Avik Roy
@Avik
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Co-Founder & Chairman, Fdn. for Research on Equal Opportunity (@FREOPP). @Forbes @StriveFunds @BTCpolicyorg @BPC_Bipartisan @AspenAGLN &c. Pronounced “OH-vick.”
Joined June 2009
Pleased to announce that I'm joining the Board of Directors of @StriveFunds, the asset management firm founded by my friend @VivekGRamaswamy, as it transitions into a #bitcoin treasury company. $ASST
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So @YouTube just took down a June 23 interview that Scott Atlas (@SWAtlasHoover) did with his employer, Stanford's @HooverInst, because it "contradicts the World Health Organization or local health authorities' medical information about COVID-19."
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David Kelly of @JPMorganAM: "The trouble with tariffs, to be succinct, is that they raise prices, slow economic growth, cut profits, increase unemployment, worsen inequality, diminish productivity and increase global tensions. Other than that, they’re fine."
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Antitrust jurisprudence and regulation in the U.S. needs to be modernized on many fronts, especially to tackle the problem of multinational technology companies that attempt to impose a monopoly on information.
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According to my sources, the SEC/DOJ "investigation" of @ElonMusk is timed to thwart his bid for @Twitter. Normally, in the absence of a better offer, Twitter's board is effectively obligated by its fiduciary duty to shareholders to accept Musk's offer. If true, it's scandalous.
BREAKING: As @elonmusk offers to buy the rest of @Twitter a legal source tells @FoxBusiness @SECGov and @TheJusticeDept have launched what he described as a "joint investigation" into a myriad of Musk regulatory issues primarily involving @Tesla
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Under the CARES Act, hospitals get paid 15% more by Medicare if they classify their patients as having “a principal or secondary diagnosis of COVID-19.” Get ready for every hospital in America to pass off everyday coughing as “suspected COVID-19.” #Covid19.
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If you want to understand what's going on with #COVID19 right now, the best place to look is Florida, because they do the best job of anyone in terms of data transparency. Note the different age distributions of cases, hospitalizations, & deaths in their regular report.
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"I'm getting sick an tired of hearing about morality, our moral obligation. the U.S. has no obligation to evacuate 1—or 100,001—South Vietnamese." —Sen. Joe Biden, 1975
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Plenty of people (myself included) have been the subject of violent threats on Twitter, and yet, strangely, @Twitter remains available on the Apple App Store.
NEW: Apple has suspended social media app Parler from its app store. Apple said it had “continued to find direct threats of violence and calls to incite lawless action” in violation of its rules. Apple says Parler is suspended “until they resolve these issues.”.
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Time to take @Facebook off the Apple App Store.
Do you know how many of the people arrested in connection with the Capitol invasion were active users of Parler? . Zero. The planning was largely done on Facebook. This is all a bullshit pretext for silencing competitors on ideological grounds: just the start.
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I would love for someone to explain to me why beaches need to be closed while the NYC Subway is open.
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This @WSJ piece tries to claim that @GovRonDeSantis was “lucky” with Florida’s #COVID19 stats thus far. But the article makes clear that DeSantis followed the *actual* evidence, unlike those who prescribe unscientific one-size-fits-all lockdowns.
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THREAD: Big news today. For the first time, we have a confirmed report of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection by a patient in Hong Kong—his/her #COVID19 diagnoses were 4.5 months apart. This blows a big hole in the "let's stay locked down until there's a vaccine" position. Let me explain why.
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Sweden appears to have achieved herd immunity.
Lockdowns pushing infections into the future. "While [COVID] have spiked across several parts of the EU, including ES, FR, DE, BE, and NL, Sweden - where a lockdown was never issued - continues to report a downward trend in new cases and new deaths.".
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Dave Portnoy basically says in 3.5 minutes what the @FREOPP plan says in 31 minutes (of text: . The claim that we can lock down the economy until we have a cure for #COVID19 is…well, I’ll let him explain.
Emergency Press Conference - When Did Flattening The Curve Turn Into Finding The Cure
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Less than three months ago, @BennieGThompson attempted to revoke Trump’s Secret Service protection.
