I just received the terribly distressing news that Gordon Wood was hit by a car and killed yesterday. We were together with other Founding era scholars at the 2nd Judicial Circuit conference last week at Lake George, and he was as usual in fine fettle and as always enjoyable to talk to.

This post says it more clearly. bsky.app/profile/cthe...

Right. Seeing a reduction in GDP as equivalent to a reduction in physical throughputs or climate impact, is the same kind of mistake as seeing an increase in GDP as equivalent to an increase in happiness or welfare.

A drop in emissions-, resource-, land-use, particulate-, or other kinds of intensity of output. All of which require investment, which mechanically boosts GDP. Ditto redistribution due to multipliers.

Piketty’s a degrowther. Can’t think of a better way to trash progressive aspirations for equality than linking them with a cause so illiberal and economically impoverished.

I’m late to the party on Dan Awrey’s “Beyond Banks.” Just now completing it. Ton of analogies between his proposals and visions for contested (hybrid?) electricity markets + regulation. True of open access competition between payment providers and integrated BHCs, cost allocated network upgrades.

It’s here! @jwmason.bsky.social

Hey, crypto bros! Bitcoin bros in particular! That argument you make about the fiat dollar being based on an odious 50 year-old deal that kept the world hooked on fossil fuels? Consider it debunked. Or put up your dukes! www.ft.com/content/a65e...

Cannot wait to read King Dollar!! Suggested by @buddyyakov.bsky.social and @mcopelov.bsky.social.

The dollar’s global dominance is imperiled! The Iran war is threatening to upend a noxious 50-year deal that established the petrodollar system as a linchpin of US power! Do I have your attention now? Good. Because every word of that…

@jwmason.bsky.social it’s here!

remember who you are, liberal

Now at Operation Market Garden. Alas, what can one even say?

Yup! Had this debate on here a while back re volumetric pricing for electricity. Even in a heavily renewable system, you’d want per kWh charges precisely for the incentives they impart. That electricity is a critical service doesn’t change that.

Good. Distracted driving is deeply antisocial and if new tech helps us prevent it, good.

Been listening to @alanallport.bsky.social’s “Britain at Bay” and now “Advance Britannia.” Currently at the Dieppe Raid. And the repeated, seemingly limitless incompetence and lack of coordination within the British armed services and with civilian leadership is just stupefying.

Renewables represent the fastest way to economize fuel costs in the short-run. But VRE generation is most assuredly not free. Will be apparent as we try to overbuild, cost allocate fairly, network localized buildouts, or hedge for reliability. Better we plan knowing this!

Yes! I also don’t recognize the kind of hegemony Tooze has in mind. Absent a green investment push in which it secures captive customers, what public goods is this China offering the global system? And what coercive capabilities does it receive in turn? Most importantly…for what strategic purpose?

@adamtooze.bsky.social has a list of five things China should do to gain hegemony. I agree with all of them and ideally would add a pledge to not use force against Taiwan. The problem is I’m not sure China wants to be a hegemon.

very proud of newly minted PhD @cthelala.bsky.social who successfully defended his thesis this afternoon! Chirag is a brilliant strategic thinker who is a joy to work with; finishing a thesis is not easy esp. w/ work & life & he made it happen v. sweet of @publicenterprise.bsky.social to show up!

IMO we should stop saying “developers only build for profit” when we mean firms or their investors have an insufficiently high risk tolerance for more capex. Latter accounts better for the challenge, derisking solutions, and political hurdles to public sector risk appetite.

I love this analogy. Regulatory reform is vitally important to expand capacity. But we need to pair it with federal investment policy to actually fill that capacity. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again.

Closing the housing supply gap will require sustaining higher investment levels for years to come. To take full advantage of YIMBY reforms, we must once again derisk multifamily construction! CPE released a new report that draws on past American successes. publicenterprise.org/report/raisi...

Latest audiobook endeavor is Max Hastings’ Catastrophe 1914. I read it partly for the topic and partly because Simon Vance narrates.

we recently made the switch to electric (finally) ourselves and I absolutely adore the Ioniq EV9. It's also true for road trips (youth basketball tournaments in central PA) it takes a bit more thinking/planning. But, after a few of those you get completely used to it and it's smooth sailing.

