There's not quite an engine like American capital markets. It's our competitive advantage.
Rya Jetha @ryajetha
What a lede from @TheEconomist
Notes on Economics
165 notes
Oct 2026
Sep 2026
Agents collapse the cost of time and effort and it's going to lead to some bizarre second-order effects.There is a layer of businesses that can exist because something is too tedious, time-consuming or expensive for a human.Maybe a good example of consumer agents. While I agree with @benthompson that consumers don't want to be more productive, they do want things to be cheaper!
Yano 🟪 @JasonYanowitz
Fascinating.Chief Economist at Apollo: agents could cause a bank run by sweeping household cash into accounts paying 3-5% instead of the 0.1% national average, causing banks to lose a large share of their cheap deposits.
Onward compute.
Patrick Collison @patrickc
Some data we recently assembled on entrepreneurship/compute in Europe: eudata.vercel.app.We hope that one of the useful roles that Stripe can play is in collecting and publishing empirical data pertaining to entrepreneurship and industry in Europe. There's growing appetite to get Europe on a better footing, and cross-sectional comparisons can often shine light on where opportunities lie. If you're interested in this kind of thing, we publish more at stripeeconomics.substack.com.
Aug 2026
Regardless of what you think of Trump or his policies, Trump Accounts are a huge win.Give everyone a stake in the future of American business. It's still the best machine in the world for innovation.
I'm trying to extrapolate this to the real world—what does a scarcity inversion look like? What is the investment thesis?Energy and compute seem like the key resources that will drive everything else. Land, collectables, travel and unique experiences—seem like they'll only become more valuable?
max @maxbittker
Weird economics up on the agent-only runescape server- Low cost of labor makes most commodities abundant- Currency inflation means trading goods for goods, nobody really wants cash- Huge swarm contention as certain resources with limited respawn rate become valuable
Mar 2020
@TStephens914 Appreciate the comment. Not seriously concerned. Still, the FDIC needs to work on their messaging.
Honestly, I wasn't concerned about money sitting in the bank until the FDIC posted this video. Now I'm a little concerned.
FDIC @FDICgov
Forget the mattress! Keeping large sums of cash at home is risky. The best place to protect your money is in an FDIC-insured bank where it’s safe and sound. Learn how the FDIC safeguards your #money at fdic.gov
I am concerned that we're at the beginning of this crisis and the Fed has exhausted its conventional tools. Are we moving to negative interest rates? Direct purchase of equities?
Feb 2020
Jan 2020
Some pretty amazing lines in this essay. “The innovators (lords) capture the majority of the gains, and the 99% (serfs) get an awesome phone, a $4,000 TV, great original scripted television, and Mandalorian action figures delivered within 24 hours.”
Oct 2019
Discovered this newsletter through a Hacker News comment. Excellent commentary on the 737 MAX issues—The Coming Boeing Bailout?
Aug 2019
I'm not sure I agree with UBI as a solution, but I think you're absolutely right about the problems. Look forward to seeing you in more debates.
Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 @AndrewYang
I don’t expect people to agree with me on everything- that would be odd. My main hope is that people trust that I’m trying to solve problems and I’m open to different approaches - particularly if the data drives in a particular direction. Changing one’s mind is not a bad thing.
May 2019
“The purpose of quadratic voting is to determine whether the intense preferences of the minority outweigh the weak preferences of the majority...” bloomberg.com
Jan 2019
An interesting thread about missed career expectations.
Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion
1/Alright, so folks wanted me to expand on this idea, so here we go. Elite disaffection and the return of the American Left.As you may have noticed, we're seeing an upsurge in young Americans who reject capitalism. Why? forbes.com
Nov 2018
To be fair, it's much better for consumers to have Walmart and Amazon battling it out. Without one the other would certainly become a monopoly.
Aug 2018
To say that "the failings of socialism is almost as deep as those capitalism" is incredibly disingenuous. While income I equality has gotten worse under capitalism, socialist policies killed nearly 100 million in the last century. theatlantic.com
Jun 2018
There are a ton of good points in this thread.
Ivan Kirigin @ikirigin
As much as I hate Trump, the socialist left is full of bad ideas.Let me address a few of them:
- expanding medicare
- tuition free college
- huge jobs programsThese are all from Ocasio-Cortez recently, but not new ideas.
