There's an old Wall Street adage, "sell Rosh Hashana, buy Yom Kippur," said to originate in the idea that some money managers would go to cash before the Jewish New Year so as to clear their minds for the work of atonement and repentance that characterizes the High Holy Days of the Jewish religious calendar. Once the holidays concluded, they'd get back into the markets.

CNBC calls it a "classic seasonal trade." A Marketwatch columnist back-tested it and found "My analysis of the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA since 1900 yields a mixed answer. It's true that the stock market in the past has declined, on average, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. But these two holidays typically occur during September -- the worst-performing month of the year. It's not clear that the Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur stretch is any worse than other days in September."

"Talk About Trial Balloons: Military Mulls Lighter-Than-Air Strategy To help Defend Against Missiles" is the headline over my latest New York Sun column. Please check the full column out over at the New York Sun.

"New York Times Writer Named as Part of US-Iran 'Prisoner Swap'—on Iranian Side" is the headline over my latest Algemeiner column. Please check the full column out over at the Algemeiner.

The more opinion polls show Donald Trump leading Joe Biden in a head-to-head matchup, which is what they currently show, the more Democrats will be willing publicly to discuss alternative candidates.

James Carville, who helped to get Bill Clinton elected, names some names to Bill Kristol: Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo (formerly governor of Rhode Island), California Governor Gavin Newsom, Vice President Harris (though Carville acknowledges, "she's got her problems").

"Don't worry, there's plenty of people to pick up the ball," Carville says.

"Former Buildings Chief Accused of Trading Favors for $150,000 in Bribes" is the headline over a front-page news article in the New York Times reporting that "The department, though often bedeviled by scandal, is among the most important city agencies. It regulates the construction and real estate industries, issuing permits, licensing contractors and policing construction safety and the city's building code, and thus can have a significant impact on development."

It looks like President Biden borrowed the "Higher Education Could Help Heal America" idea and is applying a version of it to Ukraine.

From a White House press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 14, 2023

Statement from President Joe Biden Announcing the New U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine's Economic Recovery

Today, I am proud to announce that I am appointing Penny Pritzker to serve as the new U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine's Economic Recovery.

Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, is one of those Republicans who does not support free markets. The latest evidence is the "Capping Credit Card Interest Rates Act," which would cap the annual percentage rate for credit cards at 18 percent.

A press release from Hawley complains that "the biggest banks are just getting richer" and that "working people face higher financial burdens at the exact time the biggest banks are booking bumper profits."

You'd think politicians might prefer to see banks making profits than banks failing and going out of business, but Hawley apparently does not see it that way. Nor does he acknowledge that the higher interest rates are driven largely by the Federal Reserve, that is, government officials, not private profit seekers.

The New York Times op-ed page has a regular feature that consists of a conversation between Bret Stephens and Gail Collins. From today's installment:

Collins:...it is pretty clear that Joe Biden helped Hunter get some business cred by reminding potential clients that Dad was vice president.

"College campuses, of all places, might help America shift the tone for the better," I write in a piece for Education Next surveying "the visionary higher-education leaders of today."

"The headlines focusing on research fraud, racial preferences, and student debt are obscuring a more positive story. On a number of campuses, civility and community are on the rise, and there seem to be green shoots of optimism poking through," the article says. Please check the article out in full over at Education Next.

One of these Friday afternoons there's probably going to be a press release from the FDIC announcing another bank closure. The Wall Street Journal has been ramping up coverage of this, with a piece earlier this week ("Real Estate Doom Loop Threatens America's Banks") and another today ("Tiny Bank Called Republic First Faces Test of Depositors' Faith") with a Vernon Hill angle.

"In Defense of the Defense Industry" is the headline over my latest piece for the Wall Street Journal. Please check out the full column over at the Journal.

"None Dare Call It Appeasement: A New Soft Line on China Emerges on the Left" is the headline over my latest New York Sun column. Please check out the full column over at the Sun.

"What's happened over the past five years has made me more hopeful than ever about the future of American education," I write in a farewell column over at Education Next. Please check out the full column to find out "What's so encouraging that most people are failing to focus on?"

The refugee crisis in New York City, and the opportunity for private philanthropic leadership, is the topic of my latest column for the New York Sun. Please check the full column out over at the Sun, where it is headlined, "Amid Crisis in New York, a Visionary Immigration Plan from 1907 Invites a New Look."

On Friday, President Biden spoke briefly with reporters in South Lake Tahoe, California, and gave his reaction to the first Republican presidential debate. "There was a lot of talk. But what are they going to do to deal with economic growth?" Biden said, according to a pool report of the event.

Kwon Pyong's courage is the topic of a dispatch from Seoul in the New York Times. It says the Chinese dissident fled across 200 miles of ocean aboard a Jet Ski-type personal watercraft to seek asylum in South Korea.

According to the Times, "He had set off from the Shandong Peninsula with a helmet, a life jacket, a telescope and a compass, according to the Coast Guard. He also had five containers of fuel, which he'd tied to the watercraft and used to keep the tank filled during the 14-hour journey, the Coast Guard said."

The Times says Kwon had "graduated from Iowa State University in 2014 with a degree in aerospace engineering" and quoted a New York City-based friend saying that Kwon "felt depressed living in China due to the autocracy and lack of freedom of speech."