Amanda Montell, linguist and author of “Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism,” concludes that the United States has a relationship with cults well beyond that found in other developed countries. “The U.S. is an exception … and full of believers” compared to other countries with high living standards, strong education levels, and long life expectancies. Prominent U.S. examples of cults over the last half-century include the Manson family, the Symbionese Liberation Army, the Peoples Temple, and the Branch Davidians. Charles Manson was leader of a commune in California beginning in the late 1960s ..read more

Like many aging countries, Germany is experiencing a labor shortage that only promises to become more severe. Its 84 million residents make it the 19th largest country in population, and its labor force is the world’s 15th largest. It has the 4th largest Gross Domestic Product, behind the U.S., China, and Japan. Its 3.1% unemployment rate is half the average for the EU. And its economy is stagnating. Germany’s chamber of commerce reports that half of Germany’s companies are struggling to fill vacancies. A November survey estimated 1.8 million jobs were unfilled. Shortages were most severe in t ..read more

Two years away from the 250th birthday of the United States, the country is going through one of its darkest periods. Anger, hatred, incivility, and violence have intensified in an unusually extreme time of polarization. Uncle Sam, who has lived through 248 years and is beloved by all Americans, agreed to an interview with the author of Fifty Year Perspective, Keith Zeff. KZ: Thank you for sitting down to talk. I hope you are well. The traditional caricature of you as a strong, self-assured elderly gentleman and respected leader is less in evidence. These days the news tends to portray you as ..read more

Election Day is November 5, less than nine months away. Republicans and Democrats do not typically know who their presidential standard-bearers will be this far in advance. But this is not a normal election. Plenty has been written and said to comprise lists of what the likely candidates propose to accomplish in a second term in office.      For President Joe Biden:   Restore woman’s right to abortion Address climate change through regulation and market forces; lower gasoline prices Defend the NATO alliance; support Ukraine Protect LGBTQ rights; support gender-affirming car ..read more

A favorite poem of mine in high school was Ozymandias, by Percy Bysshe Shelley. I knew the poem was based on an ancient Egyptian ruler, but until I read a recent book by Toby Wilkinson titled Ramesses the Great: Egypt’s King of Kings, I didn’t realize that even the name of the poem’s king came from historical archives. When Ramesses II succeeded his father, Seti I, he chose for his throne name Usermaatra, which combines the words for powerful, chosen and the name of the sun god Ra. The 1st Century BCE Greek historian Diodorus Siculus referred to Ramesses by a Greek version of his throne name O ..read more

One of the many year-end lists of best books of 2023 included a history of 17th Century England. It is titled “The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England 1603-1689,” by Jonathan Healey. A brief description concluded, “This account of a time of religious and political turmoil, intellectual ferment, scientific innovation and media upheaval … abounds with contemporary resonances.” I was hooked. Elizabeth I, daughter of King Henry VIII, ruled as Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 until her death in 1603. She died without an heir, so her cousin, King James VI of Scotland, succeed ..read more

In “Reviving the American Dream,” several positive signs of progress toward avoiding recession were highlighted. Constructive assessments by liberal and conservative think tanks concurred regarding economic goals and what is necessary to achieve them: promoting job creation and supporting strong families is shared by conservative and liberal sources alike. As with the key legislative packages of the first two years of the Biden administration – Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Safer Communities Act, and CHIPS and Science Act – achieving those goals come with big price tags. A recent pap ..read more

The politics of low taxes, small government and a laissez faire attitude toward the market economy, often referred to as “neoliberalism,” is being ushered out the door by institutions supporting a “bottom-up” economy that provides well-paying jobs and support for families to grow the middle class, replacing neoliberalism’s “trickle-down” economy with its focus on tax breaks and benefits for the wealthy and big corporations. Remarkably, impetus for this change originates from both liberal and conservative institutions. American Compass is led by Oren Cass, a former aide to Mitt Romney. It is re ..read more

As a presidential election year approaches, pollsters are searching to measure the pulse of those who will be voting in 2024. A question is confounding analysts examining poll results, why is a U.S. economy that is exceeding expectations with low rates of unemployment; healthy job growth; decreasing rate of inflation; and increasing worker pay, not convincing voters that happy days are here again? A widely shared consensus was expressed recently by former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich: “the vast number of working non-college grads – some two-thirds of the adult U.S. population – are sti ..read more

Following the rise in births in mid-20th-century, and again at the century’s end, annual births in the U.S. have been steadily declining. Add to that an aging population with deaths on a constant upward trend, and soon the inevitable will occur: the U.S. will record more deaths annually than births. The latest population projections from the U.S. Census Bureau place that year as 2038. That is according to the “main series” of alternative scenarios for the course of population growth to the end of the 21st century. Scenarios assuming lower and higher net migration shifted the transition year to ..read more