Mostly Dross
Ramblings From Benson
Mostly Dross
Ramblings From Benson
Month June 2025
Book Deals for Friday
NOTE: These are NOT recommendations UNLESS clearly indicated. For more information see About Book Deals.
- Midnight in the Pacific: Guadalcanal - The World War II Battle That Turned the Tide of War by Joseph Wheelan ($2.99) Recommended
- The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson ($2.99)
- Escapment by K. J. Parker ($2.99)
- Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams by Ben Bradlee Jr. ($2.99)
- Enduring Vietnam: An American Generation and Its War by James Wright ($2.99)
- Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World by Lynn Downey ($$3.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail by Stephen J. Bown ($2.99)
- The First and Second Italian Wars, 1494-1504: Fearless Knights, Ruthless Princes & the Coming of Gunpowder Armies by Julian Romane ($2.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
Assorted Links for Wednesday
- Outside 'agitators' in protests have a long history - in myth and fact (CSM)
- Russia Steps Up Its Drone Strikes Against Ukraine and Ukrain's infrastructure damage exceeds $175 Billion
- Air "Supremacy" Seems to Have Been Achieved - Its Results Could be Dramatic
- Yes - Tariffs Have Increased Prices and Inflation in the US
- How the Tariffs are Breaking US Trade
- Why are tariffs not lifting US inflation?
- Analyzing results from the Pew Research Center on what sources of news Americans use and trust. Here is the Pew Research Center News Media Tracker.
Assorted Links for Saturday
- Media Briefing: Israel, Iran, and What Comes Next for the Region
- Economists Know a Lot About a Lot of Things
- Putin Has Won: The US Government Now Speaks His Narrative
- In 2024, global military spending reached its highest level in decades
- The Puzzle of Historical Preservation
- Trump's Big Bill Would Be More Regressive Than Any Major Law in Decades (NYT)
- Your Electric Bill Is Rising Faster Than Inflation. Here's Why. (WSJ)
- Say "but yes", not "yes but"
- The Resurgence of Do It Yourself Economics
- The governors' moment
- Cancer death rates in children under 10 years old, United States
- Eight things to know about the 2025 NCAA Men's College World Series field (WSJ)
- Strange radio pulses detected coming from ice in Antarctica
Book Deals for Saturday
NOTE: These are NOT recommendations UNLESS clearly indicated. For more information see About Book Deals.
- Congo: The Epic History of a People by David Van Rebrouck ($3.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- Forbidden Faith: The Secret History of Gnosticism by Richard Smoley ($2.99, available through Kindle Unlimited, or available through your Audible membership)
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman ($3.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- The German Invasion of Norway, April 1940 by Geirr H Haarr ($2.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 by O. Edward Cunningham, edited by Gary D. Joiner and Timothy B. Smith ($2.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited) ($2.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- The Blitzkrieg Myth: How Hitler and the Allies Misread the Strategic Realities of World War II by John Mosier ($3.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein ($2.99)
Assorted Links for Friday
- Will tariffs spur innovation?
- Student visas are a critical pipeline for high-skilled, highly-paid talent
- Nostalgianomics, or Economic Amnesia?
- Is Macroeconomics a Mature Science?
- U.S. Inflation Remains Muted, With Limited Effects From Tariffs (NYT)
- Price Indices, Inflation Inequality, and CPI Bias
- ICE Raids Have Sent Latino Shoppers Into Hiding and Big Brands Are Hurting (WSJ)
- First-Ever Images of Sun's South Pole Released by European Mission (NYT)
- Can the Euro ever rival the Dollar?
- Fight Against Child Labor Progresses Again
- Robert Smalls' Civil War bravery jumps off the page. A new comic captures his legacy. (CSM)
Book Deals for Friday
NOTE: These are NOT recommendations UNLESS clearly indicated. For more information see About Book Deals.
