The template and hosting service we began using in early December did not offer everything we needed, so we have to moved to a better neighborhood. We are very excited about the new and improved home for Paper and Other Absolute Truths, but we must ask you to sign up again for automatic email and [...]
Archive for January, 2010
20 Jan
The Massachusetts Miracle
Scott Brown defeated Martha Coakley today by a wide margin (53%-46%) and for the first time since 1972, the state of Massachusetts will have a Republican Senator. Ironically, today was a spectacular day for the Democratic Party. Party leaders may never admit this or fully understand it, but this defeat in the bluest of blue [...]
20 Jan
Health Care – How To Get Out of the Mess We’ve Created
It’s doubtful that I will wholeheartedly recommend a large number of articles written by eastern Democrats who also graduated from Harvard – but I certainly do in this case. David Goldhill has carried out excellent research on health care in America, and written an outstanding article, full of important insights. If it were in my power I [...]
19 Jan
High Waste Paper Prices, China, and Trade Issues, Part one
Supply and demand for waste paper grades was more-or-less in balance in the ‘90s. Demand was sufficient to consume all the waste paper that was being recovered. The situation changed radically on the ‘00s, however. Demand has increased substantially in recent years due to pressures exerted by environmental organizations to include recycled fiber in grades for which it is not [...]
18 Jan
Health Care Bill Feedback
The U.S. election in the fall of 2008 was truly historic. Not only did the electorate select a black president for the first time, but Republicans were trounced in Congressional elections. Republicans had controlled the Presidency for eight years and maintained a majority in Congress for most of that time, but the electorate was ready for [...]
15 Jan
Is Being Uninsured a Health Hazard?
While attending graduate school, and studying psychology, our professors did not try to hide the disdain they felt for the academic studies carried out by medical doctors. Our professors pointed out that MD’s did not receive the kind of training necessary to design a study properly and then conduct valid statistical analysis. Critiquing scientific studies was a central part [...]
14 Jan
The Truth About Trees
Humans and trees both have a death rate of 100%. That fact quite often gets lost on environmentalists who imply that a tree saved today is a tree saved forever. Bernard Heinrich, in a December 20, 2009 article titled Clear-Cutting the Truth About Trees, confronts this and other misinformation. Heinrich is a retired PHD Professor [...]
13 Jan
Another Marriage Penalty in the Health Care Bill
Looking on the bright side, if your marriage is hanging on by a thread, Uncle Sam may provide you with an economic incentive to cut that final strand. If you are considering marriage, but equivocating, this new policy is something to weigh in the balance. However, if you love your spouse, you are screwed – economically speaking.
12 Jan
WEEKLY FEATURE: A Government Subsidy that Saves Jobs and the Environment
I have given the subject of government subsidies a great deal of thought and now realize that I have been wrong, very wrong. We can’t just allow our industrial base to shrink away; Congress must come to our aid. The problems with the $10 billion black liquor subsidy of 2009 were that (1) it only assisted part of our [...]
11 Jan
The Weather Outside is Frightful
We will soon be posting serious reports that consider, from a science perspective, the global warming claims made by the climate scientists and many politicians. We are still working on a re-design of the Blog, however, and would like to finish that first. In the meantime, we will pass on interesting items from time to time that [...]
9 Jan
Stealth Care Reform
We cover the health care issue where ever it leads and today’s post, Stealth Care Reform , leads to The Daily Show.
9 Jan
Coated Paper Petitioners Delay the Process
The coated paper trade dispute was the subject of our lead report in the December Reel Time. This post provides a brief update. As we followed this story last fall, press releases indicated that countervailing duties/tariffs and anti-dumping duties would begin to be collected from Chinese and Indonesian exporters to the U.S. (of coated paper grades in [...]
8 Jan
China Calls for a Newsprint Holiday
We heard from a source today that China will shut down all its newsprint machines from February 5th to February the 28th. Isn’t that interesting. Wonder why. Energy issue? Profitability concern? High domestic inventories? This newsprint holiday will take roughly 300,000 tonnes of newsprint out of the market. Some buyers of Chinese newsprint from outside [...]
7 Jan
Coated Update: The Subsidies Are Over So Is Coated Pricing Moving Up?
Shipments and Inventories: For months we have been promising Reel Time subscribers that it would finally happen in November. And it did. U.S. coated shipments (both grades) were higher in November 2009 than in the year-ago November. It has been a long time coming! For coated free sheet it has been exactly two years since [...]
6 Jan
Orange Bowl Played in Near Record Heat
We have a guest post today from Dr. Cash Ingin, a renowned climate scientist. One of the problems with global warming skeptics is that they don’t recognize the difference between raw temperature data and adjusted temperature data. “Raw data” are the actual recorded temperatures. These raw data are seldom accurate, however, for a variety of [...]
