kyla scanlon

Everything Feels Like It Doesn't Make Sense Immigration, incentives, and the contradiction of Gentle Singularity

I wrote about the burning Waymos and gentle singularity and ragebait and how everything is coalescing into a giant contradiction kyla.substack.com/p/everything...

If anyone cares about the flight update, it got cancelled so I decided that I'd rent a car and just fly out of Nashville but turns out all the rental cars companies were out of cars (Even if you Reserved) so I have rebooked myself to fly out of this airport haha

But one could argue that the systems that profit by drowning us in information and platforms that make money by making everyone confused and angry are even scarier. The panopticon perhaps is less frightening than the slot machine.

Most dystopian narratives focused on authoritarian control like Big Brother watching, governments suppressing information, which we are increasingly experiencing.

Everything Feels Like It Doesn't Make Sense Immigration, incentives, and the contradiction of Gentle Singularity

I wrote about the burning Waymos and gentle singularity and ragebait and how everything is coalescing into a giant contradiction kyla.substack.com/p/everything...

Gamblemerica: How Sports Betting Apps Rewired a Generation's Relationship to Risk In dialogue with Jon Cohen on sports betting, dopamine, and the strange ways we turn human vulnerability into infrastructure

In dialogue with Jon Cohen, the author of Losing Big, about sports betting in the United States of America. We talk about the past, the present, and the future, and how we increasingly are turning psychological vulnerabilities into financial infrastructure. Enjoy!

kyla.substack.com/p/gamblemeri...

From rubbery crypto steaks to disappearing universities in Rust Belt towns, from robots named Ruby that know where they’re going (Mar Vista, to deliver exactly one KitKat) to humans idling in parking lots - we are all living inside a phase transition right now. But what happens next?

The Four Phases of Institutional Collapse in the Age of AI How democracy, expertise, and institutional memory are eroding during technological change - or @grok is this true?

We are living through massive technological change and are actively dismantling the very systems that are supposed to help us adapt.

kyla.substack.com/p/the-four-p...

Economic Lessons from the Screwtape Letters Rejection, Convenience, and the Budget Deficit

Rejection, convenience, and predictability are all core parts of the economy - think college kids trying to get jobs right now, Klarna and DoorDash and the defaulting NACHOs, and the downfall of Cartoon Network. What would CS Lewis think about where we are now? kyla.substack.com/p/economic-l...

Kyla Scanlon Kyla Scanlon

inthiseconomybookshop.com

Sticker drop! All stickers designed by me! Put them everywhere. On your dog. On your friend. On your friend's dog. Enjoy! Proceeds support independent economics education (aka my next big project 🙂). Link in next post!

Compliance is the New American Dream How risk aversion has shaped our schools, our government, and our global standing

The American economy isn’t built to think - it’s built to comply. Risk aversion is reshaping our politics, our education system, and our global standing. We’re raising a generation that’s optimized for survival, not innovation - and it’s costing us everything. kyla.substack.com/p/compliance...

Opinion | Trumponomics Is a Delusion Why an effort to reindustrialize America is likely to fail.

In NYT Opinion discussing (1) the viability of Trumponomics and (2) the increased warring among the MAGA populist, Wall Street conservative and tech futurist factions. We need an industrial revival in the US. But this isn't the way.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/o...

I also talk about what policies would work better according to history and how you can think about your portfolios.

Ray Dalio has said that this is the 'Overall Big Cycle' and that this all had to happen - which maybe, but torpedoing the world into an economic downturn and kneecapping industry probably isn’t the best solution to fix it.

This isn't just Wall Street. Small businesses will get hammered by this. And - it won't bring that many jobs back, because automation is key. What we do bring back will be exorbitantly expensive, and we can't make things like coffee or bananas here.

And the goal of all this is to apparently bring manufacturing back, right? Well, manufacturers are already hurting. Microsoft has already cancelled $1b in data centers in Ohio and Haas Automation is pulling back in CA.

It is certainly threatening the world order, and China is perhaps completely ready to fight both a trade and capital war.

So maybe will Congress step in? (remember, all of this is under the guise of emergency power) or maybe we see state level negotiations with manufacturers? Someone will have to do something.

The bond market is selling off which is exactly the opposite of what we would expect to see during a stock market meltdown (and exactly the opposite of what the administration wants). What can the Fed do - they can't really raise rates because of the inflationary pressure and they can't really do QE

We now have the largest tariff hike in US history (even with the 90 day pause and 10% universal tariffs that just happened + 125% on China).

Bonds, the Stock Market, and China: What's Going On? the largest tariff hike in history is here

What's going on? A brief explainer, link in next post.
kyla.substack.com/p/bonds-stoc...

Tariff Q&A: Welcome to the Actual Inbox a brief comprehensive guide that hopefully answers all your questions

Tariff Q&A: the Actual Inbox!

I’ve gotten many, many questions about a lot of things, which has understandably increased over the last few months. It’s time to do a series of experimental biweekly Q&As to answer some of those questions! Starting with... tariffs!

kyla.substack.com/p/tariff-q-a...

Tariff Q&A: Welcome to the Actual Inbox a brief comprehensive guide that hopefully answers all your questions

Tariff Q&A: the Actual Inbox!

I’ve gotten many, many questions about a lot of things, which has understandably increased over the last few months. It’s time to do a series of experimental biweekly Q&As to answer some of those questions! Starting with... tariffs!

kyla.substack.com/p/tariff-q-a...

The plan is that there isn't one

He is right about that part

Perhaps the question is - does it need to be so stupid? What is the discount rate of stupidity? How many mistakes should be avoided at the expense of lessons learned. Maybe that's the thing.

I personally think the tariffs are really just Reality TV set on the Trump+ channel as well as a bit of a national security thing. Their manufacturing arguments tend to be unmoored from reality

What's quite strange about the reshoring manufacturing argument is that it really does ignore all aspects of human capital. The only way to actually break foreign manufacturing dependencies (if that is indeed the goal) is to do national R&D investment with workforce development!

Watch out World I am coming with my 90% wool / 10% cashmere blend sweater depicting volume traded up until the year 2000