Interesting discussion on basic income in r/slatestarcodex this morning reddit.com
Three types of people who will benefit from the changing economy according to Cal Newport:—Those who work well with machines
—Those who are the best at what they do
—Those with access to capital
“Investing is not the study of finance. It’s the study of how people behave with money.”
Apr 2018
Feb 2018
Matt Levine read my mind. I was thinking about this yesterday—Can Kardashians Trade on Tweets? bloomberg.com
“Had we kept 2000-levels of productivity and applied them to 2010-levels of production, we would have required 20.9 million manufacturing workers. Instead, we employed only 12.1 million.”
Jan 2018
51.8% of the US government financial assets are student loans—some interesting commentary on HN
Dec 2017
Too much fiat chasing too few assets—that's at least one explanation for real estate and Bitcoin prices.
Fantastic observation on China's advantage in manufacturing.In the West those who create financial instruments are often the most rewarded. In China is those who create businesses and products.news.ycombinator.com
Oct 2017
I love @matt_levine's running commentary on how index funds are marxist. Another thought-provoking write-up today. bloomberg.com
This article on post-scarcity economic is spectacular. Every paragraph has an astute observation. buff.ly!
Atlanta notched second-highest boom rate among big-city economies—I'm still skeptical about Amazon coming here. buff.ly
Sep 2017
Finance can be a pretty dull subject, but I find @matt_levine's commentary both informative and entertaining. bloomberg.com
Aug 2017
What if jobs are not the solution, but the problem? aeon.co
Love reading @matt_levine's Money Stuff column. There's always a ton of interesting commentary.bloomberg.com
Jul 2017
Incredible long-form from The Guardian—Globalisation: the rise and fall of an idea that swept the world theguardian.com
Apr 2017
How to prevent future business investments in your country—Venezuela officials seize General Motors plant nbcnews.com
Mar 2017
Interesting view on our tax system in the U.S.—politicians benefit from complexity. news.ycombinator.com
Interesting thread about automation and labor v capital on HN
Feb 2017
In a time of great powers and empires, just one region of the world experienced extraordinary economic growth. How?
Dec 2016
What are some of the biggest problems with a guaranteed annual income?
Rent control sounds like a good, but is likely to discourage new development. Exacerbating the supply-side problem.
Nov 2016
McDonald's moving to automation and more self-service. buff.ly
Rents are plunging in the most expensive markets
“The price of cities relative to the price of not being in cities continues to grow.” theverge.com
...all forms of media are collapsing in price, other than textbooks.
What if jobs are not the solution, but the problem? HN Discussion
I've talked a lot about a higher minimum wage accelerating the pace of automation. It just occurred to me—restrictive trade may do the same.
Want More Startups? Build a Better Safety Net bloomberg.com
Oct 2016
The U.S. retreating from trade deals is "A gift for China."
Workers will simply try to survive, rather than prosper, as tech takes over the economy buff.ly
Just a reminder. The U.S. national debt is approaching $20 Trillion dollars.
This is worrisome. Small businesses are the backbone of the US economy— Sputtering Startups Weigh on Economic Growth buff.ly
I'm skeptical of this type of consolidation—AT&T to buy HBO, CNN, and Time Warner for more than $80 billion
“The need for economic growth in order to pay back debt even applies to our money supply itself.”
By the end of the next president's term we will begin to see self-driving trucks. #debate
Would love to hear a question about the national debt. When are we going to hit $20 Trillion?
“...there can be no revival of American manufacturing, because there has been no collapse.” buff.ly
People will make fun of the failing economy line, but full-time employment is at its lowest point since 1983. #VPDebate
While Trump should release his Tax returns, berating him for paying the legal minimum is silly. buff.ly
Should Trump lose this election, we should be concerned about a more capable nationalist running next time.
Sep 2016
Aug 2016
I understand the taxi industry is despearate, but a prive entity should not be taxed for the benefit of another. buff.ly
Jul 2016
Half of the world could be out of a job by 2050.
While I'm not against raising the minimum wage, I wonder if those for raising realize they are accelerating automation?
Interesting HN discussion—What If There Just Aren’t Enough Jobs to Go Around?
