2026-01-12 20:07:24
Whether an independent Fed is desirable is beside the point. The core issue is lawfare: the strategic use of legal processes to intimidate, constrain, and punish institutional actors for political ends. Lawfare is the hallmark of a failing state because it erodes not just political independence, but the capacity for independent judgment.
What sort of people will work at the whim of another? The inevitable result is toadies and ideological loyalists heading complex institutions, rather than people chosen for their knowledge and experience.
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2026-01-12 16:03:22
He has a new and excellent book coming out, namely How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World’s Last Developmental Frontier, which I consumed eagerly. You probably know his earlier book How Asia Works. So what should I ask him?
For additional context, here is the opening of his home page (no Wikipedia page?):
Hello. I am an author, journalist, public speaker and occasional university teacher. I am based much of the time in Cambridge. In the 2000s I restored and lived in a home in a still unspoiled area of central Italy (the photo at the top of the page is a view from the house).
So what should I ask him?
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2026-01-12 13:36:54
The MRU College Fellowship, for US undergrad and grad students, helps Fellows produce their own videos, podcasts, or other online content to bring economic insights to a wide audience. Fellows are paired with MRU mentors for a seven-week remote program, starting with an expenses-paid weekend kickoff event in DC. Fellows also earn a $2,000 stipend.
Applications are due January 23.
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2026-01-12 11:47:13
The post The price of gold went vertical appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
2026-01-12 04:11:17
I asked GPT 5.2 Pro what it thought of the welfare consequences of UK immigration, and here are its summary remarks:
The literature does not support the claim that low-skilled immigration has imposed large net welfare losses on the UK as a whole. Instead, it supports something like:
Net welfare for existing residents is likely modestly positive (or near zero but not strongly negative) on average,
but the distributional impacts can be meaningfully negative for some low-skilled native workers and for some localities,
and the sign/magnitude hinge heavily on productivity spillovers and on dynamic trajectories (skill acquisition, occupational mobility, family formation).
The entire response is useful and well thought out.
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2026-01-12 00:25:29
1. Request for research proposals on psychology of progress.
2. Interview on NIH grants and how to improve them.
3. Burry, Jack Clark, and D. Patel.
4. a16z. A good and impressive piece.
5. That California tax would hit some people pretty hard.
6. NYT on the history of picture books.
7. Canada sees dramatic rise in deportations.
The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.