a trade deficit could in theory be balanced by transfers rather than investment. it could all balance conceptually within the current account, even if there is a fig-leaf capital account entry.
Loading quoted Bluesky post...
i have never experienced a land acknowledgment in person. have you?
Loading quoted Bluesky post...
it’s like “american beauty” meets “being there”.
santa claus rally? y / n
the self-storage industry is a microcosm of what’s wrong with America. ok, ratcheting rates on stuck customers, auctioning their shit if they don’t pay, is icky. we’re not commenting on whether it’s ethical. but it’s legal, it’s profitable, we’re best off if it becomes widespread standard practice.
merch idea! a corkboard map of the US by Congressional district. yeah, there’ll be some weird shapes. anyway, drop a little flag for each solicitation until you have all 435!
Loading quoted Bluesky post...
in 2016, conventional wisdom was markets don’t like it when Trump is doing well. in 2025, it’s markets don’t like it when Trump is in trouble. (whatever they are doing, don’t expect them to be on the side of some greater good. that’s just not true of contemporary financial markets.)
Loading quoted Bluesky post...
it’s worth crediting Joe Biden — yes, that one, the senile one with dementia — how he didn’t succumb to this dynamic when it was clearly Republicans’ plan during a debt-limit crisis.
Loading quoted Bluesky post...
i’d push back on @kevinerdmann.bsky.social’s background presumption that people who think the economy is rigged tend to believe it’s zero-sum. a lot of social democrats think the economy is presently rigged, but gigantic positive-sum free lunches are within reach via intelligent public action.
Loading quoted Bluesky post...
(a challenge is that “positive sum” and “pareto improvement” are not the same thing, and there are a lot of veto points to public action where those who think they might be losers from positive-sum interventions can intervene.)
“Now, rents in the most affordable neighborhoods in every city have to rise until a household doesn’t form.” @kevinerdmann.bsky.social // having included an agglomeration-effect driven thought experiment in my latest that predicts opposite empirics i’m chastened, but this is very much worth a read
Loading quoted Bluesky post...
“What is the psychological profile of the mass shooter? A mass shooter is violent, tech-poisoned, aberrant, lonely, immature—and often racist or sexist. Does that not describe the leadership of the Republican Party and the MAGA movement overall?” @thorbenson.bsky.social
Loading quoted Bluesky post...
is it midnight of the elite yet?
Loading quoted Bluesky post...
was there anything in the emails about pizza?
could we power the data centers with the heat from the epstein files?
the author of “Liberal Fascism”. don’t get me wrong — the times have changed, good on ‘im for changing with them, in a virtuous way. still. i had to smile.
Screenshot of email newsletter from Jonah Goldberg, subject “Thank God the Constitution Is Liberal”
[new draft post] Real purchasing power over time is not economic welfare over time https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/11/12/real-purchasing-power-over-time-is-not-economic-welfare-over-time/index.html
you think your ideas are radical, but Thomas Paine beat you to them in the 1790s. ht @torff.bsky.social
Loading quoted Bluesky post...
a liberal democracy that doesn’t treat its public like mere rats seeking cheese would make of itself that shining city on the hill.
i don’t know a ticker symbol that’s done better this century.
Loading quoted Bluesky post...