“...the internet has magnified the inequality of the distribution of outcomes.”
Where machines could replace humans--and where they can’t (yet) buff.ly
Jun 2016
Higher tax rates to fuel a misguided attempt to recreate the 50s would be a disaster for the middle class.
May 2016
It's cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee, making $15 an hour bagging French fries.
What to do with billions of useless humans?
Mar 2016
I always thought the agency business model was tough. These new overtime rules will make it a lot tougher. buff.ly
The government spends $15 Billion per year fighting this senseless drug war. How about we use that money towards pa…
It seems like a good idea to let individuals sell power to the grid and compete with energy companies?
Feb 2016
Jan 2016
I am very excited that YC is putting out a request for someone to research Basic Income in the U.S.
How Real is the Urban Jobs Comeback?
Taxing idle money vs taxing active money is an interesting idea. It won't reduce inequality. It might ensure money is better utilized.
Dec 2015
The economics and politics of Thomas the Tank Engine — Bull Market — Medium buff.ly
“The suburban office market is confronting obsolescence on a massive scale.” usa.streetsblog.org
China's steel production drops for first time in 20 years.
Without growth, life becomes a zero-sum game—Mad Max Economics
Aug 2015
Finland considers basic income to reform welfare system
May 2015
Fascinating—America's trailer parks: the residents may be poor but the owners are getting rich
It certainly feels like Atlanta is a rocketship—Atlanta could add up to 100,000 jobs this year buff.ly
Once a sure bet, taxi medallions becoming unsellable usatoday.com
Manufacturing is coming back to the US, but manufacturing jobs are not. See for yourself.
Apr 2015
What Strippers Can Teach Uber—Props to whoever designed that graphic. buff.ly
I am generally in support of a UBI or a negative income tax, but there are some great counter points in this thread.
Mar 2015
Student loan debt increasing at $3,000 per second.
The economics of all-you-can-eat buffets buff.ly
It's both spectacular and frightening how many jobs autonomous transportation would eliminate.
Investigative journalism combined with stock shorting—How a 25-Year-Old Investor Spurred Lumber Liquidators’ Plunge
Feb 2015
Interesting thoughts on how America's geography provides an economic advantage.
"It appears that the software revolution will do what technology usually does—create wealth but destroy jobs."
The most common job in almost every state? Truck drivers.
Dec 2014
Oct 2014
We've reached post capitalism—Foxconn workers go on strike, ask for longer hours, removal of robots.
Sure unemployment rates are falling, but I'm skeptical. How many want jobs, but have stopped looking?
Sep 2014
The bottom quarter of earners with a college degree don't make more money than the average high school graduate.
60,000 Americans dropped out of the work force last month. Productivity is up.
Aug 2014
—As in more value would be gained by having a robot do a humans labor.
What happens when it no longer becomes economically viable to create new jobs?
The need for physical labor in the economy is gone and the need for mental labor is on its way out.
Technology kills jobs, but create value. Productivity and labor have decoupled.
May 2014
You can buy a nice apartment in Atlanta for the same price as renting one in SF for four years.
Are you paid to look busy?
Apr 2014
One of the better peices I've read in TechCrunch lately. An in depth look at the SF housing crisis.
It's ironic that in the pursuit of cheap robotic labor, capitalism will suffocate itself and pave the way for socialism.
Deregulation did not create the "Job" problem, technology and globalization did.
Mar 2014
My relevant essay. solomon.io Remember, your parents love you, but they're wrong.
Interested to see how the SF housing crisis plays out—The Housing Market With Nowhere to Go by @nickbilton
Feb 2014
Few people produce more food than we need. Soon will be true for mfg—We Are Not Programmed for Abundance
There's no economic law that says everyone will benefit from tech, even if it makes the overall pie bigger.
I'm all for spending on infrastructure. Remember 3/4 of bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolite. buff.ly
There is no natural, physical, economic or legal law which states that economic growth creates more jobs.
This may be my new favorite blog—The Jobs Are Never Coming Back
Jan 2014
Technology and wealth inequality—@sama has been on fire with his latest posts.
While most cities offer shelter without jobs, San Francisco offers jobs without shelter
This graph of student loan debt v median income /w a bachelors degree shows exactly what is wrong with higher ed.
