Tom Barson

I think the Economist's strategy in every case is to give the invitee enough rope.

Remind me to wash my hands when the Turks decide to reoccupy Serbia.

Baccalaureate remarks by Chair Powell at the Princeton University Baccalaureate Ceremony Thank you, President Eisgruber, for the opportunity to speak here today. Congratulations to the Princeton University class of 2025 on the tremendous achievemen

“Fifty years from now, you will want to be able to look in the mirror and know that you did what you thought was right, in every part of your life. At the end of the day, your integrity is all you have.” Jay Powell www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...

Might one reason be that the US mainly exports that light Texas crude? (I've been told that the US mainly refines heavy oil and exports the higher-priced light stuff. If that's the case, then tariffs could have a big impact. Customers can't buy if they can't sell.)

You are the heir to something greater than Empire Our golden age lies in our future, not our past.

"To believe that we live in a fallen world is to disgrace every one of our forebears who worked to give us a better future."

Noah Smith puts paid to the oldest cultural criticism trope in the universe. @noahpinion.blogsky.venki.dev

www.noahpinion.blog/p/you-are-th...

Opinion | The dangerous pattern in Trump’s targeting of student activists The administration doubles down on criminalizing criticism of a foreign country.

This from @shadihamid.bsky.social

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | The dangerous pattern in Trump’s targeting of student activists The administration doubles down on criminalizing criticism of a foreign country.

Short and to the point by @shadihamid.bsky.social

BTW, a quick search will get you to the defense fund sites for Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Luscious red flower in white vase.

Georgia O’Keefe says good morning.

Go fast and break things.

Opinion | ‘I Hope I Am Wrong, but I Am Pretty Pessimistic’: Four Economists Dissect Trump’s Tariffs The most dramatic effort to remake the post-World War II trade system was underway — until it wasn’t.

Sure, Oren Cass is a noted (old-style) Republican policy guy. But an "economist"?

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/o...

How Universities Can Save Themselves The crisis of the universities is worse than they realize. They must rediscover their core mission.

Nils Gilman nails it.

@nilsgilman.bsky.social

www.persuasion.community/p/how-univer...

Nation > Class in Lenin on Imperialism. One reason why J.A.

“It looks as if Lenin thinks nationalism has more affective/unifying pull, that is, revolutionary potential, than class. This despite the fact that class conflict may well be one of the grounds that is one of the sparks that leads to revolt.”

digressionsimpressions.substack.com/p/nation-cla...?

OK, I get your point now. I made the behavioral observation (need for brevity made it seem critical -- I'm really talking about the mariginal utility of income) and you pointed out they were also being good Rawlsians. Fair enough.

OK. But why do we care about what Rawls says is "acceptable"? If you were arguing this outcome was a Nash equilibrium, that would at least follow from original US/China "game" example.

Whether they would vote for it, if given the prospective choice, is another question. Whether they would punish a politician who did this, after the fact, is yet another. But I'm pretty sure a politician get more of their votes in the gain scenario than in the loss one. Disagree? 4/4

The question is whether the same behavior will be observed when we substitute losses for gains. I guess I can imagine lower income voters acquiescing to a tax increase if theirs get framed as a sacrifice and the hated elite's as a deserved punishment. 3/4

...how will groups act, not how should they act.

My sense, based on the recent election, is that lower income voters will accept any permanent gain (e.g., a tac cut) as evidence that "He fought for me," with no apparent expectation that he won't feather his own (or his class's) nest even more. 2/4

So, Branko, apologies (a deadline to blame) for not responding immediately.

But I don't understand the appeal to Rawls here. When we switched from the "game" to inequality (no game, in my view) it seemed like the discussion had to go forward in terms of behavioral laws. In other words... 1/4

Yeah, I guess libertarians get the same right-twice-a-day broken clock guarantee that I get.

But, yes, his example is spot-on.

I have a hard time imagining them being content the direction of your example outside of, say, a "national emergency" (with its applied promise of recompense upon resolution).

But maybe the fallout of "Liberation Day" will be a kind of test case. 2/2

Well, the lower-income Trump voter seems to use this logic, but in the opposite direction. They will accept huge income gains for the wealthy as long as a small income gains (say, a tax cut) are earmarked for them.

1/2

Note that this isn't economics, or even "political economy". Only in a pure great power conflict "game" could you possibly justify the assertion that the least-loser "wins" via an implicit claim that less is more.

Analysis | Trump White House cited economists for its tariff formula. They pan it. Economists say the administration’s formula fails to take into account whether conditions change.

Will read. But do see today's WaPo piece in which USTR's cited economists take down the formula.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

You're a goner for sure.

(But it sounds really interesting.)

Looks like a prison!

Exactly. That's the point. It doesn't matter if you hate Trump's agenda. Given this action, with their every purchase, every American gets sucked into his zero-sum worldview.

Such as, interrupting your profound statement with "Those glasses do nothing for you."

Great piece. That first quote - Lenin giving us a spec for a combined data warehouse and control system - made my day. Maybe ironically, headlines that one-sidedly juice thoughtful essays or op-eds are something I complain about. But here I just knew where the iece wanted to go!

It can be both, stupid.

Lenin's Political Economy of Information in Monopoly Capitalism In chapter 2 of Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916), Lenin offers an account of the role the transition of the banking sector plays in his stadial theory of the development of monopoly...

Lenin as the architect of DOGE. Beautiful. @nescio13.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/digressi...