There is no room in American democracy for political violence. I am grateful for law enforcement’s fast response to this incident. I am glad the former President is safe, and my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved.
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The likelihood that my son and daughter will have to fight in a war *to defend the United States* have increased massively, thanks to our appeasement of Russia.
Ignore all the blue and gold virtue signaling. The most telling question is: How many of them are willing to send their own sons and daughters to fight?.
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Finished reading the Senate HC bill. Put simply: If it passes, it’ll be the greatest policy achievement by a GOP Congress in my lifetime.
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A Heritage exec confronted a Heritage scholar b/c the scholar disagreed with Tucker Carlson on an issue. The scholar replied: “I don’t watch Tucker’s monologue anymore.” Exec: “Well, you ought to watch it, because the people who pay your salary watch it.”
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I’m very open to thoughtful critiques of the Senate bill from the left. “MILLIONS WILL DIE” is not it.
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If McCarthy can't get the votes, the idea of @JustinAmash intrigues me. He has some sound ideas for improving House parliamentary procedures so that indiv. members can propose amendments again (that process has been heavily centralized in recent years).
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Correct. On May 13, @GovWhitmer *renewed* her mandate forcing nursing homes to accept infected #COVID19 patients. And Michigan still refuses to disclose nursing home death statistics.
.@Avik tells me that Michigan *still* hasn’t abandoned terrible nursing home policies, while also declining to release data on nursing home deaths. How is this remotely defensible?.
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It’s worth remembering that the rationale for lockdowns is not to protect every single American from COVID-19. The purpose of lockdowns is to prevent Italy-style overwhelming of U.S. hospital ICU capacity. We’ve done that. Time to stop annihilating the economy.
The case for reopening by playing the odds that young people are less likely to take a #COVID19 hit (and that they won't intermingle with the more vulnerable).by @Avik .I don't that risk is tenable. We need to use this time to gear up
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This is a disgustingly mendacious framing by @Heritage. Reagan and Thatcher, who made Heritage rich and famous, are rolling in their graves.
Biden gave $700 to Hawaii victims, but he took $900 from them and sent it to Ukraine. On the left is Kyiv, on the right is Maui.
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Actually the far graver problem is health professionals who want to practice economics.
@Avik Oh cool a “social entrepreneur” wants to practice medicine.
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Fortunately, in this case, @HooverInst has published the transcript of the interview, so you can see for yourself what Scott Atlas had to say, and why @YouTube felt the need to censor it.
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When I was a kid, and Ronald Reagan was running against Jimmy Carter, the criticism of the Democratic Party’s foreign policy was that it punished our friends and rewarded our enemies. Surreal to watch what’s happening in the Oval Office today.
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I guarantee you that if there was even a single school in the entire U.S. that was causing a spike in adult infections, it would on the front page of @nytimes. So we can be reasonably confident that it hasn’t happened.
@davidzweig @ZacBissonnette @alexanderrusso @Avik @ProfEmilyOster Since the places that have gone back to (K–12) school don’t appear to be turning into COVID hotbeds, unless I am missing coverage that I feel like I’d be seeing? . 2/2.
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Today, I've published a deep dive into El Salvador president @nayibbukele's proposal to adopt bitcoin as legal tender @Forbes. Could El Salvador become the global capital of the #Bitcoin ecosystem?
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It’s amazing how many people I meet in Washington who believe that subsidizing poor people makes them lazy, but that subsidizing corporations makes them innovative.
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Wow. @PeteHegseth is an inspired pick for Defense Secretary. Pete and I have worked together on veterans’ health reform for a decade, and he will provide imaginative leadership to an institution that desperately needs it.
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The biggest scandal in elite college admissions isn’t celebrities bribing athletic coaches. It’s systematic, institutional racial discrimination against Asian-Americans.
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Canada's Deputy Prime Minister: Only the government gets to decide whether or not you can support non-violent protests with your own money.
BREAKING: Canada is now regulating crowdfunding platforms and crypto currency under the Terrorist Financing Act.
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.@VivekGRamaswamy is never better than when he talks about his religious faith.
