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pdorman.bsky.social
I'm a political economist and writer on economics, politics, climate change, statistics, and lots more. I've written four books, stacks of articles and reports, blogs and am working on book #5. Watch out for really bad puns.
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Posts 28 Comments 22

It looks like she thought this is a normal situation, where you can say one thing to one group (Trump admin) and something else to another (faculty senate). Usually you can, but not now. Slow learner on authoritarianism. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/u...

submitted 11 hours ago • 0 comments

Dean's last paragraph is key. With Watergate the crisis was less the break-in than the coverup. With the Signal episode the even greater crisis is the lack of any need to cover up due to the lack of any consequences for brazen dishonesty. cepr.net/publications...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Well, it's about time. All these ugly tattoos everywhere. Lock 'em up, I say. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Some of its themes read differently in 2025 in the context of the Musk/Trump crusades against government and academic institutions. A Reader’s Guide to Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto open.substack.com/pub/peterdor...

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

But if the judge would like advance info on tomorrow's military plans, I'm sure that can be arranged. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/u...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Tech sector stocks make up about 30% of the S&P 500 by value because their capitalization has increased so much. This means that, unless they deliberately avoid it, wealthy people have a big stake in tech's future growth and profitability.

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

A new Substack on the mind-boggling weirdness of the wrecking crew dismantling democracy. It's all Neal Stephenson's fault, except, of course, it isn't. From Snow Crash to DOGE open.substack.com/pub/peterdor...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

This piece deserves to be read widely. Trump's anti-antisemitism crusade is not just the result of a mistaken view of antisemitism; it's a cynical fig-leaf. No one should fall for it. Trump’s antisemitism chief shares ‘Jew card’ post from white supremacist forward.com/fast-forward...

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

A lot of the hysteria among the pro-Israel crowd is really the inability to handle cognitive dissonance. It hurts too much for them to hear an argument (much less evidence) that contradicts them. ‘No Other Land’ Won an Oscar. Many People Hope You Don’t See It. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/o...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Re Schumer’s screed in the NY Times: If you think the choice is between defending university research and freedom of speech on the one hand, or fighting antisemitism on the other, and if you get people to believe you, you’re going to manufacture a *lot* of antisemitism.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

#2 in a series on an idiosyncratic approach to the building blocks of economics. I'll get back to the ongoing disaster later.... Economics: Choosing and Doing open.substack.com/pub/peterdor...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Here's our border collie mix, Oscar, with a friend's dog, Buddy, at the confluence of the Columbia and Sandy rivers the other day. Don't let a sudden surprise get in the way of fun.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

This is worth reading in full, just to see how uninterested Musk is in factuality and simply *appearing* to be honest. It's not even misinformation because it doesn't try hard enough to pretend. I think it's best understood as a sort of theater. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/u...

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

Another point about the Dem's cave: when you fail to stand up for what you believe -- whatever the reason -- you not only give up this fight, you're sabotaging the next one. That was a problem with the way the Dem's ran their 2024 campaign, and clearly nothing has been learned.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Schumer's decision to not use a government shutdown as leverage against Trump and Musk comes down, I think, to a lack of confidence that Democrats have the political skills to explain their position to the American people. I can see why they would think that.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Come on down to the White House Tesla Auto Mall!

submitted 17 days ago • 842 comments

Here is another example of a Purpose Trust assuming ownership of a business. I'm in the midst of writing a book on how a PT-ish model can be the basis for social ownership on an economy-wide scale. Maintaining a Legacy www.eowd.org/p/maintainin...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Forget about Musk and Trump for a few minutes and bury yourself in something theoretical. This is the first of several posts on rethinking the basics of economics. What Is Economics? open.substack.com/pub/peterdor...

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

What is particularly infuriating about the apparent Senate D cave is that there is a perfectly clear message lying right on the table: Trump and Musk are shutting down the government *right now*. The only resolution we'll vote for is one that opens it up again.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

The title says about 90% of it, but read on if you want. Government-by-AI Is Coming and it Will Be Bad open.substack.com/pub/peterdor...

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

This is a major post assessing the cost to climate policy of the Trump and Musk rollbacks. It's at an early stage, but I doubt the overall conclusion will change much: the good news is that we're only a little worse off. Climate Change and the Trump Effect open.substack.com/pub/peterdor...

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

More efforts to promote crypto. HUD is quantitatively very significant; this is potentially as important a story as the crypto reserve. The libertarian obsession with escaping from "government money" is slouching toward policy. www.propublica.org/article/hud-...

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Trump really is stupid. The NY Times article on the cabinet meeting where Musk got an earful has some beaut's. Let's start with

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

I often hear that Trump isn’t as dumb as he looks: don’t underestimate him, look at all the power he has amassed. Well, Trump is a bully, and being a bully is a career path for stupid people—it’s sort of the point. When he says all that stupid stuff, it’s really him.

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

We've been told that repression of pro-Palestinian students and faculty fall short of McCarthyism. *This* is McCarthyism. Columbia University’s Secret Disciplinary Process for Students Critical of Israel www.dropsitenews.com/p/columbia-u...

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

This interview is surreal. Imagine: We are 6-12 months from having our world turned upside down by AI, and Musk/Vance are the legit spokesmen for the pro-AI forces. But it's all vague generalities and no acknowledgement of the vast limitations of AI. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/o...

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

On Joe Rogan acc to the NY Times: “Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” Musk declared. The scariest thing is not that he doesn't understand Social Security, but that a guy with twelve-figure wealth doesn't know what a Ponzi scheme is.

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

This is in reaction to miniscule tax increases, some antitrust enforcement and a bit of rhetoric. How far would they go if there were a real movement to democratize wealth? What Big-Business Leaders, Including Democrats, Say Privately About Trump www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/o...

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments