Sam B. (he/him)

Opinion | Libertarians: We Told You So

The libertarians I know are all big Trump supporters, thrilled with the persecution of immigrants. But somehow I'm supposed to believe that everything would be better if we had embraced more social spending cuts.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/o...

And you're right, there's no Democratic constituency for ending the welfare state. But you can trust that Rahm Emmanuel, Gavin Newsom, and others among the Democratic elite do not want to see higher taxes. They celebrate philanthropy and lean budgets, are "socially liberal, fiscally conservative."

Yes and what voters really don't like is higher taxes. The argument will go:

Because Trump ran up huge deficits
And we cannot possibly raise taxes

We must therefore embark on a nationwide program of austerity.

My long running theory of the 2nd Trump admin is that, having delivered the death blow to the welfare state, it will be swept away by moderate liberals who will then proceed upon a program of austerity.

Americans want there to be an exploited underclass that provides labor while also supporting social hierarchy. We want even more to not discuss these things in public. But it's right there, it's not a secret.

Douthat asks if there's some kids and of happy medium between right and left these days, and connects that to the furor over the murder of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.

Also in today's Times is a piece about the President's contradictory immigration policy.

/2

Opinion | The ICE Shooting Displays the Need for Equilibrium. But How?

Douthat cites Noah Smith, an influential public economist and self-declared liberal, at the top of this column, which reinforced my long held view of Smith as functionally conservative.

/1

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/o...

The bit at the end where she says that the ideals held up by the guidelines are laudable but likely unaffordable for most Americans - I kind of wish they'd emphasized that more.

I'd add: it's classic "affluence is a choice and poverty is the fault of the poor."

It seems to me that, if we take $140k in annual consumption of goods and services as a kind of minimum for what prosperity looks like, then it seems unlikely we could ever produce enough that the majority of people would attain it.

If $140,000 annual income is the poverty line, 99% of the world lives in poverty (although only 75% in the US). Global gdp per capita is less than a tenth of that amount.

Ruben Gallegos demonstrates the dilemma of American politics is that everyone wants improvements at the individual level but also for everything else to stay the same.

Everybody wants a big-ass truck; nobody wants to live in a reality where everyone drives a big-ass truck.

I saw the original once in the late 90's at the Rockwell Museum in western Massachusetts. I remember it really stood out (in part because of its sheer size), but it's an astonishing work.

From someone on the ground STOP USING AI

I read through Weiss's ten principles that she presented as guiding journalism at CBS under her leadership and it came across as "we'll be fair and objective."

"Wealthy people funding universities, funding science, funding our future."

That's it. That's the strategy.

It dawned on me this morning that the "glorification of victimhood" that so irks conservatives is basically about the use of pathos to counteract domination - i.e., it's harder to bully people when they can call on the empathy of their peers.

The raspberry at the end of that song always gives me a laugh.

This passage from Ezra Klein's interview with Ben Shapiro seems like an exactly wrongheaded view of religion, but also a fair representation of American conservatism - it's basically "good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people."

Congrats!

I've wanted to be able to use the WS-PS model in the classroom, but have always had a hard time setting up the math. And today I finally figured out that you have to set labor productivity equal to Okun's coefficient (at least, I think that's right).

The New Deal Order ends with a whimper, Social Security, Medicare, the NLRB, all paved over to make way for shareholders.

Interaction w government will require access through the internet, and access to services will slowly diminish - made into a labyrinth of algorithms and AI chatbots.

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Where I see this going is towards austerity. Trump comes along and creates chaos, and then a desperate, terrified populace willingly goes along with the demolition of public goods - "yes, please, Hoover was right all along, just call off the goon squads!"

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The Trump administration is, in many ways, just the continuation of a theme of slowly accumulated power into private hands in the US - he has cloaked himself in populism to amass power in the same way the Bush first administration did - but I think claims of the end of liberalism are premature.

/2

Reading Klein this morning I had a couple of thoughts: 1) part of the problem that elected Democrats (and Klein) face is that Republicans can plausibly claim hypocrisy in response by saying that Dems are bought and paid for by private interests; and 2) I think we're missing the bigger picture.

/1

Trump's attack on Lisa Cook is an attack on Black women We all stand to lose if he gets away with it.

New in PN: @itsafronomics.bsky.social on why Trump's attack on Lisa Cook is an attack on Black women & Black economists

"In a time where there are attempts to erase the contributions of Black people & more specifically Black women from the history books, her leadership is needed now more than ever"

I'm glad she's standing up for herself. Every economist in the country should stand behind her.

Liberty means "not a slave." You can't understand Liberty, or freedom, if you like, without understanding slavery.

Black D.C. Residents Say Trump’s Tactics Bring More Fear, Not Safety As agents patrol popular areas in the nation’s capital, many Black residents are worried about being over overpoliced.

As agents patrol popular areas in the nation’s capital, many Black residents are worried about being over overpoliced.

Trump’s 40% Penalty for Tariff Dodging Missing Key Details President Donald Trump has threatened to pile an additional 40% tariff on any product that Washington determines to be “transshipped” through another country, a punishment aimed at stopping goods main...

But wait, there's more!

'Trump has threatened to pile an additional 40% tariff on any product that Washington determines to be “transshipped” through another country... mainly from China'

And ofc no one knows how "transshipment" will be defined

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...