Monthly Archives: February 2026

Billionaires’ low taxes a problem for economy

by Robert Huntington | Leave a comment

From the Wall Street Journal: “The risk is that the U.S. economy becomes increasingly dependent on a narrow group of very rich households, whose spending is tied to the performance of the stock market. This could mean the entire economy pays a steep price in the next market correction. …

“Data from the Federal Reserve shows that only the richest 1% of households have grown their share of overall U.S. wealth since 1990. Their share hit a record 32% in the third quarter of 2025, equivalent to $54.8 trillion.

“Gains made by the billionaire class, the very top 0.1% of households and a subset of the 1%, have eclipsed the merely extremely rich. This group’s share of U.S. net wealth has risen nearly 6 percentage points to 14.4% since 1990.”

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Poem of the day

by Robert Huntington | Leave a comment

Dirge
by Felicia Hemans (1793-1835)

Calm on the bosom of thy God,
      Fair spirit, rest thee now!
Even while with ours thy footsteps trod,
      His seal was on thy brow.

Dust, to its narrow house beneath!
      Soul, to its place on high!
They that have seen thy look in death
      No more may fear to die.

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Poem of the day

by Robert Huntington | Leave a comment

Address to the Wood-Lark
by Robert Burns (1759-1796)

O stay, sweet warbling wood-lark, stay,
Nor quit for me the trembling spray,
A hapless lover courts thy lay,
      Thy soothing fond complaining.

Again, again that tender part,
That I may catch thy melting art;
For surely that wad touch her heart,
      Wha kills me wi’ disdaining.

Say, was thy little mate unkind,
And heard thee as the careless wind?
Oh, nocht but love and sorrow join’d
      Sic notes o’ wae could wauken.

Thou tells o never-ending care;
O’ speechless grief, and dark despair;
For pity’s sake, sweet bird, nae mair!
      Or my poor heart is broken!

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Poem of the day

by Robert Huntington | Leave a comment

When I Have Fears
by John Keats (1795-1821)

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high pilèd books, in charactry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

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Game of the week

by Robert Huntington | Leave a comment

A rare Fischer game not in ChessBase’s MegaBase.

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Poem of the day

by Robert Huntington | Leave a comment

Early Death
by Elizabeth Siddal (1829-1862)

Oh grieve not with thy bitter tears
The life that passes fast;
The gates of heaven will open wide
And take me in at last.

Then sit down meekly at my side
And watch my young life flee;
Then solemn peace of holy death
Come quickly unto thee.

But true love, seek me in the throng
Of spirits floating past,
And I will take thee by the hands
And know thee mine at last.

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