The recurring farce of lifting the US government debt ceiling began again this week. As total debt surpasses $31.4 trillion — the current statutory limit — the Treasury is undertaking a series of bookkeeping maneuvers to disguise new borrowing and keep the government operating. At some point, these methods will be exhausted. If Congress doesn’t vote to increase the limit, new borrowing could be halted and outright debt default is possible.

Today the new members of the Baseball Hall of Fame will be announced, and the debate will ensue as to who does or does not belong, who has been unjustifiably snubbed and how banned substances should be factored into the decision. Around 400 sports writers determine who will be enshrined among baseball’s all-time greatest players in Cooperstown, New York, on July 23.

The hammers are out for a Boston public artwork honoring Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy. Sure, “The Embrace” is untraditional. People are entitled to their opinions on this and any other sculpture. Art creates conversation, and public art, more so.

The Federal Trade Commission has proposed an imminent ban on noncompete contracts. Prohibiting these contracts is an important step toward assuring we still have access to the American Dream. It will help businesses innovate in our tight labor market, ensure workers are not stuck in dead-end jobs and make the United States more competitive with regards to our foreign counterparts.

Iremember the first time I walked into a United Colors of Benetton store when I was 12 years old at the Woodbury Commons outlet mall. The brand, which was all the rage in the 1990s, exemplified the epitome of chic for my tween self.

Like the hockey-masked villain in some cheesy horror flick, the GOP’s debt ceiling caucus just keeps coming back. Once again, the party’s more radical members are threatening to hold America’s full faith and credit hostage by refusing to raise the nation’s debt limit. The Treasury hit that $31.4 trillion limit Thursday, meaning it will have to be raised — as it routinely has been over the years, under both parties, to cover expenses incurred by both parties.

Abortion bans impose on everyone the narrow religious doctrine of a few. These bans violate the separation of church and state.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are both being investigated over their handling of classified materials. While publicly disclosed information reflects that the cases are clearly different, the investigatory processes should not be.

China’s population declined last year, for the first time since the mass deaths associated with Mao Zedong’s disastrous Great Leap Forward in the 1960s. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that China has announced that its population declined. Many observers are skeptical about Chinese data. I’ve been at conferences when China released, say, new data on economic growth, and many people responded by asking not “Why was growth 7.3%?” but rather “Why did the Chinese government decide to say that it was 7.3%?”

One of the many problems with having former President Donald Trump around is that it becomes extremely difficult to assess normal misbehavior. It’s a significant reminder of how Trump continues to corrupt the nation’s politics. That, so far at least, is the story behind the revelation that President Joe Biden improperly had classified documents at a think tank office and in his Delaware home. It’s impossible to discuss this properly without mentioning the many ways in which what Biden apparently did is nothing like what Trump did.

Like it or not, adapting to climate change will involve human beings retreating from places the weather has made too dangerous for habitation. This will be easier to accomplish in some places than others. On the most difficult end of the scale sits California. In a matter of weeks, the state has gone from being perilously dry to drowning in “atmospheric rivers” of water falling from the sky, in a series of storms likely to continue for another week. Mud and rocks are pouring down hillsides that recent wildfires swept clean of protective vegetation. Storm surges are flooding the coast.

To “man up” means to “demonstrate toughness or courage when faced with a difficult situation.” That’s precisely what men need to do. Face up to a changing world and redefine what it is to be a man. In his recent book “Of Boys and Men,” Brookings Institution scholar Richard V. Reeves details how American men face a crisis of enormous proportions.

After months of bashing the Justice Department for going after the former president, Republicans are welcoming an investigation into the current one.

Merrick Garland’s appointment of special counsel Robert Hur to investigate the burgeoning Biden documents problem tells us something new about the attorney general.

After Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the House by his fellow Republicans last week — on the 15th ballot and after making concessions to hard-right members of his party — he offered a rosy preview of Republican control. The speaker said that under his leadership the House would end “wasteful Washington spending,” improve the lot of Americans and provide a check on the Biden administration.

If indeed all the reports are true— that the cryptocurrency exchange FTX lent out billions of dollars in customer deposits for risky bets without their consent — then the world should celebrate its swift demise. Markets are ruthless in rewarding success and punishing failure. And FTX’s fall from grace over just a few short days shows the market’s remarkable ability to deliver economic justice. This is by far the most effective means of raising awareness among investors and customers, and of ensuring long-term viability of the cryptocurrency economy, far more than any government regulation could ever achieve.