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Chris Cunningham

@econcunningham.bsky.social
1.2K followers 637 following 827 posts

Urban, Housing, Real Estate and Public Economics; former Fed Economist, Founder Citinomics.com; Syracuse grad, dad, hiker, living in Den Haag, NL.

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Reposted by Chris Cunningham
Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
At her 22-week ultrasound, Amanda Jablonski learned their daughter had developed without a skull or a brain. There was no chance for survival, and every day Amanda stayed pregnant was a threat to her health and life. Under TN law, she was denied an abortion. www.wbir.com/article/news...
wbir.com
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Trains can take care of themselves.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
In his first term, when I still believed our justice system worked, I feared he would die in sleep and avoid prosecution. Perhaps some still hold such hopes.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Unless we reform elevator building codes, this is a big increase in construction cost for units that in the vast majority of cases would still go to the abled body.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
kinda missed the...
static.klipy.com
Simpsons Sarcasm Detector with Professor Frink
ALT: Simpsons Sarcasm Detector with Professor Frink
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Just a reminder that this garage was going to be a monorail station.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
People worry too much about AI taking our jobs. Obviously we will just reallocate our efforts to the tasks AI can't do... like biting people.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This is the beach parking in The Hague.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I kinda of think we should have donated them to other major countries like China, India, Brazil and Germany; I'm a big fan of shuttle diplomacy.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
These guitar codes in the street are really nothing to fret about.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
"Great plan, let's do it my city" says Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Brussels at the same time.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The street design is an issue, but the shear mass and height of the SUV is what killed people on the bus. A sedan would have impacted with less force and below.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Does he still own a ton of Apple stock?
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Ayn Rand inspired daycare chain collapses. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wob... Inside the Outrageous Collapse of a ‘Montessori Ponzi’ www.nytimes.com/2026/09/13/b...
nytimes.com
Inside the Outrageous Collapse of a ‘Montessori Ponzi’
A man with a vision set out to revolutionize preschool. It became a $440 million fiasco.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This such a weird piece. I assume this is an attempt by Vance to distance himself from the Iran debacle and Haberman to retain access? Behind the Scenes, Vance Gathered Unvarnished Views of the Iran War www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/u...
nytimes.com
Behind the Scenes, Vance Gathered Unvarnished Views of the Iran War
Vice President JD Vance received sobering assessments about the war that did not line up with what he, President Trump and other top administration officials were saying publicly.
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Reposted by Chris Cunningham
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The absolute scale of graft in this administration, especially in homeland security. A Lewandoski ally was pulling in 19K a week as a contractor with FEMA. A conservative watchdog group got millions to attack Dems in what was supposed to be anti-terrorism funding.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
A future congress should convert the ballroom into a Holocaust Museum-like testament and forever-warning against unchecked presidential power. It’s just too late for John Roberts to say he doesn't like Trump’s ballroom www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
It’s just too late for John Roberts to say he doesn't like Trump’s ballroom
The president's lawlessness is the chief justice's fault.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
All unions are a form of collusion and much of the erosion of the middle class over the the last 50 years can be blamed on the death of private sector unions. In a world of corporate consolidation, mobile capital, IP and professional licensure do the trades deserve their own moat?
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Outsiders get shafted by the elevator guild.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I fear you have too much hair to ever be typecast as an economist.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Even though we lived near the Atlanta Beltline, we left for Holland because we were aging much faster than the bike lanes were being built. Now US going in reverse. Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/u...
nytimes.com
Do D.E.I. Bike Paths Exist? The Trump Administration Says Yes. (Gift Article)
The administration has revoked funding for bike paths, and encouraged removing some. A cycling advocate said it is playing on the idea of “that dork on a bike.”
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
So Warsh's response to growing concern about the Fed's new removal of communication policy was to..... communicate.
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Reposted by Chris Cunningham
Daniel Sugarman @danielsugarman.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The world's most notorious custard-pie thrower is dead. What an obituary. He got Bernard-Henri Lévy seven times.
​Known to his army of fans as L’Entarteur or Georges le Gloupier, Godin launched his career as a serial deflator of egos in 1969, when he planted a tarte à la crème on the face of the French novelist Marguerite Duras (“She has a kind of intelligence and cleverness that serves only her own vanity,” he complained), and he went on to “pie” a cast list of celebrities for sins ranging from pomposity to “choosing to function in the service of the capitalist status quo”.The same could not be said of Bernard-Henri Lévy, one of France’s “new philosophers,” whose provocative views on sex, frequent appearances on television and penchant for white silk shirts unbuttoned practically to the navel, had made him a cult figure – and one of Godin’s most satisfying victims.

Levy once declared: “I am the most gifted writer of my generation,” and often boasted of his reasonableness and tolerance, but he was forced to endure footage being repeatedly shown on French television of himself, covered in cream, during a visit to the Belgian city of Liège, trying to strangle Godin and shouting: “Get up, or I’ll kick your head in.”Noël Godin was born on September 13 1945 and came to pie-throwing after a rebellious youth in which he scandalised the priests in the confessional by speaking of his “horrible sexual life”, and was thrown out of Liège University after emptying a pot of glue over the head of a law lecturer who had helped write the constitution for the Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar.

