Curious. Nerdy. Worried about the world.
Over a series of posts here, I've laid out my pretty simple philosophy on taxes. After World War II, and mostly up until Reagan entered office, taxes on large incomes and substantial wealth were high. That reflected the economic and social philosophy of an exceptional era in America:
Lots of hyenas-eating-each-other energy in the Trump White House just at the moment. It's important not to lose focus. It was, after all, inevitable that the coalition that put the President in office would fall apart eventually. His MAGA base is nativist, populist and reactionary. His tech-bro enablers
I'm on the road at the far end of a skinny internet pipe, so will be quieter and more sporadic than normal for a bit. I want to lay down this marker, though. The Republican "Big Beautiful Bill" is taking final form. Tax cuts for plutocrats
The "G" stands for "grifty," not "great." I mostly try not to write about stuff covered extensively elsewhere. The avalanche of Trump grift in the past months is so epic and so galling, though, that I have to speak up. I'll keep
A week ago, I wrote: These days, there's a legit risk that your US government, or US government contractor, client will (for example) build software to arrest and deport people in defiance of judicial rulings and without due process. So: If you're in an operating role
Quick one this morning: I've been thinking about how I'd manage a company right now. At both the places where I served as CEO, we had a general philosophy that we wouldn't do business with people who used our products for illegal purposes. I
My wife, her sister, her sister's husband and I spent the weekend in Durham, North Carolina at the inaugural Biscuits and Banjos festival. I'm fired up! The festival was organized by Rhiannon Giddens, an amazingly talented musician who deserves your attention. Her Wikipedia page will fill
I wrote a while back about how to pay for the government we want. That raises the question: What kind of government do we want? Well, I want a government that does important stuff well, and quickly. America responded to the Great Depression by putting the unemployed to work on
The President endured setbacks and failure all week long. A week ago Friday, the administration sent a blustering letter of demands and threats to Harvard. It insisted that the school surrender its independence and bring on MAGA faculty and administrators to police the thoughts and speech of students and professors.
The media coverage has been considerable, so I'll state the facts briefly: On March 12, Kilmar Ábrego Garcia was driving his five-year-old son home when we was stopped and arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Garcia was in the country legally. He was, nevertheless, shipped to a prison
I've written a couple of posts on the mechanics of US government debt. Today I want to dive into whether, why and how we should manage that debt. If you want to jump right to the conclusion, just re-read the title of this post. If you'd
Something unusual has happened in the last few days. Trump's tariffs have whipsawed global financial markets. As of this writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (a measure of large US-based company stock prices) has fallen by more than 6,000 points – a total of 14.5% – since his