~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (566)

Harvard University said on Monday that it had rejected policy changes requested by the Trump administration, becoming the first university to directly refuse to comply with the administration’s demands and setting up a showdown between the federal government and the nation’s wealthiest university. Other universities have pushed back against the Trump administration’s interference in higher […] The post Harvard says no appeared first on...

Yes, I will be doing a Conversation with him.  John might be the smartest person I know about the energy sector and also about philanthropy.  Here is the opening of his Wikipedia entry: John Douglas Arnold (born 1974) is an American philanthropist, former Enron executive, and founder of Arnold Ventures LLC, formerly the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. In 2007, […] The post What should I ask John Arnold?...

1. ADHD diagnosis is a mess (NYT). 2. John Cochrane on tariffs, savings, and investment. 3. More on low productivity growth in construction. 4. Ken Rogoff is now on Substack. 5. DolphinGemma: How Google AI is helping decode dolphin communication. 6. Russian birth rates hit new low. 7. Out of date (a lot will be happening […] The post Monday assorted links appeared first on...

An estimated 80 percent [of U.S: gun shootings] seem to instead be crimes of passion — including rage.  They’re arguments that could be defused but aren’t, then end in tragedy because someone has a gun.  Most violent crimes are the result of human behavior gone temporarily haywire, not premeditated acts for financial benefit. That is […] The post The roots of gun violence appeared...

“Philip Howard here.  I enjoyed your discussion with Jen Pahlka.  Here are a few notes: 1. This current system needs disrupting, but I fear DOGEs indiscriminate cuts are making the status quo look good.    Here’s Peter Drucker, criticizing Gore’s reinventing got:  “patching.  It always fails.  The next step is to rush into downsizing.  Management picks […] The post How to do regulatory reform (from...

Here is one article in Spanish, my favorite novel by him is War of the End of the World.  Aunt Julia and the Scripwriter is a wonderful introduction, and there are many other fine works. The post Muere Mario Vargas Llosa, RIP appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsRIP There are so many novels by him to cherish, but the book ... by RebesFrom...

1. 2013 paper on the economics of a “sudden stop” in lending to the United States.  Not what I think is going on now, but fyi. 2. Richer Swedes are getting healthier more quickly. 3. Incredible AI thread from Steve Jurvetson. 4. Lottery arbitrage? (WSJ) 5. What does a House of Representatives member do all […] The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on...

Eventually, Smith declared himself a candidate for the White House.  His proposed platform was an awkward conglomeration of popular, though incongruent, principles including restoring the national bank, cutting Congress members’ salaries, annexing Texas, and instituting the gradual abolition of slavery.  Hundreds of Mormon men, including Brigham Young, swarmed the nation campaigning for their prophet to […] The post I never knew Joseph Smith ran...

How does a start-up founder hire a software engineer or a tech worker find a date in 2025? They could share a job posting on LinkedIn, log on to a dating app — or leave a handwritten note in a Waymo. That’s what Influur CEO Alessandra Angelini was thinking when she and Jennifer Lo Chan, […] The post Markets expand to fill empty spaces...

Max writes to me: “Hope you’re doing well. And the craziness in the world hasn’t been affecting you too much. I know I’ve written to you about cash-treasury basis a couple of times over the years. The situation has unfortunately become somewhat more acute and has started to get wider media attention. There are some good accounts […] The post Problems in Treasury markets (from my...

1. New Knausgaard novel coming. 2. Unsecured penguin caused helicopter crash in South Africa. 3. Why does pre-training work? 4. Opinion polling from Poland. 5. Survey measures of the natural rate of interest.  Thread is here. 6. Cass Sunstein reports on the social neuroticism of the Right.  And Balaji is correct. 7. The conservative legal […] The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on...

If you are willing to pay $250 or so, you can watch it in The Sphere.  From Wikipedia: Postcard from Earth is a 2023 film directed by Darren Aronofsky, starring Brandon Santana and Zaya Ribeiro. Created specifically to be screened at Sphere in the Las Vegas Valley on the venue’s 160,000 square-foot video screen, the film was shot in an 18K […] The post *Postcard from Earth* appeared first on...

