Author: Richard A Reagan

The arrival of fall heralds the arrival of all things pumpkin spice. Heck, in most stores we’ve been seeing pumpkin spice products since August. From coffee to candles to protein powder to beer, there’s hardly a product out there that hasn’t decided to take advantage of the popularity of pumpkin spice. But for every person […]

Most people have probably heard about China’s social credit system, which assigns each Chinese citizen a social credit “score.” Behavior that the government likes increases your score, while behavior the government doesn’t like decreases your score. If you fail to pay your debts, if you jaywalk in public, or if you associate with political dissidents, […]

In recent years gardening has become an increasingly popular topic, as Americans are more and more concerned about the quality of their food and where it comes from. Gardening to grow their own food is now less about necessity and more about ensuring that our food is free from chemicals and pesticides. But many who […]

Many American households benefited from President Trump’s tax cuts that took place shortly after he took office. Trump’s changes to tax laws, not only with regard to rates but also with regard to simplification of tax forms, have probably been the most thorough since President Reagan. And it can be argued that Trump’s tax cuts […]

By now most people realize that the world economy is in decline. Europe is falling into recession, the US is headed there, and country after country is seeing economic slowdown and stagnation. Manufacturing activity worldwide is slowing down, with the automotive industry at the forefront. In fact, the slowdown in automobile production is judged to […]

California is the state where good ideas and entrepreneurship go to die. One of the characteristics of the modern economy has been the development of the gig economy, which allows people who want to make a little extra money on the side to do that with relative ease. The company that best typifies that is […]

The cost of higher education has gotten ever more expensive in recent years, and students have had to go ever deeper into debt in order to afford a college degree that, in many cases, doesn’t do all that much for them. With over $1.5 trillion in student debt outstanding today, there are calls across the […]

Last week’s public impeachment hearings highlighted just how much hyperbole surrounds the entire spectacle of impeachment. The establishment waited with bated breath for the testimony of former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. While she was testifying, President Trump tweeted about her, claiming that her performance as Ambassador was awful, saying that “everywhere Marie Yovanovitch […]

For more and more people, the drawbacks of social media increasingly outweigh the positives. Yes, social media can be a fun place to connect with family and friends, share family photos, and keep in touch with people you don’t see on a regular basis. But with people sharing intimate details of their lives, political opinions, […]

The protests in Hong Kong are continuing, with Hong Kong’s universities becoming key areas controlled by protesters. Many universities have been cordoned off and barricaded, with students manning checkpoints and scanning visitors to make sure that no undercover police officers make it onto university campuses. In the rest of the city protesters continue their campaign […]