Derek
@Derek_Econ
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Anonymous economist. Tidyverse and ggplots...all day, every day.
Joined July 2023
Moreover, I never agreed to a social contract giving lawmakers a blank check to continuously expand SocSec & Medicare benefits far beyond what people pay in. And to gave the extra benefits a first claim on all tax revenues ahead of kids, working families, veterans, defense, etc.
Seniors broke the social contract when they imposed $38 Trillion in debt on young people. Every dollar senior entitlements add to the debt is an unjust wealth transfer from young to old.
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"Three strikes and you're out" laws get a lot of shit, but the approach is basically right. The goal should be to remove superpredators from society forever, but to give one-time criminals a stern warning.
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We let three strike laws fall out of fashion around 2020, but if you are someone who is going to commit three crimes it's probably the case that you are going to keep committing crimes
Bethany MaGee, 26, identified as Chicago woman set on fire on CTA train by serial thug with 72 arrests https://t.co/25TQyohXTK
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I am very tired of this “luxury housing” shtick. The evidence is overwhelming that building market rate housing reduces rents. The idea that private developers are “getting in the way” of building subsidized housing because they don’t want to build things at a loss is absurd
It's always hard for mayors to increase affordable housing, even when there's available land. The political powers of developers get in the way. Here are two examples from Boston and New York, courtesy @rkuttnerwrites: https://t.co/xwxZeSWWBo
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FWIW, Metro runs in L2 automation already & there have been many public board meetings and presentations on our rail modernization program that would allow full level 4 operations. Any suggestion we are not modernizing is inaccurate. Appreciate support in funding this investment
@christianbrits “thousands of highly paid public transit workers would lose their jobs” and that’s somehow a DOWNSIDE of safe AI cars?!
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With 400 mile range (soon), state willing to give 1 lane each way to self-drive cars at 120mph, why build HSR? Waymo would be green, *point-to-point* in <3.5 hours, connect to small towns, much lower fixed cost, identical peak capacity (assume German "halber Tacho"), similar MC
This will have a bunch of second-order effects, e.g. 1. A big decline in traffic accidents and fatalities, 2. More people willing to live and commute further from city centers, changing land values 3. Increased congestion leading to the need for congestion pricing, 4. The
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Imagine how careful you’d be if you already had two strikes and knew that a third one would mean life in prison. Somebody could offer you $5000 to shoplift a $10 item and you wouldn’t do it. I mean, you probably wouldn’t do it, anyway, which is why you’d never have two strikes in
Tell me you weren't alive in the 1990s without telling me. The concept — lock up people with long rap sheets who commit lots of crimes makes sense. But the implementation, where you had people stealing $10 items and getting life sentences, was a disaster. Or addicts who could be
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I lost a good friend to a human driver in DC. The sooner we allow Waymos in the better.
It makes me sad that Councilmember @charlesallen is putting Waymo's DC launch next year in serious jeopardy because of nebulous "safety" concerns, disingenuous given the sterling safety record of that service in other cities, particularly when compared to human drivers.
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It doesn't matter if the insane arsonist attack is an "isolated incident" (most horrific crimes are). We're talking about *this specific person* who was at one point in custody, known to be dangerous, then released. At that point government is morally responsible. The great
Mayor asked if suspect in Blue Line arson attack should’ve been on streets: “This is an isolated incident, and I don't see this as some sort of trend. And again, the level of accountability that has to happen in this moment, I trust that the federal level will do its part.”
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No it is not. Reject this line of thinking at all cost. The health of our cities depends on them being places that are both safe and are perceived as such. Without this, they are doomed.
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Every industry wants certainty that the permitting process won’t be weaponized against them by the executive branch. Great to see movement here today as the bipartisan SPEED Act passed out of committee!
@Rep_Magaziner @RepHuffman The bipartisan exec branch "permit certainty" amendment passes. Big development. Chair @RepWesterman says he's hopeful "it's going to provide certainty that can get many more people on board to support" the SPEED Act and broader permitting reform
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Market rate housing is more affordable than Affordable Housing.
What's your hot take on construction that will have everyone doing this? I'll go first. Construction projects/decision making are often led by emotion, ego, and/or vibes...even when people think they're playing hardball and being super objective and just "looking at numbers."
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I've listened to every episode of the @Commentary Magazine podcast since 2015...but for the first time, I actually turned off an episode because @jpodhoretz's logorrhea finally overwhelmed my patience. They have Jamie Kirchick on as a guest to discuss his cover story. Cool, I
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NEW PIECE: The Politics of Price Controls...on the naivety of plans for temporary controls, coupled with supply boosting measures. https://t.co/sMETl1Q8ij
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Ezra Klein? The young progressive blogger who accused moderate Democrats of murder for not including a public option?
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I really dislike how a tough on crime approach has come to be labeled “carceral urbanism” or “dark abundance.” There’s nothing sinister about ensuring that public spaces (which law-abiding low-income people esp. need) are well-policed and safe, and sometimes that requires force.
The "SROs are good, actually" argument re-emerges periodically on here, forcing me to repeat this rejoinder: In SROs, tenants almost always share kitchens and bathrooms (that's why they're cheap). This arrangement for housing the down-and-out works if the manager can throw a
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As one can clearly see from the forest plot, the precise studies all estimate near zero estimates. Add some p-hacking on top, and this meta-analysis is easily a 0. Right now, it's claiming a supposed effect of 0.03 standard deviations per 1000USD/pupil. I swear there are 100s of
This post suggests a lack of familiarity with high quality research showing + impact of school spending on educational outcomes (including test scores), as reviewed in this 2024 meta analysis of *causal estimates* from 32 studies.
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When I commissioned & wrote The #WarOnPrices, some think-tankers and economists said to me "why waste time with this stuff? We're not going to actually do price controls." But it was obvious the way the political climate was going, and interventions this weekend prove it again.
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