Josh Sack

Today, we're launching Research-books.com because opposition research can’t only be the tool of the professional political consultant; everyone deserves to know the truth behind the Republican extremists seeking election in 2026. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

Zero Interest is a (Bad) Policy Choice The time to fix capital gains taxes has come

We need to have a real conversation about the fact that the government has been giving the richest Americans an interest free loan to behave inefficiently. open.substack.com/pub/joshsack...

Geology is Bad Monetary Policy Shut up Goldbugs

The Goldbugs and crypto people were on about deflation again. So I decided to respond in their language: a too-long blog post about events that happened outside of living memory. open.substack.com/pub/joshsack...

A Structural Solution to Gerrymandering Beyond Independent Redistricting Commissions

I put together a little note on how I would solve gerrymandering. open.substack.com/pub/joshsack...

Two episodes of Odd Lots in a day? Things really are dire.

Yup. If you really want to play the "Oracle of Omaha" game, Buffett has been largely sitting out the entire market, preferring cash over any equities. The exact opposite of the lie Trump himself is pushing.

And Buffett has been right.

It continues! And it's bad! Yesterday was a 0.4th percentile event, and today's drop (so far) is a 1.4th percentile day!

Did he say "the markets are going to boom" or "the markets are going to go boom" ?

No re-examining has been done, but a doubling and tripling down has been.

#mesen #mepolitics

These would be dope, other than the $12 black coffee and occasional risk of being poisoned

Haley Britzky @halbritz AFRICOM commander Gen. Langley tells senators that China is "trying to replicate" USAID programs in Africa as the US scales back USAID. "They're trying to use that as an extension of the Belt and Road Initiative to gain favor by the African countries," Langley said.

Wow who could’ve guessed that this would happen

It’s almost as if USAID was a pillar of American soft power and influence in the world

It’s almost as if it was entirely predictable that America’s adversaries would work to fill the void left by USAID’s destruction

LIV Golf, Saudi relationships pull Trump to Florida as markets rage The president’s dinner with golfing leaders, hosted at his club, comes as the global economic order reels from Trump’s tariffs announcement.

As global markets melt down, Trump is turning to … pro golf.

The president is headed to a LIV Golf event hosted at one of his Florida clubs.

It’s another example of Trump prioritizing his relationships with the Saudis — they own LIV — and blending his personal business and presidential office.

Looks like the market priced in economists’ reaction

Take a simple example: I run a trade deficit with Trader Joe's buying their meals, while they buy none of mine. My trade deficit as a share of my imports is 100%.

By Trump's trade logic, this deficit is evidence they're imposing 100% tariffs on the meals I try to sell them. Obviously this is false.

This chart, from Twitter user @nonagonono, is amazing.

It shows Trump's "reciprocal trade barriers" are no such thing as they ARE NOT RELATED TO ACTUAL TARIFF BARRIERS. Rather, his magic number is half of the bilateral trade deficit (as a share of imports), or 10%.

This is indescribably crazy.

How it started

How it's going

You can totally see how this mf bankrupted a casino.

I’m not forgetting about the people on our side who killed the TPP and pushed the last admin to keep a lot of the protectionism

"The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand."

CDC's IVF team gutted even as Trump calls himself the 'fertilization president' The elimination of the CDC's Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance team shocked experts and advocates who felt encouraged by President Donald Trump’s support of IVF.

Every single Republican stooge who claimed Trump truly meant it when he said he’d expand IVF coverage — despite his track record to the contrary — owes America an apology. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Dead people telling the President to pursue a trade war with an uninhabited island is real George III territory

Trump is the most economically illiterate President of my lifetime. Which is particularly disturbing when you consider that his supporters love him because he’s, in their view, a business genius.

Monstrously destructive, incoherent, ill-informed tariffs based on fabrications, imagined wrongs, discredited theories and ignorance of decades of evidence. And the real tragedy is that they will hurt working Americans more than anyone else.

A reminder from my shirt

do any tech billionaires have a political agenda beyond "the government needs to find a bagholder for my shitcos"?

Waltz and staff used Gmail for government communications, officials say Trump’s national security adviser is trying to manage his way out of a crisis. But new revelations about his team’s operational security are piling up in the inbox.

I remember when Hillary’s schedules being on the server was the worst crime in American history. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

This Bloomberg news quiz style is quite fun. I will have to be better about my leverage and hedge moments, (as well as signing the initial weights), but it is fun.

Hi, BlueSky. It's Hillary.

I've joined up here to help get the word out about an important election in Wisconsin tomorrow, and other ways to defend our democracy against those who think votes can be bought.