A voter tonight in Iowa asked about my Hindu faith. I answered honestly.
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The great thing about baseball is that, regardless of who wins, it's always a great season if the Yankees end theirs with a loss.
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The last 5 minutes of @nayibbukele’s speech at CPAC are the most important. He walks through the coming fiscal and monetary crisis in the U.S. with clarity and simplicity.
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Will @YouTube disclose the name of the person (or the person programming the algorithm) responsible? Is he/she/it more knowledgable, or less, about #COVID19 than @SWAtlasHoover? What specifically about Atlas' remarks did @YouTube find so dangerous for the public to consume?.
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Norwegian health chief: Norway "could have controlled infection without lockdown." R0 was 1.1 before the lockdown was announced. "The scientific backing [for lockdown] was not good enough."
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The extremely low rate of transmission in schools for young children is entirely unsurprising to those who followed the science. Unfortunately, the politicians who endlessly repeat the phrase "follow the science" don't fall into this category.
Especially in a county like mine with low positivity (currently 2.17 %), at what point is it clear that many public school closures have been non-sensical? And ambiguity or no ambiguity, @AlecMacGillis and @Avik have leaned forward on this issue early on.
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President of El Salvador announced at @TheBitcoinConf that he is introducing a bill to make #bitcoin legal tender in the country. This is a major development in the history of monetary policy. via @YouTube.
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So, when you see reports about rising numbers of hospitalizations, it's critical to ask: what's the age distribution of the people being hospitalized? We talking about elderly or young people? Without that information, "hospitalizations" statistics are far less useful.
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The policy content of the El Salvador Bitcoin Law is pretty straightforward. #Bitcoin will be instantly convertible into USD, and will have the same legal standing as USD for commerce and legal obligations. If it passes the @AsambleaSV, it will be a remarkable achievement.
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Meanwhile, a Republican Senator had six ribs broken by a violent assailant, and Democrats and liberals literally *laugh* about it:
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Today, El Salvador is best known in the U.S. as a source of migrants. In the future, if @nayibbukele is successful, El Salvador may become best known as a destination for emigrants *from* the United States, especially those who care about building the #Bitcoin ecosystem.
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Do you wonder why the media & economic elites champion #COVID19 lockdowns? Here's a great @MorningConsult chart showing that people with graduate degrees and those >$100k income are doing *better* under lockdowns, while everyone else does worse.
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Any Obamacare fan who is today complaining about deductibles and premiums needs to review what has happened from 2013-2017.
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George W. Bush: "This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic. I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election.".
Statement by President George W. Bush on Insurrection at the Capitol
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This is a poll of young people aged 18-29. They have far less interaction with the health care system than the average adult. That 41% of them think murdering CEOs is ok is the result of our education system, not health care.
Shock poll: 41 percent of young voters find killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO acceptable via @Yahoo.
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There has been so much irresponsible and dishonest reporting around the Trump health care orders. (1/x)
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The U.S. produces more crude oil per day than does Saudi Arabia, and could produce more without the interference of the Biden administration. So it’s a bit puzzling that we’re complaining about OPEC.
So disappointing. At this pivotal moment in history, Saudis side with Putin and against us.
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The Declaration of Independence was handwritten. Somehow we managed ok.
Trying to review the #GOPTaxScam but they are making hand-written changes to brand new text as we speak – can anyone else read this?
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Anti-vaxxers claim that COVID vaccines are "experimental." But there's more data vouching for the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine's safety than there has been for any other vaccine approved by the FDA:
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Releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is great and all, but what Biden really needs to do for national security is to end his war against domestic energy production.
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I've transcribed the English version of @nayibbukele's #Bitcoin Law @FREOPP for easier analysis. The bottom line: this is about as robust an endorsement of #bitcoin as legal tender as one could expect.
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El Salvador's proposed Bitcoin Law makes clear in several places that the government will provide resources to ensure that Salvadorans can be trained in the use of #Bitcoin, and gain access to the technologies (e.g. smartphones, software, bandwidth) necessary to use it.
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The growth in Austin’s housing supply, leading to lower housing prices, is a massive policy victory. And yet there are pundits who claim it’s a terrible thing.
