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Chris Ruebeck

@ruebeck.bsky.social

Economics, (was running marathons but now) cycling, Macintosh

82 Followers  |  213 Following  |  12 Posts  |  Joined: 03.11.2023  |  2.2218

Latest posts by ruebeck.bsky.social on Bluesky

You can vibe code your way to a working prototype. You cannot vibe code or one-shot your way to a competitive product that works at scale. The hard part isn't writing code; it's the architectural supervision.

29.01.2026 19:34 β€” πŸ‘ 212    πŸ” 37    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 5

Anyway, if you are still writing and understanding your own code in 2026, you have my deepest appreciation & gratitude.

31.01.2026 11:56 β€” πŸ‘ 128    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0
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Philip Glass boycotting the Kennedy Center
Philip Glass boycotting the Kennedy Center
Philip Glass boycotting the Kennedy Center
Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass boycotting the Kennedy Center

27.01.2026 16:17 β€” πŸ‘ 20455    πŸ” 4325    πŸ’¬ 603    πŸ“Œ 353

From the thread:

> Surprisingly, ChatGPT was much better at explaining and helping with Claude Code than Claude itself. For example, Claude gave me incorrect info about how to set up its permissions files.

29.01.2026 19:20 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

"This doux commerce hypothesis is consistent .. claiming that market interactionsβ€”unlike those within families or in-groupsβ€”foster impersonal prosocial norms that
support cooperation beyond kin and local networks, and it
aligns with recent evidence stemming primarily from small-scale ... societies."

29.01.2026 12:01 β€” πŸ‘ 16    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

So now we’re headed towards stormtroopers. Apologies for mixing the genres, but seriously.

29.01.2026 01:20 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I keep thinking β€œmy god the people they’ve killed seem like exceptionally good folks” and I think the lesson there is that they’re not exceptional, but that wonderful people abound and that a baseline distrust in humanity is a shitty conservative trope that privileges power over collective strength

25.01.2026 00:27 β€” πŸ‘ 4285    πŸ” 1294    πŸ’¬ 20    πŸ“Œ 15
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Signs about the history of slavery in the U.S. and the 9 people George Washington enslaved are being removed right now at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia, across from Independence Hall, months after the Trump administration threatend to do so.

How far we have not come in 250 years.

22.01.2026 21:33 β€” πŸ‘ 3320    πŸ” 1703    πŸ’¬ 125    πŸ“Œ 298
Who's Afraid of the Minimum Wage? Measuring the Impacts on Independent Businesses Using Matched
U.S. Tax Returns* Nirupama L Rao, Max Risch
The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 141, Issue 1, February 2026, Pages 373-427, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjaf053
Published: 10 December 2025
Article history V
PDF
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Abstract
A common concern surrounding minimum wage policies is their impact on independent businesses, which are often feared to be less able to bear or pass on cost increases. We examine how these typically small and medium-size firms accommodate minimum wage increases along product and labor market margins using a matched owner-firm-worker panel data set drawn from the universe of U.S. tax records over a 10-year period, and using state minimum wage changes as identifying variation. We find that on average, firms in highly exposed industries do not substantially reduce employment-they do not lay off workers but moderately reduce part-time hiring. Instead, these firms are able to fully finance the new labor costs with new revenues, leaving average owner profits unchanged.
Higher wage floors, however, forestall entry, particularly for less productive firms, reducing the number of independent firms operating in these industries by roughly 2%. Yet these industries do not shrink; instead, incumbent responses and strong positive selection among entrants reshape industries that rely heavily on low-wage workers, yielding fewer but more productive firms after the cost shock.
We also take a worker-level perspective to examine how potentially vulnerable individuals are affected by minimum wage increases. Using panels of low-earning and young workers, we find that their average earnings rise substantially with the minimum wage, while they are no less likely to be employed. Worker transitions indicate that minimum wage increases boost retention and that worker reallocation from independent firms toward corporations buffers dis…

Who's Afraid of the Minimum Wage? Measuring the Impacts on Independent Businesses Using Matched U.S. Tax Returns* Nirupama L Rao, Max Risch The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 141, Issue 1, February 2026, Pages 373-427, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjaf053 Published: 10 December 2025 Article history V PDF β€’ Split View 66 Cite P Permissions < Share V Abstract A common concern surrounding minimum wage policies is their impact on independent businesses, which are often feared to be less able to bear or pass on cost increases. We examine how these typically small and medium-size firms accommodate minimum wage increases along product and labor market margins using a matched owner-firm-worker panel data set drawn from the universe of U.S. tax records over a 10-year period, and using state minimum wage changes as identifying variation. We find that on average, firms in highly exposed industries do not substantially reduce employment-they do not lay off workers but moderately reduce part-time hiring. Instead, these firms are able to fully finance the new labor costs with new revenues, leaving average owner profits unchanged. Higher wage floors, however, forestall entry, particularly for less productive firms, reducing the number of independent firms operating in these industries by roughly 2%. Yet these industries do not shrink; instead, incumbent responses and strong positive selection among entrants reshape industries that rely heavily on low-wage workers, yielding fewer but more productive firms after the cost shock. We also take a worker-level perspective to examine how potentially vulnerable individuals are affected by minimum wage increases. Using panels of low-earning and young workers, we find that their average earnings rise substantially with the minimum wage, while they are no less likely to be employed. Worker transitions indicate that minimum wage increases boost retention and that worker reallocation from independent firms toward corporations buffers dis…

New QJE for the minimum wage literature uses IRS data to study effects on small and medium size businesses. The effects seem…very good

academic.oup.com/qje/article/...

