Author Archives: oliverakel

China is a Goliath with several significant near term challenges. Its economy is struggling with slow covid recovery, an aging and shrinking workforce, a strident, demanding population and a disgruntled client base. Its rapid rise to a dominant world power is in heated competition with the U.S. and, to a lesser extent, with Russia. InContinue reading “On Ukraine, Russia and China”

 Correction/update  (I hate it when that happens) It is commendable that young people take on major debts to better themselves by obtaining a quality education, and it is noble that the government would want to ease the pain of such an undertaking.  There are around 45 million students/former students with school debt totaling over $1.7Continue reading “On Student Debt”

It is commendable that young people take on major debts to better themselves by obtaining a quality education, and it is noble that the government would want to ease the pain of such an undertaking.  There are around 45 million students/former students with school debt totaling over $1.7 Trillion. The current administration’s plan calls forContinue reading “On Student Debt”

It is quite usual for the party in power to lose congressional seats in the midterm elections because elections are won on promises made, many of which cannot be (and maybe should not be) fulfilled. The expectation last Tuesday of a broad “Red Wave” descending on Washington in January in a grand parade turned outContinue reading “On Midterms”

We are fortunate to live in a country of abundance. We have extensive water assets, widespread forests, vast fertile agricultural lands and many God-given natural resources. We are blessed, a country of plenty. But we also have become a country of excessive waste. Maybe not the most wasteful country in the world, but certainly farContinue reading “On Waste”

The United States constitutes about 4% of the world’s population but incarcerates 16 % of the world’s ‘criminals’; some two million altogether, more than any country in the world.  Is this because we have more bad guys, more effective police system, and our streets are safer? Umm. –       We have 22 Federal penitentiaries in America,Continue reading “On Crime”

Suicides rates in America increased 33 % between 1999 and 2019. It is the tenth most common cause of death today and the 2nd leading cause of death in 10- to 34-year-olds. There were nearly 46,000 suicides in 2020, 7000 more than highway fatalities.  Why? 40 % of U.S. births are out of wedlock, 43% more thanContinue reading “On Family”

Far too many senior Republicans are still bemoaning the “stolen election.” I don’t know how realistic this claim is, but what I do know is the assertion was inconclusively documented, and poorly communicated. Around 155 million people voted in the 2020 election. It is true that if only about 43,000 total votes in Georgia, WisconsinContinue reading “On Election Fraud”

How long will our do-nothing congress take to the air to express their heartfelt outrage at the senseless killing of innocent children, and then sit on their hands and do absolutely nothing? Why are universal background checks so controversial and so political? Why does any law-abiding citizen need to have large magazine, rapid fire assaultContinue reading “On Gun Control”

(This is not an issue about which I have any credentials – – – but lack of credentials never stopped me before) The subject of abortions has re-emerged once again as a passionate national conundrum, important in its implications and divisive in its nature. It has repercussions on a broad spectrum of personal issues –Continue reading “On Abortions”