He found work at Friends of Film, an obscure magazine published by the Belgian Catholic League. It had a tiny readership, which was just as well, as Godin made up most of his articles. In one he claimed that Louis Armstrong had once been a cannibal and had invested in a film called The Vegetables of Good Will in which Claudia Cardinale played a giant endive.

In another he conjured up a fictional blind Thai filmmaker named Vivian Pei, describing her film, The Lotus Flower Will Never Again Grow on the Edge of Your Island, in such convincing terms that an Asian film specialist travelled to Thailand in an effort to track her down.“We’re very careful not to hurt people,’’ he explained. “Well, they are hurt, but always in their amour-propre.”

In 1995 Godin published an autobiography, Cream and Punishment. His other targets over the years included the New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard (who charmed his assailant by hailing the attack as a homage to silent film), the French politician Nicolas Sarkozy, the choreographer Maurice Béjart and the Ryanair chairman Michael O​’Leary. He tended not to pick Belgian victims, he explained, because few would notice if he did.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
One of the down side of appointing someone with no credibility.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
graham crakcer crust > flour.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Yeah, but they're all in-cells.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
As someone that likes the em dash, AI has been a huge tax on me.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I have long thought that the best way to hold the center is to double down on public goods. There are few libertarians; most voting R just think someone else is getting more transfers. A federal government that works well for everyone (national parks, DOT, FDA, EPA, TSA) would be popular.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
I assume we should include our testosterone count along with our recommendation?
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
MF is cheaper to insulate, heat and cool.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
The Roberts Court's DreadsOff decision will go down in Infamy: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
US supreme court blocks Rastafarian man’s lawsuit over forced head-shaving in prison
In a 6-3 opinion, the court says Louisiana prisoner cannot sue guards after he grew his hair for more than 20 years
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
What I will never understand is that the only real appeal--to me--of extraordinary wealth would be the power to say exactly what I think. Why be a billionaire if you still end up groveling to fools.
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Reposted by Chris Cunningham
Dean Baker @deanbaker13.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
It's a great souvenir for tourists to DC.
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Reposted by Chris Cunningham
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
As the screwworm spreads... Remember that Elon Musk’s DOGE cut $15M from a screwworm monitoring program. And we're now learning that Trump’s USDA delayed a project to develop new ways to contain the parasite and held up construction of a monitoring facility. The incompetence is dangerous.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Obviously the Dutch system is the best with it's post-bin-like door. www.reddit.com/r/interestin...
reddit.com
From the interesting community on Reddit: How The Netherlands Hides Its Trash Underground To Keep Cities Spotless
Explore this post and more from the interesting community
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
“Unlike Barack Hussein Obama, who sent Iran pallets of cash"-DJT So 1.7B of Iran's frozen accounts delivered in greenbacks (because we'd excluded Iran from the global financial system) is worse that 300B+ from Gulf States to re-open the straight of Hormuz?
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
What I wouldn't give to be governed by President Camacho right now.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Venomous not poisonous. Get it right NYT! Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Keeps Picking Up Snakes. Is He Doing It Right? www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/u...
nytimes.com
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Keeps Picking Up Snakes. Is He Doing It Right?
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Again Matt Turner brings the numbers: www.nber.org/system/files...
nber.org
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Complaints about US roads focus on starved public spending and construction costs. But people forget how much more Americans drive (because of sprawl) and how much heavier our vehicles are. We have way more roads to maintain (per capita) that depreciate faster. guardianservice.com/auto-insuran...
guardianservice.com
Average Miles Driven Per Year: A Complete Analysis | Guardian Service
The average mileage per year for a typical driver in the U.S. is around 12,000 to 15,000 miles. This can vary based on a variety of factors.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
I think he's admitting he doesn't actually pay a lot of taxes, so of course doubling them won't do much good. I assume he's living off interest deductible loans against amazon stock.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Even the objective of not splitting local governments seems superfluous to me. A representative should be focused her constituents' national policy preferences, not funneling money to cities and counties in their district.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
I have a glimmer of hope that net result of the Supreme Court shredding the Voting Rights Act, and the democrats finally counter punching on redistricting will be adoption of nationwide redistricting reform. Ideally, something discretionless with a single optimization like compactness.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
I'm not totally opposed to this. Rail infrastructure produces lots of positive externalities: fewer emissions, resiliency to oil shocks, military logistics. Maybe the state should take a minority stake in each common carrier and vote for more capex and employee training over dividends.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
I grew up with Bicycle Sunday on Lake Washington Blvd in the 80s. I wonder if it helped seed the bike advocacy constituency, or, instead, hurt it by cementing the idea that biking was just a weekend recreation thing.
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Reposted by Chris Cunningham
The Urbanist @theurbanist.org · 25/05/2026
Trailhead Direct is running today! 🥾 🚌
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
The Dutch are not afraid of water. In my neighborhood in Den Haag, there's underwater car parking with car elevators. People happily park 100K BMWs and Mercedes under the canal.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
California has winds in the evening as the heated land causes air to rise drawing in cooler heavier air from the ocean. It nicely complements the cessation of solar. Still, batteries and hydro are doing most of the sunset surge here.
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Perhaps that niche is largely filled with realty TV now?
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Chris Cunningham @econcunningham.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?
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