Matt Bodie

The rich must be incentivised; the poor must be disciplined.

The political economy of the super-elite in one headline.

Is Elon Musk a populist? Can populism explain what's going on with his companies? His stock prices? His weird company governance? Well, I dug through my old political theory notes and my new corp law notes (and spent too much time on his feed) to come up with: YES.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I wish @mattyglesias.bsky.social had bothered to read the post. Uber's existence isn't a policy failure; letting tech businesses play on an uneven legal playing field and get a competitive advantage that way instead of thru tech is a policy failure. And it keeps being repeated:

fintechdystopia.com

President Romero highlights one way that undocumented workers benefit citizen workers, rather than the opposite—undocumented workers see contributions to Social Security taken from their paychecks with no hope of getting retirement support back.

The 👏 president 👏 has 👏 neither 👏 statutory 👏 nor 👏 constitutional 👏 authority 👏 to 👏 unilaterally 👏 negotiate 👏 “trade deals”

Exactly—he can’t even be bothered to engage with the actual argument in the post, as opposed to his ridiculous framing.

Also, it's a real coward's move not to link to the post, which proceeds to explain *why* and *in what way* it represents a cautionary tale!

Here's the post, so you can judge:

lpeproject.org/blog/why-we-...

I held out hope for Matt Y longer than most because of his support for codetermination and other economic reforms, but this lazy, engagement-driven dismissal of LPE and blind support for all-things-Uber really points up my earlier error in perception.

It’s a terrific piece — my pleasure to get the word out!

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: 2025 APE Annual Research Conference. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. The 2025 APE Annual Research Conference will be held on Zoom from July 28 to 30 (Monday to Wednesday) from 12:00 to 2:30 pm ET each day.

📣 Starting soon: the second day of the Consortium on the American Political Economy virtual research conference! We'll have a roundtable on plutocracy with @adambonica.bsky.social, Kristin Goss, and @reillysteel.bsky.social and a fantastic set of research papers on business and civil society!

Lifes Rich Pageant was released on this day in 1986. The title was inspired by a line in the 1964 Pink Panther film A Shot in the Dark when Inspector Clouseau, says “It’s all part of life’s rich pageant” after he falls into a fountain. What’s your favorite track from “Pageant”?

Wanted to share my latest jot on two great articles from @veenadubal.bsky.social and @iajunwa.bsky.social on employee data and how we should regulate its use.

High resolution video of Trump’s caddie placing a golf ball for him at his Turnberry Golf Resort in Scotland.

Trump approached to play like it was no big deal.

It’s a terrific piece!

Wanted to share my latest jot on two great articles from @veenadubal.bsky.social and @iajunwa.bsky.social on employee data and how we should regulate its use.

i'm super mad about a lot of things so to distract: anyone want to make a playlist?

share one song that makes you happy these days.

I'll make the playlist on apple music which is not great but spotify is a nightmare and idk where else to go for now. yay!

Set the Stage by The Connells on Apple Music Song · 1990 · Duration 5:47

Or

music.apple.com/us/album/set...

The Best Is yet to Come by Diane Schuur on Apple Music Song · 1992 · Duration 3:41

music.apple.com/us/album/the...

Ah I see — weird that Nino is smiling though!

This puts universities between a rock and a hard place, as they just agreed to limited pay-for-play to avoid “endless, debilitating antitrust” challenges. Maybe the unitary executive can just wave away the Sherman Act.

I don’t think the possibility that this is a radical critique of SCOTUS should be ignored, especially the “🇺🇸 BUY ONE GET ONE FREE”

Anyone else noticing a big uptick in spam calls? Not sure if this an idiosyncratic experience or part of the ongoing destruction of the CFPB.

Reading the text of the Columbia deal right now. president.columbia.edu/sites/defaul... Live bleating it 1/? 🧵

Gen X gonna have some explaining to do when it all comes due

Nvidia CEO Says He Has Plans to Either Change or Eliminate Every Single Person's Job With AI Wall Street was bristling earlier this month as Nvidia, the "chip" monopoly behind the AI boom, hit a record market value of $3.92 trillion, just eclipsing Apple's record of $3.915 trillion set last D...

"In mid-2024, a study of 2,500 workers found that 77 percent reported decreased productivity and even higher workloads when using AI. Just under 40 percent of workers reported increased workloads caused explicitly by AI's sloppy mistakes."

!!!

Once again Trump bans a newspaper from the White House press pool in retaliation for its reporting. The White House has been free to do this ever since 2 DC Circuit judges in June held that Trump can exclude reporters from the pool based on viewpoint. A page from the authoritarian playbook.

I don’t think Gen X has gotten enough appreciation for its heel turn