Just seen something mentioning how Musk's net worth is greater than the GDP of South Africa - which happens a lot but mixes up stocks (net worth) and flows (GDP, which is value per year). But then I was curious about what country he is equivalent to, based on comparing flow with flow.

Price discrimination can be welfare improving (nobody likes it)

The decision to move to Scotland remains flawless

What’s great about AI is now everyone can have an evil advisor whispering in their ear and corrupting them

Everything is political economy, tariff pass through edition Once again, economics worked in exactly the way we knew economics worked, because the sun had risen before many times, even though we (again) pretended we didn't know how economics worked, because of politics: bsky.app/profile/mcop...

I wish to recind all my criticism of the Eurovision juries (for a year)

"I'm going to govern in econometrics" is a winning campaign slogan for the ages.

we could discuss the trade policy of the 1930s but that would be a Smoot point

Unbelievably, my idea to buy a coffee machine "because it will be cheaper to make my own" appears to be retrospectively becoming a brilliant decision

“Fund managers to debate ethics of just wars before investment decisions”

Lesson one of diplomatic language:

Thermostatic public opinion is up there with compound interest as one of the most powerful forces in the universe

Ironically, most penguins aren't aware that today is Penguin Awareness Day and they think it's just a regular Monday. The reason for this, of course is that they refused to adopt the new Gregorian calendar in 1582, and still adhere to the old Julian one, for tax purposes.

The LA wildfires have given landlords an opportunity to raise rents. California has anti-price-gouging regulation that might prevent that. If you want to step beyond Econ 101, here’s a recent Econometrica paper that shows how price caps can raise welfare. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.3...

One of those brilliant suggestions you read and think to yourself, 'Why on earth haven't I thought of or read about this idea before? It's so damned obvious!'

Instead, we should look to history, path dependency, institutional structures, politics, and economics. For Tokyo, I think urban planning—walkability, mixed use neighborhoods, affordable real estate—all contribute to the richer media and commercial systems that feed into culture.

No one can ever complain about the lack of a written constitution for the UK ever again! researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CB...

RTing for my current thinking about signals

i am standign for election. i promise to do Nothing 🥇

JMP season is great bc you see so much interesting and new research being disseminated. Really interesting on the overlap between industrial policy and innovation

I’ve hit a few starter packs in the last few days and now I feel like I follow too many people, but don’t want to offend anyone by unfollowing. More first world problems to come as we hear about them

There are two types of economists. 1. Those skeeting about impending doom. 2. Those making long lists of impending natural experiments.

A political fact that a decade-plus of low inflation made everyone forget: The public DESPISE inflation. People see rising prices as the government’s fault but salary rises as rewarding their own hard work - so even if raises outstrip inflation, people will still be mad at you.

Must admit this morning on this side of the Atlantic feels a bit Tennyson; ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do

I'm never going to have a better use for this meme.

I had put significant weight onto the Selzer poll. Clearly this did not capture the US aggregate. We learn.

Here is my extremely brief (potted) history of institutions in macro-development thinking -- just before the AJR intervention. I had most of these thoughts prior to the Nobel week, but now they are crystallising.

And it just won a Nobel prize!

Is it too late to choose the coalition of chaos with Ed Milliband

Chevron deference repeal seems like a pretty big issue for regulatory and investor uncertainty?

You know what I really want? A TV debate with a Logical Fallacy Referee (complete with whistle and ability to mute participants). Would be immensely entertaining

Banning the word “febrile” yall had your chance and you took advantage

BVB hoping for a Reus Ex Machina

So far not seen the use of the word “voluntold”, which is really a bit of a crime against reporting tbh

I was worried the election campaign would be boring. That concern has been addressed.

Just discovered there’s a new Knives out film due. Most important news of the week

This is great news. The HPV vaccine is cutting cases of cervical cancer by 90%.

Genny Lec x Independence day party

It's on

My campaign against the Eurovision juries continues

It begins.

English lads... I know voting is pretty important but do you know what's even more important? Taking pictures of dogs you see while you're voting then posting them on here under the hashtag, #dogsatpollingstations. If you don't do that, what's even the point of pretending to be a democracy?

I’ve been thinking for a while about how dangerous it is that we’re removing the Nobody Knows You’re a Dog element from the Internet

Misread this as the allegation being that there were 787 different safety risks

I thought AI would contribute to economic growth, but the way it is being used rather suggests the opposite is more likely, in the short term at least