- The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness by Harlow Giles Unger ($3.99)
- The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor ($2.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- Thunder at Twilight: Vienna 1913-1914 by Frederic Morton ($2.99)
- The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In by Hugh Kennedy ($2.99)
- The Myth of the Great War: A New Military History of World War I by John Mosier ($2.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- When Hollywood Came to Utah by James V. D'Arc ($3.99)
- The Graves Are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People by John Kelly ($3.99)
- Valley of Genius: The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley by Adam Fisher ($2.99)
- The Chickamauga Campaign: Barren Victory: The Retreat into Chattanooga, the Confederate Pursuit, and the Aftermath of the Battle, September 21 to October 20, 1863 by David A. Powel ($4.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- The Road to Jerusalem by Jan Guillou ($2.99, available through Kindle Unlimited, or available through your Audible membership)
- Capote: A Biography by Gerald Clarke ($2.99, available through Kindle Unlimited, or available through your Audible membership)
- J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter, edited by J.R.R. Tolkien ($2.99)
- Clashing Over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy by Douglas A. Irwin ($3.99)
- Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton ($1.99)
Assorted Links for Thursday
- Taxing Capital Gains Only After Realization
- World Bank Forecast Underscores Cost of U.S. Trade War (NYT)
- Everything Feels Like It Doesn't Make Sense
- Smallpox declined gradually, until the WHO coordinated the global effort to eradicate it
- Valencia's flood was a catastrophe. Was it also a crime? (Wash Post)
- Price wars grip China as deflation deepens, $30 for a luxury Coach bag?
- Brian Wilson, Pop Auteur and Leader of the Beach Boys, Dies at 82 (NYT)
- The surprising resilience of a smiling salamander and some old buried seeds (CSM)
- How the U.S. Government Borrows to Fund Its Massive Budget Shortfall (WSJ)
- These researchers are tracking the impact of tariffs on prices in real-time. Here's how retailers are responding (WSJ MarketWatch)
- The Value of Life is Too High
- Supply Chain Resilience Is More Important than Ever
- An 'S.N.L.' Secret Weapon Retires After 50 Years (NYT)
- Using AI: Queries, Conversations, and Projects
- The Effects of Labor Cost Increases on Retail: Evidence from 52 Local Minimum Wage Hikes
- Political Control Over Redistricting and Partisan Balance in Congress
- When pop music went supernova
Book Deals for Thursday
NOTE: These are NOT recommendations UNLESS clearly indicated. For more information see About Book Deals.
- Last Stand at Khe Sanh: The U.S. Marines' Finest Hour in Vietnam by Gregg Jones ($2.99 or available through your Audible membership)
- George Marshall: A Biography by Debi Unger, Irwin Unger, and Stanley Hirshon ($2.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- Frederick the Great: A Military History by Dennis Showalter ($2.99, available through Kindle Unlimited, or available through your Audible membership)
- The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805 by Richard Zacks ($2.99)
- Historiography: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Third Edition by Ernst Breisach ($3.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story by Hank Aaron and Lonnie Wheeler ($2.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- [[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MA3TAQ5?ref_=dbs_b_def_rwt_wigo_recs_l_p4_14&storeType=ebooks][The Roman Empire and Silk Routes: The Ancient World Economy & the Empires of Parthia, Central Asia & Han China ($2.99, available through Kindle Unlimited, or available through your Audible membership)
- German Secret Weapons of the Second World War: The Missiles, Rockets, Weapons & New Technology of the Third Reich by Ian V. Hogg ($2.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- Admiral Nimitz: The Commander of the Pacific Ocean Theater by Brayton Harris ($2.99)
- Monster of the Midway: Bronko Nagurski, the 1943 Chicago Bears, and the Greatest Comeback Ever by Jim Dent ($2.99)
- Sisters: Catholic Nuns and the Making of America by John J. Fialka ($2.99)
- Red Baron: The Life and Death of an Ace by Petter Kilduff ($1.99 or available through Kindle Unlimited)
- The Getaway God by Richard Kadrey ($1.99)
- Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by Susan Morrison ($2.99)
Assorted Links for Wednesday
- A bunch of thoughts and evidence on immigration
- The latest on AI and business
- US science funding was a bipartisan priority. Now it's a target of federal cuts. (CSM)
- Open Letter from some NIH Staff to Dr. Bhattacharya. The NYT coverage can be found here. The Washington Post has this.
- News Sites Are Getting Crushed by Google's New AI Tools (WSJ)
- The Latest Casualty of the Tariff War: Free Shipping (WSJ)
- The bully's pulpit: Finding patterns in Trump's use of military force h/t Daniel Drezner
- The Disappearing Funds for Medical Research (NYT)
- The Risky Mission to Salvage Mike Lynch's Sunken Superyacht (WSJ)
- Why Is Hail Getting So Big? (WSJ) Very important question here in Nebraska.
- NFIB Small Business Economic Trends May 2025 NFIB stands for National Federation of Independent Business if you, like me, did not already know that.
- Iran hawks are disappearing from the Trump administration
- Labor Market Impacts Are Not the Same As Welfare Impacts
- Xi Jinping Braces For Struggle
- On the Political Economy of Mendacity in 21st Century America