Dec 2013
Basic income will be a pragmatic necessity to avoid mass poverty following mass automation.
If everything increased in price at the same rate as college tuition, there would be national riots. -Mike Rowe
Is bringing manufacturing back to the US going to change anything? Would people want those jobs?
The Libertarian Case for a Basic Income libertarianism.org
More than 40% of the U.S. workforce is immediately replaceable by automated software.
Oct 2013
Interesting conversation about guaranteed basic income on Hacker News this morning.
Aug 2013
Giant Robotic Mining Trucks Love the Australian Desert — Awesome, but terrible news for truck drivers. buff.ly
Afternoon long-form—The Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs and Why John Maynard Keynes' utopia never emerged.
Except there is a trillion dollars in student debt with a good portion of that backed by the government.
Before 2007 nobody believed the value of their house would ever fall. The same thing is happening to college today.
Jul 2013
People that have never worked in food service don't understand much tips mean — Millennial Fired For Tweet
It drives me nuts every time I read an article about "solutions" to the employment problem and entrepreneurship isn't on the list.
Jun 2013
Awesome discussion about a Basic Income Guarantee on /r/Futurology. reddit.com
Adding more college graduates does not stimulate economic growth - Dim Job Prospects for Chinese Grads buff.ly
The euro zone is now essentially an economic prison, with Germany as the jailer and the common currency as the bars. buff.ly
The $2.7 trillion medical bill, or how colonoscopies explain why U.S. leads the world in health expenditures. buff.ly
May 2013
It's outrageous for the government to call out corporations for legally avoiding taxes—it's called smart accounting.
25 percent of TaskRabbit's have a masters's or PhD degree.
More support that the last occupations will be artists and entrepreneurs — How free information will enslave us all.
Why I Let My Students Cheat On Their Game Theory Exam buff.ly
Only 0.45% students owe more than $200,000 in loans, but with 11.3 million students that means there are 50,000 students in serious trouble.
"Kodak employed 140,000 people. Instagram, 13. A digital visionary says the Web kills jobs, wealth -- even democracy"
Mar 2013
Jan 2013
Notes on the Center for College Affordability's new report - Why College Graduates are Underemployed signaltower.co
Pricing power of colleges reaches inflection point as demand for four-year colleges soften. on.wsj.com
Jun 2012
The internet will eventually break business models based around artificial scarcity. See Newspapers, Cable, Movies.
Rifkin's chapter on distributed capitalism in #TIR is phenomenal - although I do disagree with some of his political opinions.
In 1891 US revenue totaled $385m, while Pennsylvania Railroads revenue totaled $185m.
Apr 2012
Mar 2012
The next bubble? Higher Education. Student-Loan Debt Reaches Record $1 trillion. bloom.bg
Are jobs obsolete? When all other jobs are gone there will be only the entrepreneur. edition.cnn.com #cnn
Jan 2012
"Tectonic Shifts" in Employment - “Tectonic Shifts” in Employment gravity7: tmblr.co
Nov 2011
Oct 2011
Freakonomics: Cost of College on the Rise (Again) - In-state tuition at public 4-year colleges up 8.3% from...
Manufacturing Jobs are not coming back. We should focus our strengths on design and innovation. fastcodesign.com
Interesting slideshow about #innovation after financial collapse. Love the prosperity, recession and golden ages slide. slideshare.net
Sep 2011
Obama's jobs bill would do better to include public-private #infrastructure improvements. washingtonpost.com #roads #highways
Great article by Peter Thiel about measuring the rate of innovation in the @NRO this week. #SwiftBlindHorseman
@DaleJStephens @MichaelEllsberg How does changing the paradigm in education relate to the economy?
#askeconomist Is it possible that the failing job market marks the beginning of the #EntrepreneurialEnlightenment? @maxmarmer
Photo: Countries and US Cities GDP comparison. tumblr.com
Jul 2011
Jan 2011
Photo: Infographic of our nation by the numbers 2007 vs. 2010. Complements of The Atlantic. tumblr.com
Oct 2010
Worlds richest mans thoughts on philanthropy. Does creating jobs help more than giving? on.wsj.com