The Austin, TX housing downturn keeps getting worse. Inventory of homes for sale just surged +442% over the last two years. Up to almost 9,000 houses on the market. That's the highest inventory level on record for April going back 7 years. Prepare for more price declines in
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The Biden plan for subsidizing child care would drive up its cost by restricting supply and increasing demand. Over the last two years, the major bottleneck in child care was the fact that schools were closed across the U.S., despite the evidence that they could be safely open.
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New @FREOPP: We've updated our nursing home #COVID19 fatalities article with the latest statistics. 45% of all #coronavirus deaths have taken place in facilities housing 0.6% of the U.S. population.
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Obamacare has doubled premiums in the individual market. BCRA would lower premiums by 20-30%. Notable how much lefties avoid this topic.
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Here's a crazy stat for you. The last time a newly elected Democratic president was inaugurated without a Democratic House and Senate was. 1884. !!!.
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Perhaps the most absurd aspect of tonight’s Twitter tax debate is #Obamacare supporters complaining that the tax bill is 400-odd pages.
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For those who like to see this data visualized, here's a chart of the mortality rate of hospitalized #COVID19 patients by age bracket (in honor of UF grad @GreggGirvan the bars are in retro Gator blue). Not all COVID hospitalizations are created equal.
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In other words, El Salvador isn’t making #bitcoin legal tender in an attempt to be trendy. This is an attempt to protect Salvadorans from inflationary U.S. policy. A number of other countries could follow SLV’s lead. Caribbean nations would be of particular importance.
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Did I hear correctly that Trump refused to condemn white nationalist groups?.
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Anybody who says that policies in this bill haven't been open for debate has been too busy obsessing over Russian collusion and not following the actual months-long policy debate on taxes.
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Here's a similar chart, but this time of the death rate for #COVID19 *cases* in FL. Age trend is even more pronounced, b/c the death rate for COVID *cases* for people under 55 is well below 1%. So when people talk about rising cases, 1st q to ask is: what's the age distribution?
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We’re not a banana republic because people are bringing legal action against Trump’s attempts to overturn the election. We’re a banana republic to the degree that people are *okay* with Trump’s attempt to overturn the election.
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Nikki Haley and I were born in the same year. I remember 7% unemployment, 15% inflation, and 22% interest rates under Jimmy Carter, & the omnipresent specter of nuclear war with the Soviets. Didn't feel that simple or easy to me.
Do you remember when you were growing up, do you remember how simple life was, how easy it felt? It was about faith, family, and country. We can have that again, but to do that, we must vote Joe Biden out. #RTM2023.
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@Polymarket @CNN @FoxNews More exit poll data: Latino men supporting Trump 54-44%, a 33% improvement from Trump’s showing in 2020. !!.
.@NBCNews: Latino men are breaking for Trump by a 10-point margin, 54% to 44%, in a major reversal from four years ago, according to the NBC News Exit Poll. In 2020, Latino men backed Biden over Trump by a 23-point margin, 59% to 36%.
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Memo to rival GOP campaigns: As someone who has known @VivekGRamaswamy for ~15 years, I can 100% promise you that he is running to be President, not to sell books. The guy is worth ~$500M. Has more hard dollars than you. Dismiss him at your peril.
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I've created confusion by using the word "fiduciary" above, which many have interpreted to mean that I think Twitter is legally required to accept Elon's offer. That's not the case. Twitter's board can reject the offer, but shareholders would likely side with Elon in a vote.
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The line that is always uttered when policymakers create gigantic moral hazards: “this is not the time for moral hazard lectures”.
This is not the time for moral hazard lectures or for lesson administering or for alarm about the political consequences of “bailouts”. 4/.
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In the last 20 years, the number of National Merit Finalists who are Asian has doubled, but the share of Asians at Harvard has remained constant. Which means, according to Harvard, Asians’ personalities are getting significantly worse over time.
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THREAD: I'm honored to announce today the publication of the Freedom Conservatism Statement of Principles, signed by over 80 leaders of the liberty movement. Its core idea is this: the thing that has made America great is *freedom*.
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