[new draft post] China as a model https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2024/08/13/china-as-a-model/index.html

@phillmv a lottery whose winners bleat “merit”, and presume themselves superior to rather than luckier than everyone else…

There’s a genre of public affairs writing I call “Taking out the trash.” It becomes necessary when prominent, respected people say, as they very often do, tendentious and ill-considered stuff. Suddenly there’s garbage that might rot in the ears of people in power. A taking-out-the-trash piece debunks it.

It’s thankless work. Countering bullshit-in-a-fancy-suit is no one's idea of a good time. But it’s God’s work.

#MaxMoran and #HenryBurke respond to #MattYglesias https://prospect.org/power/2024-08-13-what-we-talk-about-revolving-door/

“Late cycle financial innovation: Are private credit funds the new MBS CDOs?” by @csissoko https://syntheticassets.wordpress.com/2024/08/13/late-cycle-financial-innovation-are-private-credit-funds-the-new-mbs-cdos/

// This is a challenging piece, but the basic idea is that private equity funds are foreseeably at risk, like housing was in the mid aughts. That inspired “innovations” to sell off future losses to less sophisticated bagholders. @csissoko considers techniques PE fund managers might use to pass off or share future losses with other parties.

#GreatMomentsInThePrivateSector https://www.thedailybeast.com/elons-trump-spaces-chat-is-a-total-disaster

Great UAW ad. via @Green_Footballs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ubJFPJgL3Y&t=114s

dickishness is contagious, so it’s hard not to be a dick.

“When Boeing and McDonnell Douglas sought to merge in 1996, the Clinton White House pushed for the approval of what was a clearly anti-competitive merger apparently based on the belief that the United States needed a company large enough to compete effectively with Europe’s Airbus. At the risk of stating the obvious, Boeing has not benefited from those indulgences.” #TimWu https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/13/opinion/google-antitrust-remedy.html

feels like The New York Times is dog-whistling to replacement theorists with this subhead.

@otfrom @davidho @Brad_Rosenheim
@Netux in this case yes, hypothetically, but it doesn’t scale for the President to adjudicate even intragovernmental disputes. and most disputes won’t be intragovernmental.

@admitsWrongIfProven there is for some! but they get very self-righteous when the prospect is raised they might not get what they want.

@talexb @davidho @Brad_Rosenheim just wait ’til John Roberts swears in one President while Sonia Sotomayor swears in another.

i mean, i pray not.

Solicitations of political cash by e-mail and text are a pox. What I wouldn’t give for a campaign that got in touch to meaningfully communicate with me rather than to milk me.

It begins.

(The Supreme Court’s sabotage of the regulatory state begins to take effect.)

ht @davidho @Brad_Rosenheim

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/12/air-force-epa-water-pfas-tucson

@jumbanho @ddayen he’s been at it a long while, paid to do it, for whatever that is or isn’t evidence of. i wish him well, but have mostly not found his contributions constructive.

#HaroldMeyerson on #JonathanChait https://prospect.org/politics/2024-08-12-why-joe-biden-moved-center-economic-progressivism/ ht @ddayen

I find myself reminded of this old, excellent blog post by #DaniRodrik, “Why do economists disagree?” https://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2007/08/why-do-economis.html

#economics

finally giving obsidian a try (on @llimllib’s recommendation, others too i think i’m sorry if i’ve omitted you) and am kind of loving it so far. @obsidian https://obsidian.md/

Is Barack Obama a divisive figure within the Democratic coalition?

wall street is like hollywood: milking profit from existing hit franchises is lots easier than coming up with new ones. in hollywood that's sequels. on wall street it's expanding margins.

#finance