stevenjens.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Among the strongman influences on Trump, don't underestimate Argentina's Perón. Crowd-pleasing yet grossly fiscally irresponsible gestures are just his kind of thing.

submitted 8 days ago • 5 comments

Contrary to the White House, "it's not a 'lie,' 'irresponsible,' or 'dishonest'" when people call the Gulf of Mexico that, any more than when we use the name "Turkey" in defiance of the Turkish govt's wishes. Prof. Volokh does have his doubts though (second post) as to whether AP has a 1A claim.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

Instead of Napoleon, Trump should cite Óscar Benavides: "For my friends, anything. For my enemies, the law."

submitted 13 days ago • 34 comments

New productivity growth numbers consistent with the view that we remain almost exactly on the course that was expected prior to COVID. No evidence of an AI inflection in these data--at least not yet.

submitted 22 days ago • 2 comments

Oh, the freak out was justified. We’re still destroying American influence and goodwill one confrontation at a time.

submitted 25 days ago • 17 comments

The limited use of an ever-present tariff threat, via @scottlincicome.bsky.social to Politico: bit.ly/3E9NDy1

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

I will (mostly) trust the courts to work out what the law is, but it ought to be strict liability. If someone's property is destroyed through appropriate police action, let alone negligence -- if that's just part of the cost of policing -- that cost should be borne by the taxpayer.

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

Don't give up - do something. A great list for civic minded Americans, from @protectdemocracy.org open.substack.com/pub/protectd...

submitted 35 days ago • 61 comments

This bout of freezing weather we’re having is probably not because of a polar vortex destabilized by climate change. Good reminder that while the earth is warmer than ever and that’s Very Bad, weather sometimes just happens

submitted 37 days ago • 3 comments

Dumbing down educational standards was one of the first steps in Mao’s Cultural Revolution

submitted 42 days ago • 3 comments

Yeah, I was sorta thinking of it in reverse terms, like when Trump is going to issue a statement saying that the Fourteenth Amendment doesn't include birthright citizenship.

submitted 42 days ago • 3 comments

Using lawsuits not because you're seeking to win a lawsuit, but as a vehicle for legal bribery that both parties are amenable to is a true innovation. www.wsj.com/business/med...

submitted 42 days ago • 19 comments

Constitution 101: no, you can't sue members of Congress for voting for arms for Israel. [Steven Lubet]

submitted 45 days ago • 0 comments

In case you missed this last month.

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

oh wow The Library of Congress has a trove of images “free to use and re-use” that are in the public domain - and they’re fantastic

submitted 48 days ago • 88 comments

Under New York’s misnamed superfund law, businesses that acted perfectly lawfully twenty-four years ago can be tagged with massive liabilities payable to the state, which will then distribute the booty in ways skewed toward political allies. How New York is that? [John Ketcham]

submitted 52 days ago • 0 comments

2025 is the sum of the first 9 cubed numbers (1, 8, 27, 64, 125, . . . 512, 729). It’s also the square of the sum of the first nine integers. All of which is curious but meaningless.

submitted 58 days ago • 46 comments

Interesting paper just came out in the Journal of Finance: "Working More to Pay the Mortgage: Household Debt, Interest Rates, and Family Labor Supply" by Michael Zator papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

submitted 68 days ago • 1 comment

John Ketcham at City Journal looks at how electoral reform fared last month, with some glimpses of how a relatively conservative observer can find appeal in Final Four or Final Five primary reform as a way to challenge interest groups' grip on NYC politics #RCV www.city-journal.org/article/rank...

submitted 72 days ago • 0 comments

This is not to defend Anthem in any way, but that viral article about anesthesiologists is published by their cartel. There's a reason it's one of the highest paid specialties, and why a very common surprise medical bill is for an out of network anesthesiologist on an in-network surgery

submitted 86 days ago • 24 comments

Tweeting about politics undermines scientists’ credibility in the eyes of the public — gotta leave the takes to trained professionals. warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/econ...

submitted 84 days ago • 26 comments

NYT "DealBook" today calls the Obama-era “Operation Choke Point” an "initiative to cut off financial services for companies accused of defrauding consumers" & attributes to "Republicans" the idea that that the program went after "legal businesses that were out of political favor." That's not so. /1

submitted 88 days ago • 1 comment

How bad a setback did election reformers suffer at the polls this month? In a new @cato.org post, I argue that while voters were in a go-slow mood on primary reform, ranked choice voting actually made some practical advances #RCV www.cato.org/blog/setback...

submitted 100 days ago • 4 comments

For decades auto clubs formed the basis of a thriving system for the provision of group legal services to ordinary Americans. Then, in the 1930s, competition-averse bar associations drove them from the field, wielding unauthorized practice of law charges. A history recovered

submitted 335 days ago • 0 comments

It was clear from context that his "bloodbath" comment was referring to the US auto industry dying without his tariffs. Usually, intellectual honesty demands opposing Trump, but on this controversy, it requires defending him. Also, his tariffs are stupid.

submitted 348 days ago • 0 comments

Reposting because it surprises me.

submitted 369 days ago • 0 comments

"The world, should Russia win, will face remarkable new dangers—and for what? Because in 2024 some astonishingly venal and ambitious politicians wanted to hedge their bets and kiss Trump’s ring one more time?" www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

submitted 386 days ago • 8 comments