Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
very few administrations have resolved as many serious crises they created in such a short period of time.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
perhaps it's too early to say, but i am heartened by the prospect of peace between the United States and NATO.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
they mocked him for an apology tour that never happened, but whoever’s next better do a big one.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
i like to sign up for expensive classes so i can have the pleasure of skipping school again.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
thank you for the interesting question and clarifying discussion!
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
elasticity on its own is a representation of one form of market power. you don’t need Marshallian (hi @econmarshall.bsky.social!) scissors to appreciate that. 1/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
what’s kind of cool, though, is that the Econ 101 scissors-‘n-surplus diagrams that are fallaciously represented as representing welfare can, more interestingly and less fallaciously, form the basis of a measure of market power (which Econ 101 largely pretends does not exist). /fin
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
yeah, i agree that in isolation the p @ p=mc i agree tells you basically nothing interesting from a normative perspective. it just serves an important role in a framework that helps understand relative market power (for some markets), and that framework has useful normative implications.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
i know everybody hates GenAI but it's a capable sycophant if it could generate a metaverse for Donald Trump in which every peace price goes to him and all of his tariffs make the economy "hot" and combat operations yield fast, lethal victories everybody cheers on televisions, mightn't he go there?
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
I think if you understand the P=MC framework in terms of market power, it can be very informative! Or really it's the Marshallian framework in which MC is embedded, becomes the pivot point, that is informative. 1/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
A flattish curve, high price elasticity, represents low bargaining power. The surplus differential, consumer vs producer, defined around the marginal cost pivot, reflects the average relative bargaining power of the two sides of the market. 2/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
It's not a complete or universally applicable framework. Supply/demand curves are notoriously challenging to pin down in empirical practice, rather than in theory. The framework assumes single price markets, where much contempory market power is derived precisely from breaking that assumption. 3/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
Still, where single-priced markets remain at least a somewhat reasonable approximation, I think Marshallian curves split at marginal cost remain a helpful way to visualize and think about market power. /fin
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
The trick is to persuade people to ignore that confusing word marginal. If you ignore that, it seems to make normative sense. Price is cost! Workers are paid their productivity! 1/
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
Of course, when you properly understand what marginal cost or marginal productivity mean, you understand it's just a way of talking about the relative bargaining power of buyers and sellers, or employers and workers. /fin
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
(I worry the MAGAists would delight in using this as a wedge between "real Americans" and stereotypes of the kind of people who book getaways in Paris. That's not to say the EU shouldn't! They have cause regardless of US domestic politics. But I'm not sure it would be too effective.)
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
If you’re ever around…
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
[new draft post] Where am I? https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2026/01/18/where-am-i/index.html
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
look we all prefer the normative state but defunding the prerogative state polls terribly.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
throwing over the table is simultaneously an act of performative aggression and a way of forfeiting the game.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
he’s still a lame duck. he manufactures crisis after crisis to distract from that but he’s the lamest fucking duck.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
Impeach. Convict. Remove. Rinse. Repeat.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
oh, i didn’t mean to imply the European replacements would themselves be bug tech, in the same style and architecture as US platforms. i would hope they wouldn’t be, they’d be either more decentralized or else publicly run. only that they would replace the function and role of US private incumbents.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
will Europe actually get their shit together building EU-based replacements for US big tech internet platforms?
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
90 deals (circumventing the United States) in 90 days.
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