greedflation theory (sophisticated version) explains a lot

Protecting workers from #fissuring requires enforcing #jointemployment. Thanks to @timothynoah.bsky.social @newrepublic.bsky.social & @briancallaci.bsky.social for making the case. newrepublic.com/article/2124... @crampell.bsky.social @epi.org

With deviations correlated with being venomous. We are all 7 y/o boys.

The Spurs told ESPN that Jalen Brunson is going to have patch things up with San Antonio following last weeks finals victory

Sociologist C Wright Mills had a term for such ideologically blinkered “centrists” back in the days of the Cold War: Crackpot Realism.

went down to the centrist convention. they’re all shaking and crying, I heard one guy say “I’m starting to think a better world IS possible.” the lady next to him slapped him in the face

We could have had a very different rollout of LLMs than we actually did. It could have focused on building applications that made life easier for everyday use. Limited but useful. Instead, the buildout was focused on a radical and flawed proposition: that it could replace much of human labor.

Have to give Greenspan this: with his "traumatized workers" analysis of the declining influence of low unemployment on wages and inflation, he understood the institutional-political determination of reserve army/NAIRU dynamics better than most.

This is the entire story of the post-1980 period: GDP growth never recovered pre-1974 growth rates, but profits, stock prices surpassed anything seen since WWII. Misleading the well-off to believe we were in a time of wider prosperity than we were.

Working on presentations for book talks, so going back to my files for visuals. These are Dunkin' Donuts brochures from the 1960s. Amazing that franchisors (and related businesses) have avoided joint employer liability for this long.

One of the best explanations of causal inference I have read. Maybe it was a mistake to adopt the colloquial term "cause" rather than inventing a jargon word, since what social scientists mean by "cause" (a "what if" question) diverges from the plain English meaning (a "why" Q).

Frankly impressed that JD Vance has written two whole books on a subject as dull as JD Vance.

Earlier than I thought, the evolving English language has left me and my reading comprehension behind.

Honestly never really believed real-life book stores would carry it. Very cool to see!

Man voters just want to drink gas and man can't afford gas to drink.

With University of Utah and the New School heterodox economics PhD programs under attack, the task is clear: Mayor Mamdani must create a PhD program at John Jay College, City University of New York

(it was created as a Civil War holiday)

Yes, it has indeed made shareholders (and some franchisees quite rich). It has done so, in large part, by incentivizing franchisees to drive worker wages as low as people, while systematically excluding workers from labor rights.

nothing but a whale, or a gale, or some violent, ungovernable, unintelligent destroyer

From that hour I clove to Queequeg like a barnacle; yea, till poor Queequeg took his last long dive.

How many other small agencies are suffering these death-by-a-thousand-cuts scenarios? How many other lifesaving regulations have been put on ice or buried entirely? How many more workers’ lives are at risk because a Trump drone picked an agency name off a list? inthesetimes.com/article/trum...

Great chatting with you

I'm writing something about public pension funds & data centers & risk -- this total mess strengthens my goal to get elected to the MA PRIM Board! have a friend who works for MA state government? Pls send them to my website so that they can vote before May 22nd!! lenorepalladino.me

Just FYI NYC and DC: this is now on shelves at Barnes & Noble Union Square and Politics & Prose!

MARKET POWER IS POWER New working paper with @bartonelee2.bsky.social Thread below! 1/5 gratton.org/papers/Marke...

"Why are all the journalists laid off now" this is why. Pretty simple.

the 1973 oil shock basically destroyed a huge chunk of american culture (drive ins, etc) and i think covid did the same

Happy @briancallaci.bsky.social day let's all start our strike notices with "Dear Joint Employer"

Today's the day!

🚨🚨Revised paper 🚨🚨 The Balance of Power in Franchising w/@ulrichatz.org, Blake Eliason, @mikelipsitz.bsky.social, @pnorlander.bsky.social, & @stpinto.bsky.social. We built the 1st comprehensive panel dataset of franchise contract terms: 46,000 documents, 4,500 chains, 20+ provisions, 2009-2024. /1

at the present day not one in two of the many thousand men before the mast employed in the American whale fishery, are Americans born

New Slingshot Episode in which @briancallaci.bsky.social discusses his new book, Chain of Command (Chicago Press), on the latest episode of The Slingshot with @halsinger.bsky.social and Darren Bush.

Franchise owners have become less like independent businessmen and more like a badly treated employee stripped of all their rights. Jarod Facundo reviews a new book on how franchisors put this legal regime in place. prospect.org/2026/04/10/a...

It's alive! Very grateful to Rae Ganci Hammers for the design.

NEW WORKING PAPER Minimum Wages and Vertical Restraints in Franchising joint with Swayam Sarangi, @stpinto.bsky.social, and Blake Eliason. marshallsteinbaum.org/wp-content/u... #EconSky /1

Larry Fink waxing lyrical about the magic 1950s, when American capitalism was oh so dynamic, but leaves out the bit about the heavy repression of finance within and across borders that underpinned it.

Also, imagine being a TSA agent who hasn't been paid in over a month watching these thugs who ARE being paid coming into your workplace. ICE are basically scabbing in order to brutalize Americans.

Don't outsource your reading to LLms

Imagine a Buffalo Wild Wings but sadder

Agreed. That’s something I’ve consistently written as part of the explanation. It’s also a way more modest claim than in Yglesias’s post, which was that there is a certain and substantial benefit to going moderate on all issues. You should join us on Team It’s Uncertain

To me it matters that even under the most favorable conditions presidential candidates, not House (where party brand matters) holding turnout fixed voters have knowledge of all policy positions, no media The paper finds that going moderate is half as effective as Yglesias wrote in Boston Review

I don't think they'll ever be able to automate participant observation. Accordingly, I accept my fate as an economist, and welcome our new overlords as queen of the social sciences. Anthropology.

Delta swore to its employees and unions that it was not transporting deportees this way.

I interrupt this moment with some nerd shit. This is from the Spirit Level comparing the degree of inequality in a state (ratio of income of the top 20% to the income the bottom 20%) and confidence that you would do better than average in a fist fight. Not with a bear but still notable.

What I think: @lpeproject.bsky.social needs to have a conference with @urpe1968.bsky.social. Because I think they could inform each other on theories and data.

This is Nathan Cavanaugh, another DOGE staffer explaining how he flagged grants at NEH for "DEI" which would be reviewed for termination. 404 Media has reviewed hours of this footage and we'll have more soon. Part of a lawsuit by @acls1919.bsky.social, @modernlanguage.bsky.social + @historians.org