Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
proletarianize the plutocrats.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
holding all else equal it might raise longer-term interest rates. but all else needn’t be equal, the Fed ultimately has control over interest rates, even longer term if they offer credible forward guidance or adopt outright yield curve control.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
no. it might raise a bit of money and so reduce the deficit, but the goal is to raise not so much, to mostly discourage foreign entities from holding domestic securities, which means foreign entities in aggregate buying from domestic firms as much as they sell to them.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
i feel like upscale television is moving on from antiheroes to good people caught in overwhelmingly tragic situations.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
it would, it kind of is right now, not via a tax but via under- rather than out- performance of US assets. part of the US trade deficit is just a perception that US stocks crush it and they’re what all the world’s investment managers want to hold. 1/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
but for the particular purpose of encouraging balanced trade, taxing securities in foreign hands in a manner largely reversible by trading back for goods and services is especially potent. 2/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
whether wealth taxes are inherently progressive depends on often contentious definitions. is a flat income tax progressive because 10% of $1M is more than 10% of $50K? conventionally, no, but some people argue about it. 3/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
i think we don’t want a wealth tax at low levels of wealth, because we want to encourage a degree of self insurance through savings. but as wealth levels rise, self-insurance transitions toward domination and we do want to tax. /fin
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
that sounds like a general wealth tax, which i think desirable, though i’d render it progressive rather than flat. this proposal is intended specifically to target trade imbalance. it’s non-application to domestic holders is important, encourages trading US securities to USians for goods and svcs.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
yes. our faction is complex and nuanced, theirs is fully summed up by their worst elements, if they didn’t want people to jump to that they’d have exiled those people, right?
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
i think sortition might have a role in lots of good institutional reforms, but i don’t think it’s as simple as “have a parliament that serves for several years selected by sortition.”
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
a solidaristic tactic might be to just let the stupidest or most hurtful things said by the most ridiculous members of groups you mean to be in coalition with just wash off your backs rather than making a big deal of it. 1/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
don’t imagine your opponents don’t encourage and finance the worst and most belligerent elements of every group that might join in coalition against them hoping you will take the bait. don’t. /fin
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
maybe we elected a new George III to remind ourselves why we did a revolution.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
is “cringe” cringe now?
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
look. it’s not so bad. RFK jr says you can still add raw milk.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
the Republicans are so concerned about election integrity, except where it’s actually threatened. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/05/u... ht @noupside.bsky.social @thinkyparts.bsky.social
Trump’s National Security Firings Come as He Weakens U.S. Cyberdefenses
Link Preview: Trump’s National Security Firings Come as He Weakens U.S. Cyberdefenses: The firing of the head of the National Security Agency was only the latest move that has eroded the country’s fortifications against cyberattacks, especially those targeting elections.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
look, now that we’ve shaken off the woke and we’re all smoking again, we can just replace all those “lattes” and “cappuccinos” with American-burnt ash dissolved in American-boiled water.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
the new Americano.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
may i propose a new pillar? drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/03/09/v...
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
what the fuck is wrong with this world? www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/w...
Video Shows Aid Workers Killed in Gaza Under Gunfire Barrage, With Ambulance Lights On
Link Preview: Video Shows Aid Workers Killed in Gaza Under Gunfire Barrage, With Ambulance Lights On: The U.N. has said Israel killed the workers. The video appears to contradict Israel’s version of events, which said the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
promises made. promises kept.
Paul Noth, New Yorker cartoon showing a political billboard with a wolf as candidate saying “I am going to eat you” while sheep mill about. The caption is “He tells it like it is.”
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
On the AMLO/Sheinbaum “Fourth Transformation” of Mexico www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the... via @phenomenalworld.bsky.social
The Fourth Transformation | David Adler, Vanessa Romero Rocha, and Michael Galant
Link Preview: The Fourth Transformation | David Adler, Vanessa Romero Rocha, and Michael Galant: The political economy of Claudia Sheinbaum’s popularity
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
literally detained by and at the mercy of a fascist administration, Khalil dictates a defiant public statement. meanwhile many of the wealthiest and most comfortable people in the world race to surrender their purported principles and say “thank you, sir”, as Trump aptly put it.
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
maybe the plan is to have fascism collapse itself into a smoking crater without a single shot fired and then enjoy the new trente glorieuses.