Curious Task

"The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@scottlincicome Almost as indefensible as the 6% commission the RE cartels enforce.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@asymmetricinfo What Matt and the rest of the "borrow now since interest rates are so low" crowd didn't realize 5-17 years ago is that debt has to get rolled over eventually, and the bond market reacts much more quickly than fiscal policy.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@neontaster Dessert is priced as table rental, not food. Once you understand this, cake cutting fees make total sense.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@scottlincicome Less a difference in generation, more a difference between having kids in your early 20s and having kids in your late 30s.

Having kids when you’re broke teaches kids that there’s a phase in life when you’re supposed to be broke.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@TPCarney Google calendar.

Set up a gmail account for each car. Kids send appointment requests, you accept or reject each calendar invite. Kids have view access to each car's calendar.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@PeteAguilar @mattyglesias What is gross in 2026 was also gross in 2022. Glad some people are finally noticing.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@jbarro As when DEMs did this 4 years ago, all the primary electorate has to do is not take the bait.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@TPCarney Well, he will further REVEAL the moral collapse of the party. The collapse itself is more or less complete already.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@mattyglesias Congress could start by requiring providers to publish rates for common procedures on their websites, and prohibit providers from charging un-insured consumers any price higher than their lowest negotiated price with insurers.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@mattyglesias They want you to think that more price transparency and less 3rd-party payment results in a lower unit price for some care, and they are correct.

Different providers quoted prices from $1200 to $5400 for a recent procedure (have a HDHP and am below deductible).

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@neontaster If only estoppel applied to punditry.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@KFILE OTOH, the more insider trading happens on prediction markets, the better they are at predicting.

Assume these kinds of markets are like a poker table: if you don't know who the mark is, it's probably you.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@mattyglesias Let's propose a deal:

The nouns give up "compute," and the verbs give up "impact."

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

"You're supporting capitalism. I'm exchanging money for goods and services for the mutual benefit of buyer and seller. We are not the same."

[sid 🌹🔆🇨🇦 @lilbabygandhi]

Absolutely incredible. No notes.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@EliLake AI video has gotten a lot better, but it still throws (tomatoes) like a girl.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@enL3X1 @bendreyfuss 4-way stops are far worse for throughput, and a lot of signal-controlled intersections only really need to be signal-controlled a few hours per day.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@mattyglesias In practice, these schemes are rife with corruption and cronyism. Brazil has a similar fund. 8% of salary goes into this fund, which earns below market interest so the government can make subsidized loans to politically connected or favored interests.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@mattyglesias Contrarian take: heavy gerrymanders result in the favored party having more seats at slimmer margins, which should incentivize parties to nominate more moderate candidates.

It's D/R +25 seats that result in the fringiest candidates.

[Curious Task @CuriousTask]

@neontaster @AGHamilton29 These are extreme cases, but upper middle class parents having children in their late 30s/early 40s means the kids never see financial hardship. It's natural and normal to be broke in your 20s, but these kids perceive it as downward mobility.