LT #22 - Top Links - Nov 2024
2024 election, anti-trust (Google, Section 230, PBMs, and landlord cartels), Bangladesh revolution, space, Elon Musk, the tech right, Biden's legacy, J.D. Vance, Europe's woes, China tariffs and more
Fascinating
Cremieux Recuiel: The Vast Emptiness of Social Psychology - Everything you’ve heard from the social sciences - the marsh mellow test, Milgram’s obedience experiment, the Stanford prison experiment, the Robber’s Cave experiment, and the Asch conformity study - may not be as definitive as we thought.
Tomas Pueyo published two giant updates covering a wide range of topics.
GeoHistory News | Q3 2024 - How valid is the longshoremen national strike? Conflict between Mexico and Spain, and so much more
Most Interesting News & Game Theory of Sex | Q3 2024 - The decline of of woke? the decline of wage growth due to gender equality? the loneliness epidemic, and so much more
Space: The Financial Frontier - SpaceX has changed the cost structure of moving to space - vindicating NASA’s strategy of shifting rockets and space shipping to the private sector. This has now opened a new frontier, with new questions for the international order.
Election Season
With pivotal US elections taking place next week, some food for thought:
27 takes on the 2024 election - Yglesias asking why, since covid, incumbents seem to be struggling everywhere… and more.
Don’t rock the vote - greater turnout now favors the GOP because the marginal voter is less engaged, less educated, and therefore, leans Republican
Understanding the new tech right - the 7 factors pushing tech to the right: “taxes and regulation, antitrust, crypto, negative polarization and the techlash, DEI and leftist activism, the bitter aftertaste of the cancel culture era and ethnic issues”
Biden’s legacy - Smith on “Why the best President of my lifetime might get misremembered as a bumbling caretaker.”
Harris has the right idea on housing - increase supply with deregulation, construction incentives for both cities and private companies, and government housing construction; help first-time home-buyers with credits
The Musk problem - Benedict Evans
“As I’ve said a few times before, you can both recognise Musk’s enormous accomplishments and also recognise that he says and does a lot of things that go from obnoxious to racist and dishonest. Perhaps we should recall that Henry Ford was both a visionary entrepreneur who changed the world, and a crank who published his own newspaper to promote anti-semitism.”
Anti-Trust is Having a Moment
The election could be decisive for the future of anti-trust policy, except, it’s not really clear how it would be on both sides.
What would Kamala Harris do about corporate power?… it’s unclear
Can J.D. Vance’s populist crusade succeed?… it’s unclear
All that does seem clear is that anti-trust is back, in some form, and getting bolder across all three branches of government…. as reported by Matt Stoeller in BIG:
Judge rules Google is a monopolist - how Google prevented competitors to search from emerging… including paying off Apple.
Judges rule big tech’s free ride on Section 230 is over - in TikTok case, judge rules that algorithms are a form of curation and a business’ product, and thus not the free speech of users - and so platforms are legally liable for what their algorithms recommend
Anti-trust enforcers “the rent is too damn high” - how RealPage orchestrated landlords cartel to illegally raise rents - a driving factor behind the explosion in rental and housing inflation.
Inside the mafia of pharma pricing - how PBMs are colluding and using their market power to drive healthcare cost inflation
Europe and Tariffs
Apricitas Economics: The EU joins the EV trade war
Europe’s fate is in Germany’s hands now: the continent is floundering - struggling to remain competitive in the global economy and counter Russian warmongering on its eastern border. Will Europe rise to the occasion?
China and the Global South
How tariffs on China could help the world - by fueling investment in the Global South
Offtakes and Stockpiles: Chinese government intervention in the private sector has unprecedented consequences for private sector businesses, the global economy, and national sovereignty around the world. It’s actions challenge the very assumption of a fair playing field within which global capitalism has operated since WWII. How can nation states respond?
Adam Tooze: Talking about Bangladesh, or rather, why aren’t we talking about Bangladesh? Huge protests swept aside Sheikh Hasina - prime minister for 15 years. The nation is now hanging in the balance: a political revolution could be disatrous or as miraculous as it’s economic trajectory.
Finally, China’s sinking land crisis:
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