kuto(bill)

"I'll be using Bluesky as my main platform from now on.

The rise of populism and the future of economic policy A series of essays that explore the economic and cultural factors that contribute to the rise of populism and policy solutions.

First set of essays are up now.

Misreading Trump and the MAGA movement is extremely risky, so we have to strip away bias when we analyze them.

Both anti‑Trump and pro‑Trump sides are heavily biased. What we need is a genuinely neutral analysis.

Robert Greene distilled his 48 Laws of Power by examining history’s most influential figures. Here’s a concise visual breakdown of his work:

#economy #marketing #seo #digitalmarketing

Many people focus on the results, but few truly focus on the causes.

We must not react to the news in front of us. Let's focus on the essence.

The real cause of America's turmoil is not Trump. Trump is a consequence of what the Democratic Party and traditional Republicans have done. We must not look away from this.

In many ways, the Trump base is a product of what both the traditional Republican and Democratic parties have created.

Both the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers are heavily shaped by the influence of Trump’s supporters. Therefore, we should pay far more attention to these voters and ask why they exist in the first place.

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4.The behavior of Republican lawmakers.

When discussing the Trump presidency, we can:
1.Analyze Trump’s own ideas and actions.
2.Examine the roles of his close advisers.
3.Study the voters who support him.
It’s the third point—the supporters—that remains seriously under‑examined.

If they could win elections while opposing him, many would. But crossing Trump risks being deserted by those voters, so they fall in line.

Some argue that Republican lawmakers can’t rein in Trump because they’ve chosen to follow him. That misses the point. They’re ultimately following the voters who back Trump.

Commentators on the Trump administration focus too much on Trump himself. His presidency endures because of the strength of his supporters, and we ought to pay much closer attention to them.

I get frustrated when people insult those with different views without taking the time to properly examine their claims.

Harvard professor offers a grim assessment of American democracy under Trump Steven Levitsky studies how healthy democracies can slip into authoritarianism. He says the Trump administration has already done grave damage: "We are no longer living in a democratic regime."

Harvard's Steve Levitsky, coauthor of How Democracies Die: "We are no longer living in a democratic regime." Must-listen interview - remarkably clear about the severity of the situation we now face www.npr.org/2025/04/22/n...

It's a convincing argument. Humans can sometimes be more influenced by personal likes and dislikes than by practical considerations. This tendency seems particularly strong among regular Trump supporters.

Rational economic policies that don’t conflict with security, political survival, or lobbying are more likely to be implemented. The problem arises when these primary factors demand irrational economic policies. The Trump administration exemplifies the latter.

Security policies, political survival, and lobbying are primary factors, and economic policies, which are strongly influenced by them, are secondary.

Economists tend to be unfamiliar with politics, while political scientists often lack a deep understanding of economics. They would benefit from doing more joint research.

Many economists discuss the policies of the Trump administration, but few address the deeper reasons why Trump became president in the first place. This too reflects how politically tone-deaf many economists are.

Supply-side economics, which underpinned Reaganomics, and Trump’s tariffs are good examples of this.

Unless they specialize in public choice theory, many economists don’t really understand politics. They tend to assume that economic policies are chosen based on economic rationality. But in reality, it’s common for policies with little economic justification to be adopted for political reasons.

I'm surprised that someone as smart as you is only realizing that now. I thought you'd known it all along.

The end of economics hegemony? studying economic ideas in a post-neoliberal world Since the 1990s, a particular approach to analysing the political influence of economic ideas has emerged in International Political Economy (IPE)—often labelled ‘the ideational turn’. This approac...

Wrote on exactly that question in this article last month

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....