Confirm Fed nominees

January 28, 2022

President Biden’s latest nominees to the Federal Reserve — Sarah Bloom Raskin to be vice chair for supervision and economists Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson to be Fed governors — are highly qualified experts who deserve to be confirmed swiftly. All three have strong ties to the central bank. Ms. Bloom Raskin, a lawyer, was a Fed governor from 2010 to 2014 and then became deputy treasury secretary. Ms. Cook is a director of the Chicago Fed and has been a regular contributor in recent years to the prestigious Jackson Hole gathering of central bankers and top economic thinkers. She ...

Meta’s move won’t solve problems

January 25, 2022

First, welcome to Texas, Facebook. Beg your pardon, Meta. Even if we are still adjusting to the rebranding, we are glad that one of the world’s leading companies is relocating a substantial part of its operations to Austin. We aren’t sure what precipitated this move, but we know there are good reasons lots of businesses choose to come here, from a better regulatory environment to a fairer tax system that allows people to keep more of their hard-earned income. That’s to say nothing of the leading minds coming out of our outstanding universities. We expect you and your ...

The race is on

January 22, 2022

Suddenly, we have a mayor’s race. Last Sunday, incumbent Maui County Mayor Michael Victorino announced his bid to seek reelection. A day later, newly retired 2nd Circuit Court Chief Judge Richard “Rick” Bissen tossed his hat into the ring. Going by name recognition, this has the makings of a heavyweight bout. And the fight card may not be completely set. No doubt, other political pugilists are contemplating joining the fray. The island’s rumor mill has at least one high-profile candidate emerging from the Maui County Council. Will the people who organized an unsuccessful ...

History in right perspective

January 21, 2022

Across the country there has been a realization that it may be time to take another look at historical markers —î those little signs we see dotting the landscape with a paragraph or two explaining the significance of a place. One such review occurred in Pennsylvania, where questions after what took place in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 led to a consideration of the state’s 2,500 markers. Pennsylvania’s Historical and Museum Commission looked for factual errors, inadequate historical context and racist or otherwise inappropriate references, according to a report by the ...

Honoring King

January 18, 2022

The national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday was always intended to be more than a celebration of his life. Its greater purpose is for people to dedicate themselves to continuing King’s work of using nonviolence to create a more just and equitable nation. But before this year, never has there been an MLK Day when the signature accomplishment attached to King’s legacy, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, has been in such peril. The crowning achievements of the civil rights movement were the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which came after the Birmingham campaign, and the ...

Passing the buck

January 15, 2022

On a recent morning walk, we noticed a yard crew had wrapped up work on a parking lot by blowing their mess into the street. They were loading up their trailer in a nice clean lot and the road was covered with leaves and grass clippings. Not five minutes later, we passed by someone using a leaf blower to direct leaves and debris into a storm drain. It was disappointing to witness such shortsightedness and selfishness. If the damage caused by our recent Kona storm taught us anything, it is that we need functioning drains and culverts. Blowing waste into storm drains is just as bad as ...