Steve Roth
@steveroth.bsky.social
Entrepreneur, progressive sometime 1%er. (Tax me more.) Addictive reader: trash to tomes. National-accounting & econ geek. Evolution and Shakespeare dweeb. Besotted father. From MO; show me the #s. https://wealtheconomics.substack.com/about
"Americans cash out their productivity with more stuff while Europeans cash out theirs with more time." (I've been pounding my spoon on the highchair about this for years.) peoplespolicyproject.org/2026/08/05/u...
US Is Not Winning Actual Individual Consumption Either
Some basic adjustments take the air out of this alternative measure.
peoplespolicyproject.org
For a sense of magnitude, and proportion: Total U.S. Household Assets, per household: $1.4M. That's $551,000 for each person in America. Think of that the next time you hear, ”We can’t afford it.“
Note to weak-kneed centrist Dems who haven’t noticed what Republicans have done over the last several decades.
Founders were really unavoidably throwing darts when they wrote the Constitution. Pre-1776, there were a few republics w/ representative systems & no monarch—Roman, Dutch, Rangusan (Croatian), & small medieval republics like Venice/Florence—but all were oligarchies not democracies in any real sense.
In efforts towards solidarity and building/energizing a mass political movement to crush the Right, about the last thing I want to do is vilify anti-Right allies — even when they vilify anti-Right allies.
AI firms: no moats? HT and FT gift link: bsky.app/profile/jwma...
JW Mason@jwmason.bsky.social · 5d agoIt is certainly true that the tech sector enjoys increasing returns. But it is *not* true that this is a difference from "traditional production industries" - increasing returns are ubiquitous in manufacturing. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Film you’ve watched more than six times with a gif.
Ivan the K ™@ivanthek.bsky.social · 6d agoFilm you’ve watched more than six times with a gif.
“When the dust settles, old-school progressive tax reform — raising corporate taxes, closing loopholes, making sure CEOs pay higher taxes than their secretaries — will capture more value across the whole economy than policies like selective public ownership.” www.theargumentmag.com/p/bernies-ba...
Bernie’s bad bet on OpenAI
Nationalizing AI labs won’t support the welfare state
theargumentmag.com
The core fault of neoliberalism is rooted in the endless conflict at the heart of classical (and also modern American) liberalism: human rights vs property rights. Neoliberalism champions the latter at the expense of the former.
Criming is now The American Way. www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-resist...
The Resistance Liberal Lawyers Helping Trump Take Over the Media
Executives and big law lawyers in the Nexstar-TEGNA case are openly showing contempt for a judge. And the ABA Antitrust bar is silent on the corruption of the Paramount-Warner merger.
thebignewsletter.com
Ammana vote for Republicans cause this should have said “More Than.“
Social democracy is the operating system for every rich, thriving, prosperous, free country in the world. Mixed economy of markets and government programs. No country has ever joined the rich-country club without big doses of social democracy.
~99.9% of refugees admitted to the United States during the 2026 fiscal year have been White South Africans (Afrikaners). Apartheid is not over — not even close. It’s just being exported (and imported).
Steve Roth@steveroth.bsky.social · 2w ago7% of South Africans are white. They own 72% of privately-owned farmland.
There's a wealth pump and high-pressure firehose enriching the already-rich. They justify it by promising "trickle down." 🙄Just sayin'.
An under-the-radar part of the Paramount/Warner Bros merger is that the merged company would be 49.5% owned by the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar. Somehow this hasn't raised the ire of those who most fear Sharia law. prospect.org/2026/07/21/a...
If this Mediazona analsyis of Russian weekly military deaths is safe, they've been declining since Nov 2024. Currently @ 500-1,000/wk. (Ignore big bars at right; much of the data's not in on those weeks yet so that's statistical noise.) peterturchin.substack.com/p/war-in-ukr...
7% of South Africans are white. They own 72% of privately-owned farmland.
Lisa Song@lisalsong.bsky.social · 2w ago“It’s laughable to suggest that on the African continent, the prime issue of human rights concern is whites in South Africa,” one former agency official told ProPublica. --> This is where the Trump administration wants our tax dollars to go:
I hadn’t seen such an apt characterization of the Freedom Caucus before. In practice, legislatively, they are nihilism embodied. www.the-downballot.com/p/a-freedom-...
Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness
Jeff Lazarus@jlazarus.bsky.social · 3w agoStop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness
In case you haven’t heard, gotcher #UnintendedConsequences & #NegativeExternalities for ya right here. AI is eating the DRAM. A ~40% increase in smartphone and laptop prices? We’re talking two billion new devices a year worldwide. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
‘RAMageddon’: is the era of cheap phones and laptops over?
Bargains are disappearing and the cost of gadgets such as MacBooks and PS5s is rising as AI competes for memory chips
theguardian.com
And you just know that John Roberts will not be even slightly embarrassed to introduce the doctrine of pre-birth-right citizenship.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3w agoTed Cruz is the latest of a string of Republican senators to push an agreeing Blanche to ban the mailing of mifepristone. They're coming for abortion pills next.
👍👍👍 Free Time is Freedom. We can capture our higher productivity (output per hour) by amassing more stuff, or by spending more time with our families and friends, our passions and projects, our god-given moments of life. Econs’ Labor vs “Leisure” trivializes that reality. tinyurl.com/5h4k4x2v
Investment. n. 1. Investment spending: paying ppl to produce new long-lived, real-world stuff. 2. (vernacular) Swapping bank deposits/"cash" for different, yield-producing assets.
My Expert 🙄 advice for Dem campaigns: Focusing your campaign on capturing/converting swingers is arithmetically idiotic. ~40% self-describe as "independent," but true swingers are << 5%. They're v low-turnout. They trend Red, and "converting" them is A Very Big Lift. ⬇️ ...
I admire Edsall, but he makes the core Dem error here. There are few true swing voters, they trend Red, and convincing them otherwise is A Very Big Lift. Pubs have understood for decades: Turn Out the Base. If that message resonates, you'll capture some swingers. Meanwhile move the Overton Window.
A modest proposal from Asha Rangappa. @asharangappa.bsky.social I suggest we call it the Fiduciary branch. asharangappa.substack.com/p/we-need-a-...
We Need a Fourth Branch
Why our most vital institutions should be placed in a constitutional vault - beyond the reach of any President.
asharangappa.substack.com
