Gillian Tett:

Four decades ago, the swanky Plaza Hotel in New York became famous in finance lore. On September 22 1985, the US government persuaded Britain, Japan, Germany and France to jointly devalue the dollar, to boost America’s industrial competitiveness.

Could this happen again? The idea is sparking endless gossip among financiers. Or as the Aberdeen investment group recently told clients: “There has been speculation about a new Plaza Accord — dubbed the ‘Mar-a-Lago Accord’ — to depreciate the US dollar.” Indeed, some traders expect it this year.

Ah, the “Plaza Accords”. Who can forget? Certainly not me!

While backpacking in Europe – post graduation – and living on fixed funds, the Accord occurred mid journey and put a substantial dent in my budget for the remaining 5 weeks dealing with marks, franks and so on….

Chastened, a few years later I attend a Galbraith lecture. I asked him what an individual could do about such events? He replied “nothing”, there is nothing you can do about it, so don’t bother yourself with such concerns….

And, so it remains.

Niall Ferguson

The most impressive feature of Thursday’s debate between Brezhnev and Andropov—sorry, Trump and Biden—is that anyone watching was in the least surprised by what it revealed.

The president is senile. The former president is a blowhard. Both these truths have been obvious for years. Yet somehow The New York Times editorial board, the hosts of Pod Save America, and numerous other eminent liberal authorities were shocked by what CNN broadcast from Atlanta.

Asra Nomani

Soon after, this past November, lawyers for Fairfax County Public Schools filed a motion, alleging that Kate had committed a “fraud on the court,” an allegation that U.S. District Court Judge Rossie Alston rejected in late January, ruling that the school system “overreached” in attempting to dismiss the case. Alston noted that the Facebook messages hadn’t been authenticated. 

Indeed, after Chris testified, a Facebook official told the Fairfax County Times, “You can’t see deleted messages or conversations. Deleting a message permanently removes it from your Chat list.” The Facebook official added that “Facebook User” means an account has been “deactivated or deleted.”

The dueling – and deeply contradictory – narratives underscore the complexity of cases of alleged sexual assault and coverup, but the new information from Facebook raises serious questions about the veracity of Chris’s statements and the efforts by Fairfax County officials to flip the narrative on Kate and frame the alleged victim as the alleged “aggressor.” The Fairfax County Times attempted to purchase a court transcript of the heated testimony. However, in an unusual move by the court, a court reporter said, “By agreement between the parties and the Court, transcripts will not be released at this time. Thanks.” The school district’s lawyers have attempted to raise issues with the judge about routine reporting the Fairfax County Times has done while covering the trial. On Wednesday, the Fairfax County Times submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act to identify the official representing the school district on the Zoom call with Chris. When someone communicates with a third party, it removes legal privilege. 

Kelley Meyerhofer

Newly released reports raise questions about the financial viability of Wisconsin’s public universities and signal additional cuts coming to some campuses in future years.

The University of Wisconsin System paid outside firm Deloitte $2.8 million to assess the financial health of its individual campuses. The reports released this week underscore the difficult financial forces facing most UW campuses and their unsustainable reliance on reserves to cover year after year of budget deficits.

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More.

Thomas Massie:

I questioned Intel Committee Chairman Turner about special treatment Congressmen get in the proposed FISA bill.

Instead of giving a carve out to Congress from unconstitutional spying, just require a warrant for all Americans!

By  Rachel Pritzker

Twenty years ago, in the mid-2000s, I was a partisan warrior, and my philanthropy was entirely dedicated to pursuing my ideological beliefs. At the time, I served as a founding board member of the Democracy Alliance, a network of philanthropists focused on advancing a progressive policy agenda.

But at a certain point, I came to see that my efforts, under the banner of “democracy,” were actually furthering the decline of democracy. Our passionate advocacy, while aimed at strengthening the country, was contributing to mounting gridlock and toxic partisanship. Democratic elected officials felt increasingly pressured to adhere to party orthodoxy rather than passing legislation through compromise, lest they be primaried by a progressive group for being insufficiently pure. Recognizing the extraordinary period of U.S. and global democratic backsliding in which we live, I have since shifted my philanthropy toward creating spaces, such as the Democracy Funders Network, where supporters of liberal democracy from across the political spectrum can step out of our ideological bubbles, build new relationships, and learn together how to defend democracy.

Caleb Wethington

A bill aiming to classify food containing a vaccine or vaccine material as a drug has passed and is moving to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk.

The bill, HB1894, was discussed in the Tennessee Senate on Thursday before a vote to send it to Lee’s desk.

“As introduced, defines food that contains a vaccine or vaccine material as a drug for purposes of the Tennessee Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act,” the bill reads.

Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, spoke during the session about the bill, which he’s sponsoring.

“House Bill 1894 merely would require any food that contains a vaccine or vaccine material would have to be classified as a drug and labeled as such,” he said.

Francesca Block:

One sentence in a blog post almost ruined Thomas Smith’s career.

“If you believe that the coronavirus did not escape from the lab in Wuhan, you have to at least consider that you are an idiot who is swallowing whole a lot of Chinese cock swaddle,” commented Smith, 65, a law professor at the University of San Diego.

He wrote it back in 2021, in a piece questioning the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic on his personal legal blog, which usually received only a few hundred visitors per day. 

But the backlash was swift. Smith estimates 60 students submitted a formal complaint to the administration and accused him of being racist, using derogatory language, and promoting conspiracy theories with “detrimental consequences.” Smith later updated his post to clarify that his ire was directed at the Chinese government, not its people.

A week later, Robert Schapiro, the dean of San Diego’s law school, announced an investigation into Smith in an email to the student body, stressing that “University policies specifically prohibit harassment, including the use of epithets, derogatory comments, or slurs based on race or national origin.”

Claire Bryan:

Next to an atrium filled with historic airplanes at the Museum of Flight, Boeing celebrated hiring more than a thousand Washington high school graduates from the Core Plus Aerospace program on Tuesday morning.

The thousandth graduate milestone comes at a time when demand for Boeing’s jetliners is highafter the pandemic, said Scott Stocker, vice president of manufacturing and safety for Boeing commercial airplanes, who spoke at the event. 

And across the state, Boeing and other companies are hungry for new employees as the baby-boom generation leaves the workforce, said state Superintendent Chris Reykdal. 

The two-year program teaches high schoolers how to build airplanes. For eight years, it’s been training students on their high school campus or at a nearby skills center how to drill, counter sink, install rivets, read blueprints, do precision measurements and more.

These jobs pay a good wage — the first thousand students are collectively making about $100 million in salary and benefits annually, said Reykdal. That works out to an average of $100,000 per graduate.

“It turns out we still have to build stuff,” said Reykdal, who came up from Olympia for the event. “We still have to create, we still have to fabricate and connect. We’re still living in a physical world. … It doesn’t fly without assembly, it doesn’t roll without assembly.”

The program gets state support. The Washington Legislature passed a law in 2015 that budgets funds annually for schools to launch and expand Core Plus programs. School districts can apply for money for equipment for the classes and to train teachers on the Core Plus Aerospace curriculum.