Links:

• Rising US Mortality Rates for Middle Aged White Men:  Interview with Angus Deaton, found in Tim Taylor's The Conversable Economist
•  Student Debt Bubble Sucks Even More Out of Economy and Ruins Lives, Yet Officials Keep Inflating It -Naked Capitalism
• Ex-Governor of Tamaulipas Arrested for Taking Bribes From Drug Traffickers:  Borderland Beat
• Juarez (37) and Chihuahua (40) Once Again on Global Top-40 Lists for Homicides:  La Polaka
• Governor Vetoes Campaign Finance Reform:  Trip Jennings, New Mexico In Depth

Open Any Door:  Evidence of System Failure 

The links above offer more troubling evidence that political systems are failing to deliver to the vast majority of citizens under their management.  While death rates for middle aged men in Europe continue a steep decline, here in the US the death rate for middle aged men has been on the rise for two decades, now twice as high as Sweden, and almost twice as high as Canada.  Evidence from other sources reveals that life expectation for Bernie's One Percent continues to rise.

After some discussion during the campaign on the D side, evidence suggests student debt still acts as a brake on access to higher education.  The price tag for a student to attend an elite school is around $72,000, dramatically up about $20,000 from just a few years ago, and the evidence suggests that higher costs have nothing to do with improved knowledge-producing capabilities to offer students at elite schools, but rather because elite universities are investing in non-academic personnel hired to raise even more money from wealthy donors in a vicious escalation of costs.

Mexico is still reeling from the war on drugs, and violence is on the rise again.  Mexico's last spike in homicides (2008-2010) coincided with the presidential election runup to 2010.  Mexico will have presidential elections in July of 2018.  Is this a coincidence?  Or is there something about presidential elections that stimulates drug-related violence?

Finally, here in New Mexico, after campaigning vigorously in 2010 against the "pay-to-play" mischief that broke out during the Richardson administration, and that could often be traced back to fundraising activities, the Governor has in 2017 vetoed a relatively mild campaign finance reform measure, co-sponsored by a moderate Republican (Jim Smith) that would simply require greater disclosure of the source of contributions.