Konstantin Sonin

Wow. A group of top scholars at Harvard just sent a letter to its president, Alan Garber, warning against surrendering to Trump.

Signatories include Steven Levitsky, Dani Rodrik, Ryan Enos, Theda Skocpol, and Steven Walt.

Someone forwarded it to me. Read it here:

Derk Sauer, Champion of Free Press in a New Russia, Dies at 72

It appears that a socialist, militantly woke youth might not be a baggage. Derk Sauer has grown into a very successful enterpreneur who made a fortune doing really good things. The businesses that he launched were making money and making the world so much better. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/w...

The NATO summit had one big positive thing going. In the countries' commitment to raise their military spending to 5% of GDP, a 1-1.5% is, explicitly, military aid to Ukraine. No Article 5 protection in the near future, but the commitment institutionalizes NATO cooperation with Ukraine.

Policy-wise, I disagree with Zohran Mamdani about almost everything. He offers the opposite of free-market, personal choice/personal responsibility approach to economic problems that I'd like to see. But it is SO great to see new faces in politics, finally.

So your forecast - no Medvedev's head on a platter?

In the 17th century, when unhappy soldiers rebelled and marched on the palace, the tsar would emerge, plead for their forgiveness, and offer up a few top ministers to be executed on the spot. If Putin feels like a Russian tsar, he might feed the Medvedev's head to Trump tonight.

The final exam in my Game Theory class at KSE is rescheduled - students had a sleepless night. Again and again the Russian army attacks Kyiv, one of the largest cities in Europe, with missiles and drones. Each of these strikes is a war crime. Help Ukraine to stop this madness!

The new statement by the Russian Ministry of Foreig Affairs is breathtakingly hypocritical. A sane mind would want to interpret this as either a hidden swipe at Putin, or post-post-irony. But the Reverse Cargo Cult theory explains this pretty well: bfi.uchicago.edu/insights/the....

Please do it! Cannot wait.

180 degree turn in real time. More seriously, it is probably "framing". War on the Israel side? MAGA is a resounding "no". Bombing someone who cannot respond? Yes!

There are many tricky parts. There is a welfare loss if you play the babbling equilibrium instead of an informative one... (No surprise, though - this is just another symptom of Trump's general zero-sum approach to everything.)

For economic theorists, this should be familiar. It's a bubbling equilibrium in a sender-receiver game. There is no harm in appointing an incompetent person as an advisor, if you are not listening to their advice.

I think Adam is mistaken about the reason why the word "Democratic" was absent. The real reason is perhaps that "Democratic" polls abysmally bad these days; they are behind Republicans in "generic brand" polling. I'd rather expect the 2026 candidates to run away from the brand.

Great essay, by the way! Do you remember we first met on a train? At a Riga Railroad Station in Moscow!

Saratov, not Samara!

Many thanks :)

Another terrible night in Kyiv. 15 people are killed and dozens wounded as a result of the Russian attack on civilian areas.

As a Russian-born American, someone at the US Department of Defense works hard to make me feel home everywhere all the time all at once.

Друзья, близкие и далёкие, коллеги и соавторы в Тель-Авиве и других городах. В эти минуты я думаю только о вас - и молюсь, как может атеист, за каждого и каждую.

В России гомофобия навязывается теми же самыми людьми, которые развязали преступную войну, выдавили из страны, посадили в тюрьмы или заставили замолчать самых лучших людей. Поддержка ЛГБТК+ людей - это тест на собственную нормальность. 3/3

Помните - защищать тех, кто подвергается преследованиям, и помогать тем, кого дискриминируют - это хорошо и правильно независимо от политических взглядов и общественной позиции. Гомофобия - это и разновидность фашизма и его коренной признак. 2/3

30 дней союзничества с квир-людьми в России • ЛГБТК+ группа «Выход» Покажите ЛГБТК+ людям в России, что они не одни. Что их любят и о них помнят несмотря ни на какие законы и нападки властей. Ведь пока не свободны все, не свободен никто.

ВЫХОД

Это пост поддержки организации "Выход", которая помогает ЛГБТК+ людям в России. Можно сделать пожертвование вот здесь: comingoutspb.org/ru/30days/. Там рассказано, что будет сделано за эти деньги. 1/3

The future IS so stupid, or the future WAS so stupid?

It was a sleepless night in Kyiv. @markhamillofficial.bsky.social's comforting voice kept warning about raid alerts. I kept telling myself that this is what my KSE colleagues and students have been going through for three years now.

LEFT: The attack on Kyiv, May 24, before the Opetation Spider's Web. RIGHT: The attack on Kharkiv, June 6, after the Operation Spider's Web. Those who call the Kharkiv "retaliation" are lying.

Какая связь? Этот тезис правилен про прайд, потому что у гомофобии нет никаких моральных оправданий. А русские флаги сейчас многих раздражают вполне обоснование, потому что под ними Россия бомбит украинские города и оккупирует часть Украины.

Another night - new attacks on residential quarters in Kyiv (was loud), Chernihiv, Lutsk. No military targets. Civilians and first responders killed. Putin still believes he can terrorize Ukraine into submission. A good article in @politico on what to understand: www.politico.com/news/magazin....

All international treaties, unlike private contracts, are up for the signing party to enforce in the future. If the Budapest documents were not a real commitment by the US, then why would Iran trust any document signed with the US.

As an academic working on the political economy, this is moving too fast to analyze. Feeling as fascinated as any spectator.

ЧИКАГО ИЮНЬ

Помните, что если вас раздражает прайд-символика, то вы - причина того, что её нужно вывешивать.

That's a world play. If Iran expects the same word play from the US on the proposed treaty, they will not feel bound by the deal. (And Ukraine was in 1994 because they expected more than Obama stern looks in 2014.)