Category Archives: Business

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Marine Le Pen

32 Comments

…is really quite left wing.

In many ways, so is Trump.

[Update a few minutes later]

In reading, I see he made the same point:

Mme Le Pen is offering more of the medicine that sickened the patient. Protectionism and welfarism are the causes of France’s troubles. The French budget has not been in balance since 1974. In order to defend the privileges of state employees, successive governments have allowed the country as a whole to become less competitive, more strike-prone, more sclerotic and poorer.

It’s the same story every time. Protectionism inflicts the greatest harm on the least well off – who are often, paradoxically, its supporters. The Corn Laws were a massive wealth transfer from the poor to the rich. The Smoot-Hawley tariffs brought misery to America’s workers. Today’s anti-market agitators – the Trumps and the Tsiprases as much as the Le Pens – will find the same thing.

Indeed.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Commercial Crew Problems

1 Comment

This is why the rumors of delay to 2019. But this is crazy:

The final GAO report also will to delve into unrelated issues that threaten to delay initial launches of manned capsules by SpaceX and rival Boeing Co. Echoing conclusions of other studies by outside experts, GAO investigators have determined that both companies are likely to miss a 2018 deadline to start regular missions ferrying astronauts to the international space station.

According to industry officials familiar with the draft report, the GAO also pinpointed frequent modifications of Falcon 9 designs as a potential source of delays in obtaining NASA certification of the booster.

For Boeing, these officials said, GAO investigators—among other items—raised questions about the status of tests to determine the reliability of its parachute systems designed to help returning manned capsules land safely.

The GAO also has determined that both companies face an uphill struggle to meet NASA’s statistical goal of no more than one projected astronaut fatality in 270 flights, industry officials said.

The 1/270 requirement is completely arbitrary, and they will never know whether or not they’ve met it. Also, pretty sure that’s an LOC (loss of crew) number, not “astronaut fatality.” A career-ending injury would count, too.

[Update a while later]

SpaceX says they have a plan to fix the turbine-blade issue. It hasn’t caused any problem to date, but as Fernholz says, if you’re going to reuse engines, you can’t have blade deterioration.