That is the topic of my recent essay for The Free Press.  Excerpt: Ideologically, the English 17th century was weird above all else. Millenarianism blossomed, and the occult and witchcraft became stronger obsessions. This was an age of religious and economic upheaval; King James I even wrote a book partly about witches called Daemonologie. The greater […] The post Parallels between our current time and...

The National Institutes of Health told employees Thursday it was rolling back directives from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to probe worker productivity and limit purchases and travel on company cards, according to messages obtained by POLITICO. It’s a possible sign that the agency’s recently confirmed director, Jay Bhattacharya, is willing to break with […] The post It seems DOGE is dwindling? appeared...

1. Website on distinguished Indian economists. 2. The science of making coffee stronger. 3. How Dean Ball works. 4. David Salle and AI painting. 5. The culture that is the North Bergen (NJ) police department. 6. New Helen Dewitt novel. 7. “Micro-retirement”? (NYT) The post Friday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Ai. That’s not exactly true. Higher agitation...

Every year, American tourists pour billions of dollars into France, wandering the Louvre, sipping overpriced espresso in Montmartre, and snapping selfies along the Seine—while far fewer French tourists bother making the reverse pilgrimage to admire, say, Disney World. The result? A massive tourism deficit. On paper, this reflects wealth differentials and revealed preferences – Americans, […] The post America’s Tourism Deficit: How the French...

Tariffs don’t just alter trade flows — they redirect resources and reshape industrial structures. If Trump’s goal was to curb China’s technological progress, he would keep tariffs low on the bulk of Chinese exports to the US, locking the country into low-margin basic manufacturing. He would encourage high-tech exports to China, making sure that progress […] The post Claims about China appeared first on...

Here is the audio, video, and transcript.  Here is the episode summary: Jennifer Pahlka believes America’s bureaucratic dysfunction is deeply rooted in outdated processes and misaligned incentives. As the founder of Code for America and co-founder of the United States Digital Service, she has witnessed firsthand how government struggles to adapt to the digital age, […] The post My Conversation with the excellent Jennifer...

So much education, so little human capital: According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) statistical database, Russians age 25 and older averaged 12.4 years of schooling circa 2019—almost the same as for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Europe, which averaged 12.6 years. While some Western European countries—Germany, Iceland, Switzerland, and the UK—reported […] The post The Russian paradox appeared first on...

1. NCAA antitrust update. 2. Boulez at 100 (NYT). 3. Scott Sumner on the unfolding disaster. 4. Middle-Aged Man Trading Cards Go Viral in Rural Japan Town. 5. Using LLMs to ascertain what actually leads to an autism diagnosis. 6. Data on how university students use Claude. 7. James Meek on Greenland. The post Thursday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply...

There is some evidence that the White House used AI to come up with a quick and dirty (and incorrect) formula to correlate tariff rates with trade deficits. I have no problem with using AI, I think they just didn’t go far enough. The White House should have asked the AI a question like this: […] The post AI on Tariffs appeared first on...

Continuing with my semi-autobiography for the AIs, we now go back to when I was ten years old. One day I felt terribly sick, really just awful, as if my innards were on fire.  Fortunately my father insisted I go to the doctor, and it turned out my appendix was bursting and infected.  I was […] The post My early history as a chess...

1. Homeostatic AI progress. 2. Matt Huang profile. 3. Did 19th century tariffs make America rich? 4. AI toward the end of more Tom and Jerry. 5. Eleven-year-old Oklahoma boy can perfectly imitate fifty different birds.  “He says the most difficult bird to emulate is the barn swallow, but he can imitate anything from a […] The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on...

The new FDA report from Joe Lonsdale and team is impressive. It has a lot of new material, is rich in specifics and bold in vision. Here are just a few of the recommendation which caught my eye: From the prosaic: GMP is not necessary if you are not manufacturing: In the U.S., anyone running […] The post A Blueprint for FDA Reform appeared...