@ericweinstein Lots of losers looking for a cause. The sniff test is tough; always hard to hear about the influential, maybe doing one thing in private and another in public. Makes us simple workers feel like a pawns. Rightly or wrongly.
@SenRickScott Buuut, Congress wont. Not enough serious people in the body anymore.
Insider trading a problem? Nah!
Disclosure about major historical events? Nah!
Revolving door between regulators and business? No problem!
I'm sure we'll be able to get serious about the budget though..
@MarioNawfal Not cool. Messing with that data can actually hurt people flying. Trying to land with the wrong temp/pressure data can cause real problems. I know people dont understand, but IYKYK. That's not acceptable behavior.
@CliffordAsness Why are you bringing Schrodinger into this? His cat and the half-life of uranium have nothing to do with the bi-modal truth of private credit: 1) its not risky if priced correctly 2) it IS risky if pirced poorly. Thats not the same as quantum superpositon, just falability of ego.
The European tariff escalation earlier in the year + the conflict in the Middle East have crushed the leading growth stocks.
AI, cybersecurity, e-commerce, infrastructure software + online payments companies now represent a big opportunity.
Be greedy when others are fearful.
My column on Venezuela in @TheEconomist
“Prosperity does not come from oil, decrees or even benevolent rulers. It comes from rights. Rights create private property. Rights create security. Rights create debate. Rights allow people to invest, to innovate, to dream—and to transform reality. Take rights away, and society withers. Restore them, and recovery is possible.”
https://t.co/BuPYeGVGKs
If you think Minnesota is bad, just wait until they look into the NYC home healthcare scam, all paid for by Medicaid.
Home health aides are now the largest single occupation, and ~40% of all job growth, in New York.
New York has 171 aides per 1,000 residents aged 65+, the highest rate in the US and 153% higher than the national average.
They all self-report to be "caring for" someone (a lazy relative) as their full-time job, and the state just takes their word for it and pays them a salary.
It's statistically impossible.
Fractional reserve banking = your money isn’t really there. And when it collapses? YOU bail it out through inflation and taxes.
Balance the budget. End the bailouts. Audit the Fed.
The hiring rate is low. The quits rate has declined. The level of layoffs has increased at the margin. The balance of power in the jobs market has clearly shifted in favor of employers. Wage growth likely cooling off in the quarters ahead.
The U.S. is an outlier because it’s built differently from almost every other advanced economy. You can see it the moment you look at income distribution. The top end lives in a completely different universe, and the bottom end lives in a system where the basics cost more and security isn’t guaranteed in the same way. That contrast is the heart of the American story, remarkable upside paired with real vulnerability.
The Power Side of the Equation
America rewards scale, ideas, and ownership like no one else.
If you create something valuable, build a company, hold equity, or land in a high productivity city, the sky is almost uncapped. The country is wired for invention with deep capital markets, a culture that tolerates risk, and a legal system that protects intellectual property. That mix produces billion dollar companies and life changing wealth. It’s why the top quintile earns so much more than its counterparts abroad. In that sense, the U.S. is still the world’s best engine for turning ambition into real economic gains.
You also can’t ignore the strategic layer where the U.S. carries an enormous share of global defense and security costs. Most of its allies spend a fraction of what America does because they rely on the U.S. military umbrella. That burden shapes federal budgets and limits how much can be redirected toward social programs. It doesn’t erase the country’s strengths, but it does define the terrain the U.S. operates on.
The Fragile Side of the Equation
The bottom half of the country doesn’t experience the same lift. Not because people aren’t working, but because the American model offloads so much onto the individual like healthcare tied to your job, education paid through debt, childcare priced like rent, and housing clustered in the places where opportunity is highest and affordability is lowest. So even when income looks okay on paper, life can feel stretched. A small setback like a medical bill, a layoff, a move can ripple through a household in a way that would be absorbed in countries with stronger social cushions.
And geography deepens the divide. Coastal tech hubs operate almost like separate countries compared to rural regions or old industrial towns. It’s one national economy with multiple economic climates, and that difference shapes everything from mobility to political attitudes.
The Real American Paradox
Put it all together and the U.S. becomes a study in contrasts, the place where global wealth gets created, and the place where everyday life can feel precarious for people not riding the upside. It’s not just inequality, it’s the structure of inequality. A spectacular ceiling. A thinner floor. And a system that asks individuals to absorb more risk while also carrying the weight of being the world’s stabilizing force.
The question going forward isn’t whether America is wealthy…it clearly is.
It’s whether that wealth keeps lifting only the top or eventually finds a way to rebuild the floor underneath everyone else.