Bits 'n pieces from east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:

Last year’s four-day workweek experiment in Japan found that productivity increased by 40 percent. In the U.S., the Mom Project is urging corporations to follow Japan’s lead.

Nasty stuff: campaign attorney for President Donald Trump, Joseph DiGenova, has said Chris Krebs should be “drawn and quartered” and “shot” for disagreeing with the president. Krebs was the director of cyber security until Trump dismissed him for saying the recent election was “the most secure in history.” Krebs was responding to Trump’s allegations of rampant voter fraud. Krebs has indicated he is ready to take legal action against DiGenova.

The Atlantic commented on President-elect Joe Biden’s cabinet and senior staff picks, and played with Trump’s accusation that Biden was “the most boring human being I’ve ever seen.” They noted that while Biden’s choices may be “boring,” “if you shook them awake and appointed them in the middle of the night at any time in the last decade, [they] could have reported to their new jobs and started work competently by dawn.”

Biden has announced plans to have Janet Yellen, a labor economist and monetary policy expert, head the Treasury Department. She chaired the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018 and was head of the White House Council of Economic Advisors under President Bill Clinton. She wins praise from left and right: former Goldman Sachs executive Gary Cohn tweeted that she is “an excellent choice … a steady hand” and will promote “an economy that works for everyone, especially during these difficult times.” And Sen. Elizabeth Warren called Yellen: “outstanding … She is smart, tough and principled … She has stood up to Wall Street banks …”

A recent Rand Study showed that if income distribution were the same as it was during the three decades after World War II, today’s “bottom” 90 percent would be far better off. Those earning $35,000 would instead be earning $61,000. A college-educated person earning $72,000 today would instead earn $120,000. Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich commented that the downward trend is not from “natural causes,” but rather stems from the neutering of anti-trust laws, corporate union busting, bailouts of Wall Street and widening of tax loopholes.

The daily death toll from COVID-19 is now equal to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks every three days, but Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sent the Senate home for a break without passing a relief bill. The House passed such a bill in May, but McConnell has ignored it. Inequality Media reported that when the COVID-19 relief bill passed in March there were 18,093 new cases that day. Now there are over 150,000 new cases daily. Last week, 125 economists wrote an open letter urging a relief package be passed that would serve until a vaccine is ready, Newsweek reported.

The havoc caused by COVID-19 could change before Christmas if we followed the lead of Slovakia: They are utilizing a massive antigen-testing program, with notably successful results, TIME reported. The paper strip test is similar to a pregnancy test, but uses a nasal swab sample. It’s inexpensive, easy to manufacture, shows results within minutes, and can be done at home. If half of all U.S. citizens partook, then knowledge that they are either safe that day or need to quarantine will buy valuable time and save untold lives. If the government foots the bill, the cost is estimated to be $5 billion (as compared to the $2.2 trillion relief package proposed by the House).

Since Trump is reportedly no longer attending COVID-19 meetings, perhaps the nation’s wealthy class could consider funding that $5 billion for antigen testing. According to Americans for Tax Fairness, the nation’s 467 billionaires saw their wealth rise by over $730 billion between March and September.

Blast from the past: It’s called “American democracy’s design flaw,” and it’s just fine if it works for your party, points out David Daley, author of “Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy.” In the last eight elections, Democrats won seven of eight of the popular presidential votes (including Biden), but that did not always put them into the White House. Republicans gained the White House twice via the Electoral College, even with fewer overall votes, since 2000.The explanation: rural areas skew the vote. An electoral vote in Wyoming carries for four times the weight as one in California.