Pittsburgh New Liberals

a bar chart depicting the size of electrical imports by category and the import tariffs they face.

The problem is that Trump has exempted data center *computers* from tariffs, but has not exempted *the necessary power infrastructure* from tariffs

High tariffs on batteries, solar panels, transformers, & copper wire are turbocharging the electricity price pressures caused by AI

If H‑1Bs “took jobs,” you’d expect lower wages for U.S. grads. The best available studies show the opposite: 1990–2010 H‑1B inflows raised wages of American college grads by 4.2% and non‑college by ~2%, with native employment unchanged.

Think complements, not substitutes.

Fewer international college students means reduced revenue for schools and therefore higher tuition prices and fewer US-born students

"How Do You Avoid Hitting People With Your Car" pocket guide. Instructs readers to Watch the Road and Slow Down. Further text humorously insists that watching the road and slowing down are indeed important.

We worked late tonight coming up with this handy pocket guide to send to NPR.

It doesn't address road design issues, but if we're going to educate road users, we should include drivers.

Tattoo this map of greenhouse emissions on his forehead.

i don't think anyone has ever hated the american economy more than this guy

The Fed’s stuck: tariffs mean weaker growth (cut rates?) and higher inflation (raise rates?).

With this one simple trick you can solve both problems: Scrap the tariffs.

When the facts are available and their meaning obvious, people who want power over you must eventually demand that you ignore what you see, what you know.

"Freedom", wrote Orwell, "is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."

New high of Americans saying immigration is good for the US

Man, four stories really does scare NIMBYs everywhere, huh?

Pittsburgh lawyers and advocates scramble to protect local Guatemalan children amid U.S. deportation push Up to 10 migrant teens in Pittsburgh-area shelters flagged for rapid removal amid U.S. deportation push over weekend. A U.S. judge halted it.

While many were 3-day-weekending, a few were scrambling to prevent the federal gov't from stealthily deporting Guatemalan minors, including some housed in Pittsburgh, @jamiewiggan.bsky.social and @quinnglabicki.bsky.social reported www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-a...

Washington, DC under military occupation in last August 2025, with banners proclaiming the absolute power of the primus inter pares

This is a real photograph of Washington, DC this week, where the United States president has ordered military occupation in peacetime, and ordered the display of colossal portraits of himself.

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

How to achieve the balanced immigration policy Americans want | Brookings With 79% of Americans saying immigration is a good thing for the country, Marcela Escobari and Alex Brockwehl share lessons for balanced policy.

Amidst chaotic immigrant purges in the United States, is there a top expert designing constructive immigration policy for the future?

Yes. @marcelaescobari.bsky.social—second to none in brilliance+influence—draws new & pragmatic lessons from honest, unflinching analysis of the last Administration.

Why is the rent so damn high in LA? Simple economics: the demand for housing is extremely high and our housing supply is extremely low.

1. Everyone but him helped, and deserves thanks.
2. he’ll be dead before the book is out (perhaps by your hand?)

… oh, or 3., he’s not a living human. He’s something else

Two possible implications, one darker than the other.

A careful study of every populist episode since 1900 finds catastrophic consequences, which play out slowly.

On average, incomes fall behind by nearly 15% over 15 years.

For the U.S., this is a cost of about $13k per person per year. Over a lifetime, that's million bucks.

It is bad that we have been slowly dismantling the checks and balances on the President for the last 100 years or so.

It is worse that Trump is violating all the norms that remained as a check on that power.

Trump: “I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator”

Caesar refused the crown three times - and still killed the republic.

Trump: “I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator”

Caesar refused the crown three times - and still killed the republic.

This is bad.

Pentagon plans military deployment in Chicago as Trump eyes crackdown President Donald Trump said Chicago is his next likely target to crack down on urban crime. Military planning has been ongoing for weeks, officials say.

“Freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.”

— Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address as CA Governor, Jan. 5, 1967.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

'A NSFW ban won't negatively affect me, I don't draw or post porn!'

You sure? Here's how it went down when tumblr did it:

It was the job of senate republicans to remove & disqualify this lunatic after January 6 and they chickened out.

It was Garland's job to put him in jail for doing crimes in broad daylight, and he dragged his feet.

It was SCOTUS' job to disqualify him under the 14A, and they hid under their desks.

Banks and investors can put their money a lot of places. They can get a guaranteed ~5% return on treasuries which is a far safer bet than putting money into a multifamily housing project. So to finance projects, developers need to promise high returns to justify the risk.

I’m an award-winning mathematician. Trump just cut my funding. The “Mozart of Math” tried to stay out of politics. Then it came for his research.

I wrote an op-ed on the world-class STEM research ecosystem in the United States, and how this ecosystem is now under attack on multiple fronts by the current administration: newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-an-awar...

"if you bring across a semiconductor inside a computer, it'll get no tariff. But if you pluck it out of the computer, it'll get 300%." That’s not policy; that’s a loophole factory. You’ll get creative packaging, not new fabs.

relatedly this is also part of the reason US buildings are so banal, and why there is so little family friendly housing

www.archpaper.com/2023/03/why-...

a graph of Matt Klein's chart showing diffusion indices for input costs and capex, showing input costs rising and capex falling

One of my favorite tariff charts

Normally high prices are a sign of strong demand & induce manufacturing investment

Tariffs instead give you higher prices & lower investment—the worst of both worlds—because they're a tax on capital goods & supply chains

hey everybody who could've guessed that defunding transit in PA would have negative impacts outside of pittsburgh and philly?!