Exactly. Good policy can be undone by the totality of governance. For ex. integrated trade was hurt by repeatedly poor fiscal + monetary choices from 1990 - 2020. Cheaper consumer goods took the blame for insufficient housing supply growth and (esp in the US) maliciously terrible healthcare policy.

Really unfortunate for building or heat decarbonization. Even VPPs depending on the assets being networked. Producing standardized project pipelines that can issue investable assets for institutional investors is foundational. Consolidated ownership of SFHs would solve big coordination challenges!

The ban on institutional investors owning single family homes is bad policy and never should’ve been put in the RTH package. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/u...

You should NOT exempt whole chunks of the population from income taxes. Broad based taxes + transfers are the answer. You get more revenue for universal social insurance AND redistribution.

so yes the Van Hollen plan taxes the rich, but it does so to redistribute those gains primarily to people with middle-to-upper incomes, and in the form of tax cuts which weaken the broad base needed for any kind of social democracy

Watch them come up with the most ludicrous ways to have the “it’s variable” vs “it economizes capacity” fight.

Liberals are winning labor-saving technical change in the national divorce.

Distracting from (waves hands around) to show off the newest addition to our website: a transportation vertical! Very proud and thrilled that @jmooreotto.bsky.social is leading the charge. Lots of cool work to come.

“If Kamala wins, only death and destruction await because she is the candidate of endless wars. I am the candidate of peace. I am peace.” - Trump, 11/1/24 “I’m not going to start a war, I’m going to stop wars.” - Trump, 11/5/24

The only concern I have with a congressional candidate who wants to back Ukraine to the hilt, defend Taiwan, and impose costs on Israel for gross civilian harm is how much money I can donate to them. You fucking losers.

Based based based

The lit review at the beginning showcasing land war narratives’ focus on the USSR’s contribution to victory elicited a chuckle. So online without meaning to be.

Finally getting around to How the War Was Won! Listening via Libby. @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com

There are some great ideas emerging in the space, like the proposals for the ARC Act and Westinghouse's supply procurement facility. But, contrary to the hype, today's financing landscape can't support new nuclear. Thanks @cthelala.bsky.social @buddyyakov.bsky.social:

New blogpost from the @publicenterprise.bsky.social energy team: The investment tax credit CANNOT derisk new nuclear projects. We explain why tax credits can't derisk project completion uncertainty and suggest one possible path forward: public nuclear? publicenterprise.org/the-path-for...

In December, @publicenterprise.bsky.social submitted to the @houseseec.bsky.social Institute's Thriving Economy Project RFI. Our submission is probably the best summary of what the CPE energy team has been working on these past two years. publicenterprise.org/public-enter...

Finished a fun bit of fiction on the “Martian Revolution.”

My latest for Liberal Currents. A substantial portion of conservatives want to be rich people in a poor country because it affords them a greater sense of hierarchy and power. We misunderstand that at our peril, but making it clear and not affording them the benefit of the doubt could save us.

I think this is the best answer to the prevailing "consumers want a lower nominal price level." Or even to the idea that voters will "choose" between low prices and low unemployment. Neither are really the point of affordability politics. Price volatility is!

Great @mtkonczal.bsky.social post. The political economy of the affordability crisis sees the difficulty of planning if prices are volatile, faster-than-baseline rise in essentials prices, a credit cost shock, and a squeeze on first-time home buyers. newsletter.mikekonczal.com/p/why-afford...

Bizarre that senior Labour politicians choose *now* to defend a fatally rudderless premiership.

Yup. The idea that a narrow plurality win would give the MAGA GOP ownership over American culture was never going to survive contact with their actual governance.

The 2025 "vibe shift" was something a lot of media tried to make happen, casting themselves as mere observers rather than drivers. But it turned out 2024 was a national election amidst multiple fluky factors in the aftermath of a global pandemic, not a binding referendum on American culture. Whoops.