I was so glad to see this @volts.wtf interview — I don't understand the obsession with the kludgy VPP workaround when variable pricing is sitting right there as a solution for lower average bills, more efficiency, etc www.volts.wtf/p/the-case-f...

Once more into the Spirit Airlines wars — it’s nobody’s “fault” that the airline failed, but the failure shows that the portrayal of the industry as overconcentrated or of deregulation as a failure is wrong. It’s just a tough business. www.slowboring.com/p/the-real-l...

Delving into the classic discourse of the past, @JerusalemDemsas and I read Betty Friedan’s 1963 second wave classic “The Feminine Mystique” to discover a book that was prescient, influential, and in some ways unbelievably weird. youtu.be/9W96-a-qjKg?...

The internet flattens everything, puts everything into competition with everything, and puts a premium on ideas that are fun and entertaining rather than boring and earnest. www.slowboring.com/p/political-...

Seniors don’t live on “fixed incomes,” this is a reference to a bygone world. It used to be: — Social Security had no inflation adjustment — Lots of private workers had COLAs in their contracts — More war bonds, less stock Today isn’t like that! www.slowboring.com/p/seniors-ar...

A huge winner on both politics and substance — pay higher salaries to the most effective teachers. www.slowboring.com/p/we-should-...

Trump was always very explicitly an Iran hawk, vocally critical of Obama and Biden on this score.

I’m really bored of this in-group signalling where you have to add a caveat about how we all agree Goody Proctor is an evil whore before we can suggest that burning her at the stake might not be a good idea

Political science professors at public universities posting open disdain for conservatives on social media should help with this problem.

Ken Martin won the DNC Chair job by promising to create big slush funds for the state party committees who controlled the vote, which turns out to be a terrible pitch to donors and now he can't raise money. www.slowboring.com/p/ken-martin...

Here’s a crazy idea — what if the president or his successor tried to actually focus on what the voters want and put political capital into ideas that reduce inflation and interest rates. www.slowboring.com/p/a-radical-...

The idea that this was a period of "austerity" is..ill founded.

Constructing more IMAX theaters will only super-charge gentrification, make ticket prices higher, and enrich greedy theater developers.

Very smart take on data center politics jacobin.com/2026/04/ai-d...

DOGE cuts show up ultimately as job losses in the city’s poorest neighborhoods www.slowboring.com/p/where-doge...

Africa needs more electricity

Anti-trust is perhaps the area of public policy that could benefit the most from more Econ 101 thinking: “Persistent monopolization is extremely difficult in the absence of regulatory barriers to entry, which are the main thing to talk about if you’re fired-up about competition.”

Conservatives demanding affirmative action for right-wing professors is pretty hilarious, but at the same time it’s not like the rigor bar at universities for left-wing work is particularly high. www.theargumentmag.com/p/the-anti-m...

This won't work because persuadable swing voters are fake, if anything it will only demoralize her base.

The idea that candidates for office should be pushed to release lots of detailed “plans” reflects a kind of fake sophistication about policy that ignores how the legislative process actually works. www.slowboring.com/p/candidates...

An important contrarian take of mine — dogs aren’t people, they don’t need anti-discrimination legislation or public subsidies. www.slowboring.com/p/dogs-arent...

Establishing open borders between EU countries without establishing a common EU immigration policy was a kind of odd choice.

Maddening article from a business paper. It’s a starry-eyed recitation of all of the waves of growth in Milan, starting with 19th century case di ringhiera and ending with the Memphis Group in the 1980s. Then complaints about how expensive it’s gotten since, and no reflection on that coincidence.

The case for more statues www.slowboring.com/p/america-ne...

I assume the Hungarian opposition beat Orban by being uncompromisingly progressive across the whole set of policy issues. Well done.

Great topic for a paper — how do partisan elites' views of climate change differ. Except the way they constructed the survey, they only asked questions where the progressive view is the accurate view so you can't tell if Dem elites are better informed than GOP ones or just more progressive.

California YIMBY is proud to be sponsoring SB 2074 with @matthaneysf.bsky.social, a bill that will make it easier to build high-rise residential in the transit-rich downtowns of our state's largest cities. In this thread, a little context. 🧵 www.sacbee.com/news/politic...

I’d say Pete Magyar has maybe gone too far in moderating with this one, but I’d still vote for him

Historically, the economy does better under Democratic presidents than Republican ones. A major reason is that the GOP’s business-friendly outlook is undermined by its habit of launching wars that wreck global energy markets. www.slowboring.com/p/republican...

It’s legitimate and appropriate for women to want to advocate for decent treatment and equal rights without becoming edgy intersectional communists. www.slowboring.com/p/in-defense...

The much maligned “girlboss” is good, actually — feminism without anticapitalism is fine and correct. www.slowboring.com/p/in-defense...

Where I agree most with the left — health care, taking care of the poor, opposing stereotype-based governance. www.slowboring.com/p/my-most-pr...

Yglesias + AI = many people on this site will reflexively dunk on the headline and not read the article. But he's right.

Journalism is important. Large language models are a useful tool for improving journalistic productivity. They should be used more widely so we can get more journalism. www.slowboring.com/p/journalist...

Democrats love infighting about Israel and antitrust policy but this is the stuff that does the most to move the needle electorally www.theargumentmag.com/p/can-a-libe...

Mamdani has done a bunch of things to reassure skeptics, a process greatly aided by the fact that he literally can't implement his tax and spending plans. www.slowboring.com/p/the-two-ho...

New pod coming!! youtu.be/BUVjaodXRc8?...

“Just pick a straight white Christian man” is really dumb — Ignores a majority of the available political talent — Ignores the central importance of what politicians actually say and do www.slowboring.com/p/the-quest-...

Against the anti-charity horseshoe www.slowboring.com/p/the-real-p...

There’s this odd construct on the right where they talk as if educated young women are bombarded by marriage proposals they are turning down to go girlboss when I think we all know this isn’t how things work. www.slowboring.com/p/yelling-at...

A psychopath kills for no reason — I kill for money. boxd.it/dL9Tq9

The progressive neoliberal’s dilemma

Population is shrinking in many counties

Liberal Party of Canada maybe the most ruthlessly pragmatic in the world.

Townhouses are the cheapest type of construction to build. American cities contain many beloved historic townhouse neighborhoods. So why do new townhouse projects generally suck? Can’t we do better? www.slowboring.com/p/make-townh...

The California kind cannot comprehend this

Genuinely think the invention of the “____ bro” format for generalizing about people has been a disaster for thinking and writing.

Dense housing, no big yards, but there’s nothing you can walk to … why build neighborhoods like this?

Mayoral Candidate @nithyaforthecity.bsky.social making the case for Single Stair! cc @holz-bau.bsky.social