kyla scanlon
@kyla.bsky.social
wrote a book called "in this economy?" | chair of the federal reserve | writing and youtube @ http://kyla.substack.com
THE CRISIS BEHIND THE HOUSING CRISIS In today's NYT piece, I wrote about how the housing fight is both about housing *and* retirement. We made the house do two jobs at once, and it's pitting the old against the young. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/o...
Opinion | The Housing Crisis Is Also a Retirement Crisis (Gift Article)
A home has stopped being just a place to live — it has also become an asset.
nytimes.com
Is AI Going to Destroy Us or Not? New essay compiling some of the great research around AI and the labor market, the whole token-maxxing thing, who gets to be wealthy in the age of AI, what a job means in a time of enormous change, and what to do about all of it. Enjoy!
Is AI Going to Destroy our Lives or Not?
dimensionality, freeze-dried food, the SpaceX IPO, and what to do about all of it
kyla.substack.com
Why is the stock market shrugging off... everything? Well, maybe it's betting that AI will save it and that the government won't let AI fail. Call it the AI put. My new piece in NYT Opinion on the market's reliance on getting rescued: www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/o...
Opinion | Why the Stock Market Makes No Sense Right Now
nytimes.com
We've built an entire economy around selling people the feeling of control through bets, hacks, subscriptions, and optimization. But the model only works if people stay desperate. New essay on control and agency, financial nihilism, belief markets, the manosphere, and spectacle during war.
Some exciting public events over the next few weeks!! Come hang out if you can! 🙂 March 29th, Los Angeles: with Kai Ryssdal and David Brancaccio at the Aratani Theater April 19th, Boulder CO: with Planet Money at Boulder Theater April 20th, Albuequerque, New Mexico: with Planet Money Links ⬇️
New NYT Opinion from me: America’s debt math only works if the rest of the world believes in the US… but they’re starting not to. What does that mean for our future (and for all this debt)? www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/o...
Opinion | Trump’s Way of Doing Business With the World May Cost All of Us
nytimes.com
Betting on Jesus returning by 2027 and the Backstreet Boys singing about crypto are kind of the same thing. Speculation and nostalgia are both exit strategies from the present, and neither provides answers. New piece on what happens when the economy grows without… people.
HOW BETTING BECAME POLITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE In today's New York Times piece, I wrote about how prediction markets validate political events before Congress can respond, and how those market outcomes can end up deciding what's legitimate.
Audio version open.spotify.com/episode/2mGf...
The Great Entertainment
open.spotify.com
kyla scanlon@kyla.bsky.social · 7mo agoNew piece attempting to synthesize the past few weeks: media logic, market structure, geopolitical trust, and lessons from history. The bond market, the Fed, Japan, AI hype vs. energy reality, and what happens when the infrastructure that made the show possible starts changing channels.
New piece attempting to synthesize the past few weeks: media logic, market structure, geopolitical trust, and lessons from history. The bond market, the Fed, Japan, AI hype vs. energy reality, and what happens when the infrastructure that made the show possible starts changing channels.
The Great Entertainment
Can you govern the world like a reality TV show?
kyla.substack.com
NEW INTERVIEW I sat down with San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly and Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin to talk about what really matters in 2026. Are we headed for the 1970s or the 1990s? Why does the economy keep not breaking? And why should we count cranes?
WHY YOUNG PEOPLE ARE BETTING ON EVERYTHING In today’s Wall Street Journal, I wrote about how an economy with fewer stable paths is pushing young people toward low probability, high payoff bets in search of upside - even though this is not what people actually want.
In today's newsletter, I wrote about why everyone is gambling and why no one is happy
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...
Everything Feels Like It Doesn't Make Sense
Immigration, incentives, and the contradiction of Gentle Singularity
kyla.substack.com
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...
Everything Feels Like It Doesn't Make Sense
Immigration, incentives, and the contradiction of Gentle Singularity
kyla.substack.com
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...
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
kyla.substack.com
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...
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?
kyla.substack.com
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...
Economic Lessons from the Screwtape Letters
Rejection, Convenience, and the Budget Deficit
kyla.substack.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!
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...
Compliance is the New American Dream
How risk aversion has shaped our schools, our government, and our global standing
kyla.substack.com
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...
Opinion | Trumponomics Is a Delusion
Why an effort to reindustrialize America is likely to fail.
nytimes.com
What's going on? A brief explainer, link in next post. kyla.substack.com/p/bonds-stoc...
Bonds, the Stock Market, and China: What's Going On?
the largest tariff hike in history is here
kyla.substack.com
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
kyla.substack.com
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
kyla.substack.com
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.
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
