pretty good at hiding their intentions behind plausible-sounding jargon and economists' gibberish.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: Barnes & Noble saved itself by putting books first. Imagine that

It wasn't long ago that Barnes & Noble seemed to be on the glide path to extinction.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: The FTC is pushing new rights for workers. Big business is pitching a fit, of course

Whenever a government agency proposes a regulation that might help workers by reining in an employer abuse, you can count on some heavy breathing from the big business lobby.

Los Angeles Times

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Michael Hiltzik: This artificial intelligence chatbot turns out to be a plagiarist — and an idiot

We've all been trained by decades of science fiction to think of artificial intelligence as a threat to our working futures. The idea is: If an AI robot can do a job as well as a human — cheaper and with less interpersonal unruliness — who needs the human?

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: The right wing pitched an absurd tantrum over M&M's. It worked

If you're pondering what will be the stupidest right-wing freakout of 2023, you can probably stop now.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: Moderna and Pfizer are jacking up the price of COVID vaccines. The government should stop them

Stéphane Bancel, the chief executive of drug company Moderna, could barely restrain his pride in issuing his annual letter to shareholders on Jan. 3.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: Robot taxis? Hyperloops? A top technologist wages war on tech's hype machine

Rodney Brooks knows the difference between real technological progress and baseless hype.

Los Angeles Times

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Michael Hiltzik: A cowardly NHL bows down to a bullying DeSantis

Most children, probably by the age of 10, have learned the lesson that the worst way to placate bullies is to give them what they want.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: The US economy is again being held hostage to our ridiculous federal debt ceiling

The individuals in charge of U.S. fiscal policy are often thought to be among the most sober people in the world, so you may be wondering why we're suddenly hearing ideas such as the minting of a trillion-dollar platinum coin or selling $100 face-value Treasury bonds for $200.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: The Damar Hamlin injury provokes a wave of ignorant anti-vaccine propaganda

The on-field collapse of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin on Jan. 2 has produced a wave of uplifting public responses — not only thoughts and prayers for the player and solicitude for his family but millions of dollars in contributions to his charity toy drive.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: The omnibus bill will help you save for retirement, though Wall Street will get its cut

The average American's path to retirement security has long been a steep uphill climb. The omnibus spending bill President Biden signed on Dec. 29 will make the journey easier.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: These historic works are coming free from copyright. Why did it take so long?

It's well understood that Sherlock Holmes dispatched his great nemesis, Professor Moriarty, to his death in the 1893 story "The Final Problem," but not until this New Year's Day does the fictional detective shed the shackles that have bound him to an even longer-lived nemesis: the complexities of copyright law.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: Southwest's meltdown was born in America's cheapskate corporate culture

Through much of 2022, the most often-asked questions about Southwest Airlines concerned issues such as whether it would allow preassigned seating, start charging for all checked baggage and institute change fees — scrapping all those policies that have made the airline unique.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: Wells Fargo got slammed with a $3.7-billion penalty. So why doesn't it sound sorry?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau left very little unsaid when it announced, a few days before Christmas, $3.7 billion in assessments against Wells Fargo Bank for more than a decade of legal violations harming its millions of customers.

Los Angeles Times

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Michael Hiltzik: Musk's genius, Putin's prowess and other victims of the Year of Fails

'Tis the holiday season, when we pundits look back at the most uplifting moments of the last year and ahead to what may gladden our hearts in the next.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: A panicky Federal Reserve is driving us into an unnecessary recession

Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell snatched the cookie jar out of the stock market's hands on Dec. 14, when he followed up an announcement of a dovish half-point interest rate increase with a warning that the Fed didn't think it had wrung enough inflation out of the economy…

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: Is this my last post about Elon Musk, Twitter boss?

Back in the prehistoric era (2016), a small group of Times reporters and editors, including myself, met with Elon Musk at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: Oil and gas drillers mobilize to kill a key California environmental rule

The oil and gas industry, which has been accustomed to getting its own way from California regulators for decades, suffered a rare defeat this year.

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Michael Hiltzik: By embracing anti-Fauci and QAnon conspiracies, Musk tests how low Twitter can sink

People trying to track the intellectual and moral deterioration of Twitter under its new owner, Elon Musk, have gotten a few more data points to work with in recent days.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: Solar and wind energy are killing off fossil fuel, despite the right's best efforts

American conservatives may be trying to hold back the tide, but solar and wind power are surging worldwide, leaving coal, natural gas and oil in the dust as energy sources.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: The GOP's war on green investing is bad for the climate — and investors

That was quite the bill of particulars that Mark Brnovich and Doug Peterson laid against BlackRock, the world's largest money management firm, back in August.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: Which last longer, ebooks or physical books? The answer may surprise you

The internet engineer and entrepreneur Brewster Kahle took a shot at the book publishing industry a few weeks ago by pointing out something well-known to technologists but unappreciated by the general public: that ebooks and other digital artifacts have shorter lifespans than the physical items.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: Rescinding the military's COVID vaccine rule is the Democrats' dumbest compromise in the lame-duck session

If you need evidence that Congress is dominated by its stupidest members, look no further than the apparent agreement in the House to lift the requirement that members of the military be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: The Child Tax Credit is our greatest antipoverty program. Why is Congress letting it wither?

Here are some documented truths about the federal Child Tax Credit:

Los Angeles Times

Michael Hiltzik: Elon Musk's engagement with the far right on Twitter is out of control

In the first days after his acquisition of Twitter on Oct. 27, Elon Musk rattled the platform's users and advertisers with a series of tweets associating himself with far-right memes.

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