it’s really funny people actually persuaded themselves Musk would be the voice of sanity.
i mean, he tweets. he has for a long time.
“it turns out that a statistical aggregate economic gain does not produce an increase in real world human well being if all of that statistical gain is captured by a single, tiny powerful interest group.” #HamiltonNolan https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/an-international-minimum-wage
how long before this all shows up in prices at Walmart?
“He has to blame immigrants and the disabled, because to blame anything or anyone else would be to question capitalism. Which cannot be done.” #ChrisDillow https://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2025/04/governments-vs-capitalists.html
the hubristic "best and brightest" are responsible for many, many, failures and catastrophes.
it does not follow, however, we are learning, that we should therefore vest power in the worst and the stupidest.
not sure the Fed's balance sheet keeps shrinking.
( source https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL )
Graph of the Fed's total assets, which jump during the financial crisis, continue to rise over years of QE, begin to decline but then jump sharply during COVID, peak at about $9T around 2022, and have been declining since.
this is what retribution looks like. against existence itself. against anything or anyone that might have or might yet annoy him.
If Trump remains obstinately on this course, a US recession (at the very least) is certain. Whether the recession is global depends whether rest-of-world big economies can get over either their austerity fetish or their unwillingness to seriously tax the very rich. 1/
(Traditionally, it's deficit spending that's considered stimulus. But taxing the very wealthy affects overall demand almost not at all, while government spending still stimulates demand. Investment spending is a function of anticipated consumer demand much more than rich-person wealth.) /fin
on March 31, I placed an order for a customized Mac laptop, trying to beat the tariffs. it was scheduled for delivery April 14. a payments glitch meant the order wasn't actually placed until April 1. the laptop was delivered to the local Apple Store April 4. I think they too were trying to beat the tariffs.
John Roberts' "entire project has been that of imposing strict limits on the remedial power of the courts… this has the effect of permitting the 'bad men' of American public life to make the law their perch and not their terror." #RobertBlack https://eveningconstitutional.net/john-roberts-counsels-despair/
The fact of the matter is the Biden Team did a pretty phenomenal job on jump-starting the reshoring of strategic industries, especially given the constraints imposed by an often bad-faith Congress.
As @ryanlcooper predicted, we are blowing that all up. https://prospect.org/economy/2025-03-14-donald-trump-destroy-american-manufacturing/
See also https://bsky.app/profile/triforcecap.bsky.social/post/3lmag5seab22j
basically everything's gonna become like prescription drugs, if you live near the Canadian border you do your shopping there, right? or are they gonna impose duties on the Walmart haul in the back of your SUV?
legalizing fraud hasn’t made crypto prices go 🚀. who woulda thunk.
do outcomes from the Supreme Court’s “shadow docket” constitute precedent binding upon lower courts?
are any legislators proposing to amend the Alien Enemies Act to define less precarious review and relief, and place limits on to where “enemy aliens” can be removed?
i know nothing will pass unless and until the orange wall breaks. but you make change by pushing and failing before you push through.
via @scaggs, watch techbros cure the trade deficit by insisting surplus countries use the trade proceeds to… buy US debt.
“So basically… buy our stuff, or buy our debt. Either way, you're paying up.”
https://xcancel.com/seanheilweil/status/1909590601386930427
brilliant disruptive novel ideas from our tech sector.
“A trillion comments have been wasted accusing the wrong people of Trump derangement syndrome. The real TDS afflicts those who keep seeing a rational actor, or an economic chess game, where none exists.” @edwardluce https://www.ft.com/content/9f5189b0-4857-4b7f-a8c4-5b6d77ece5e3 ht @antoniofatas
yesterday: “i read the news today, oh boy.”
today: “i read the news today, oh boy.”
tomorrow: “i read the news today, oh boy.”
“Kennedy and his nonprofit sued to prevent the Covid vaccines from ever coming to market. Those vaccines saved 3 million lives. If Kennedy’s lawsuit had been successful — or if in 2020 he held the position he holds now — the additional death toll from Covid would have been larger than the population of Chicago. This is what’s at stake if another pandemic hits.” @radleybalko https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/profiles-in-poltroonery-senator-bill ht @marick
i feel like Roberts + Barrett know the Court is violating core values they pretend to share, but don’t want to actually thwart the insurrection. so they take turns ineffectually joining dissents (while the other helps plunge the knife). they can present themselves as one of the good ones, i tried!