Phil BuildTheFutureNow

Ones and Tooze Business Podcast · Updated Weekly · Foreign Policy economics columnist Adam Tooze, a history professor and a popular author, is encyclopedic about basically everything: from the COVID shutdown, to cli...

The winner of the USA-Iran war is China. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...

Why Escalation Favors Iran America and Israel may have bitten off more than they can chew.

Did we bite off more than we can chew? If Iran just drags this out for 5-10 years they kinda win, and we have global stagflation (kicking in soon) and zoinks…. Rope-a-dope strategy
www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/why-esc...

A significant change occurred around the 1950s, when overnight on-street parking in residential areas, which was previously illegal (though common), became accepted and later legalized, further cementing the need to squeeze pedestrian space to fit cars.

Historical comparisons, such as those of Lexington Avenue (and similar Brooklyn corridors), show that some sidewalks were reduced in width by as much as 75% over the 20th century, often resulting in the removal of original architectural features like stoops.

Throughout the early to mid-20th century, the city cut into wider sidewalks to create more room for car travel and to facilitate parking, often turning sidewalks that were once 13–15 feet wide into much narrower paths.

What can we say about a city that’s designed for us? #nycurbanism #thewalkthrough #mathwalk #walkablecities #notjustcars TikTok video by The Walkthrough NYC

As cars began to dominate city streets, planners and officials shifted space away from pedestrians to make room for on-street parking and wider lanes.
www.tiktok.com/t/ZThv5RP1L/

in Brooklyn and across New York City, sidewalks were generally wider in the early 20th century and were systematically narrowed over the following decades to accommodate increased motor vehicle traffic and parking.

Did one guy just create global inflation and kick off a worldwide recession?

His Iran comments today be like what he said when the pandemic started:
"It's going to pass, and we're going to be back to normal" (May 5, 2020).
"It's going to go away... No question in my mind, sooner rather than later" (Aug. 5, 2020).

Darn it

a man in a suit and tie is tying his tie in a room . ALT: a man in a suit and tie is tying his tie in a room .

Americas current foreign policy appears to be adapted from Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas

‪About 25–45% of our U.S. federal debt could plausibly be linked to direct and indirect oil security costs.‬
‪That includes:‬
‪• military protection of global oil shipping‬
‪• wars in major oil regions‬
‪• long-term veterans and interest costs‬

Is the nightmare scenario for global energy here? The Iran crisis is unfolding in a world in which oil and gas supplies are more diversified than in previous decades

We grew up in the suburbs, pumping gas into a car helped build a country that runs on oil. That demand made the Middle East and big oil states strategically central, and now we’re watching that play out in war with Iran and a military takeover of Venezuela’s oil.
www.ft.com/content/5a74...

PhilBuildTheFutureNow (@philbuildthefuturenow) Our cheap gasoline is really expensive. The U.S. just grabbed Venezuela’s president and is fighting a war with Iran at the same time. People are calling these oil wars. Start with Venezuela. We think ...

substack.com/@philbuildth...

Our cheap gasoline is really expensive. The U.S. just grabbed Venezuela’s president and is fighting a war with Iran at the same time. People are calling these oil wars.
www.ft.com/content/5a74...

3am and they are busy working on the nyc subway- tile and floor repair

Is it smart to have gasoline prices and oil companies determine US foreign policy and military deployment?

NYC is making America Great Again #skytok

The BYD Seagull is the MacBook Neo of cars. a 4-seat EV with a 250-mile range. For $9,700.
It’s minimalist, efficient, and makes every other “budget” car look like a 2008 Android tablet. The future is already here, just not in the USA. And it’s embarrassingly affordable.

What NYC needs is a billionaire attraction strategy
If the plan is “tax the rich,” then the supply of rich people matters
Double the billionaires
Double the tax base
Problem solved
Socialism, funded by capitalism
NYC: come for the penthouses, stay for the municipal redistribution

Investors are not ready for a true shock The consensus view of the impact of the Iran war on equities and bonds may well prove too sanguine

Investors are not ready for a true shock ft.trib.al/tWMyNkv | opinion

Oil price jumps after Qatar minister warns all Gulf production could stop Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi says energy prices for everyone will rise if the Iran war continues.

“If ships were unable to proceed through the Strait of Hormuz, Kaabi said that in two to three weeks the price of oil could soar much further to $150 a barrel”
www.bbc.com/news/article...

NYC gives up billions in revenue to fund transformative public goods, more buses, better schools, green spaces, just to provide a free place for people to leave metal boxes.
“Free” parking isn’t a free market at all. It’s collective ownership and subsidy that primarily benefits one specific group

the ultimate socialist policy: the means of storage (streets) are publicly owned, and the profits (value of that storage) go to one group, car drivers.
Everyone pays for streets w taxes, but only some get to store their private property on them for free

For decades, NYC has run one of the largest, most unacknowledged welfare programs in its history, for suburban car owners.
By giving away 3 million street parking spaces of expensive public real estate for free, it’s a multi-billion dollar annual wealth transfer that drives up city debt

The greatest trick the NIMBYs ever pulled was convincing the world that building new homes raises rents

Does the Iran War Put America First? Podcast Episode · Interesting Times with Ross Douthat · March 5 · 59m

This is a wild and eye opening talk about Iran.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...

People are treating this like just another news cycle. The scale of what’s actually unfolding right now is… a lot bigger than that. History-book level bigger.
But sure, let’s keep scrolling.

Inside the Trump administration’s scramble to support its own war One State Department official said too few people were read in on war plans.

“What we’ve seen is a completely ad hoc operation where it appeared that nobody actually understood or believed that military action was imminent,”. “It seems like they woke up on Saturday morning and decided that they were going to start a war.”
www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Only difference is one building sits on land… and the other sits on $21 billion worth of government paperwork and concrete. 🏗️