17.01.2026 01:53 β€” πŸ‘ 95    πŸ” 33    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 4

I can’t wait to watch these! Knowing Andy, they’re going to be great.

22.01.2026 04:33 β€” πŸ‘ 155    πŸ” 28    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

I've never seen a population more united. If people can hold onto that unity, if people can accept that different people will have different ways of confronting fascism, if we can remind NGOs and orgs that they can join but not control the resistance, then, well, people here will write history.

22.01.2026 03:58 β€” πŸ‘ 9717    πŸ” 1450    πŸ’¬ 97    πŸ“Œ 90

But when I asked an organizer what they wanted to see out of press coverage, they told me they wanted people to see the beautiful things they are building here, and not just the worst stories of the worst of ICE's crimes.

What people are doing here is beautiful. It's a tragic beauty, but a real one

22.01.2026 03:58 β€” πŸ‘ 9646    πŸ” 1338    πŸ’¬ 26    πŸ“Œ 57

Another friend put it to me like this: "ICE has made the classic Nazi mistake. They've invaded a winter people in the winter."

22.01.2026 03:58 β€” πŸ‘ 16883    πŸ” 3435    πŸ’¬ 67    πŸ“Œ 211

So much to think about and prompt students’ thinking here. Regardless of how each of us may prompt students to use the resources to help them develop a deeper understanding of their choices.

21.01.2026 22:42 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

On the micro side, it should be IO by a country mile and then Labour.

09.01.2026 12:09 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Trump’s E.P.A. Has Put a Value on Human Life: Zero Dollars

fewer new case studies for my regulatory politics class plz

21.01.2026 19:26 β€” πŸ‘ 17    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

It’s notable that the president can go on TV and be a total gutter racist, and somehow this isn’t news in the slightest. Says a lot about the sickness of American society right now.

20.01.2026 23:50 β€” πŸ‘ 12102    πŸ” 3339    πŸ’¬ 571    πŸ“Œ 180

One small thing I’ve been doing on every work call is starting out with blatant honesty about what is happening here without care of where they fall on the political spectrum. I meet with people across the country & world on the regular and they need to know the truth.

20.01.2026 20:54 β€” πŸ‘ 72    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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President Trump has justified many significant moves of his second term with false claims and overstated boasts. Here's a fact check. nyti.ms/4qEbf1q

20.01.2026 22:55 β€” πŸ‘ 157    πŸ” 44    πŸ’¬ 55    πŸ“Œ 12

Wait wait wait… the final boss at Nintendo of America was named Bowser?

🀯

20.01.2026 18:13 β€” πŸ‘ 71    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 9    πŸ“Œ 0

β€œThe system that made America the richest country in the history of world has failed America”

20.01.2026 15:58 β€” πŸ‘ 152    πŸ” 54    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 0

Even the cosmologists expected this

20.01.2026 02:25 β€” πŸ‘ 49    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
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Americans Are the Ones Paying for Tariffs, Study Finds New research contradicts President Trump’s claim that foreigners are footing the bill.

By analyzing $4 trillion of shipments between January 2024 and November 2025, researchers found that foreign exporters absorbed only about 4% of the burden of last year’s U.S. tariff increases by lowering their prices, while American consumers and importers absorbed 96%.

www.wsj.com/economy/trad...

19.01.2026 17:04 β€” πŸ‘ 348    πŸ” 164    πŸ’¬ 22    πŸ“Œ 28

Martin Luther King, Jr.

National favorable rating via Gallup:

AUGUST 1966: 33% πŸ‘ to 63% πŸ‘Ž
AUGUST 2011: 94% πŸ‘ to 4% πŸ‘Ž

19.01.2026 17:00 β€” πŸ‘ 597    πŸ” 186    πŸ’¬ 9    πŸ“Œ 13

This is probably the most accurate description.

Someone in their mid-50s today told me that this is the first time he had thought about or been affected by politics. And that guy is actively guarding buildings and his coworkers from ICE.

19.01.2026 02:44 β€” πŸ‘ 4974    πŸ” 1193    πŸ’¬ 35    πŸ“Œ 31
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Jay Powell, the Prepster Banker Who Is Standing Up to Trump The seventy-two-year-old Fed chairman put to shame the heads of law firms, universities, and public companies who have caved to the White House.

John Cassidy: Powell put to shame heads of law firms, universities & public companies who have caved to the White House. He demonstrated that, at least in economic arena, there are still some institutional constraints that Trump cannot sweep aside, or not easily. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

15.01.2026 19:10 β€” πŸ‘ 120    πŸ” 37    πŸ’¬ 8    πŸ“Œ 4

We’re at a point where someone can say their grandmother was protesting for maternity and childcare issues. Yowza! I’m old.

Also, read the thread. Not happy. Let’s pay homage to (at least) those women of a generation (oh, two generations) ago, and continue to advocate for these needs of society.

14.01.2026 14:12 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
RePEc Author Service

A few publishers include the author's RePEc Short-ID in their metadata, and the work is then added automatically to their profile. But for the vast majority of the works, authors have to recognize and claim them.

authors.repec.org

#RePEc #EconSky

14.01.2026 13:53 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

An observation about the new open enrollment numbers: The decline from 2025 appears to be more pronounced among HealthCare.gov states than among those with state-based marketplaces.

Not necessarily surprising, some SBMs took steps to at least partially shield enrollees from premium increases.

13.01.2026 19:12 β€” πŸ‘ 12    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

@ruebeck is following 20 prominent accounts