Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026I disagree with Wolfer's use of "bias." It suggests an irrational attachment; this notion of "bias" comes from mindless mainstream economics thinking. Many people I know have deeply held political commitments coming from explicit arguments & situated in serious philosophical traditions. 010
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026But isn't a security detail like a vaccine against physical attacks? 000
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026"Preemptive Patenting and the Persistence of Monopoly," Am Ec Rev, 1982: "Resources are expended on R&D only to produce "sleeping patents" which are withheld from use, and the firm with monopoly power maintains its monopoly position." A friend did R&D in big corp. That's exactly what they did. 0191
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 24/03/2026Yeats seemed to literally think that "things were falling apart," and the only way to hold things together was to defuse pressures for democracy (from below) by instituting a government run by the aristocracy. He had a lot in common with Ezra Pound, another right-wing (but great) poet. 120
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 24/03/2026Yeats was anti-democratic. Indeed, he was occasionally aligned with folks who some believed were fascists. His interested in the "common people" of Ireland was only that they were bearers of ancient Irish myths. He had no interest in common people beyond that. 110
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 24/03/2026Wild Swans of Coole is a truly great poem. Too bad Yeats' politics had regrettable aspects. Of course, other poets living in Ireland were clearly on a much worse side of history...such as the past resident of Kilcolman castle: 110
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 24/03/2026Coole Park: swans have already flown away. Sad. 120
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 15/02/2026We've done from the "City on the Hill" to the "City in the Swamp." 000
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 14/01/2026The expert quoted as saying "we need" more data centers is...surprise...someone who work in AI. 020
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 12/12/2025In capitalism, fighting for the working class does NOT mean protecting every worker for anything they do. Rather, it means providing workers with a system that provides transparent and fair rules/procedures & protection from bad behavior by bosses. 000
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 05/05/2025As movies are required for our national security, we must establish a Strategic Movie Reserve: store VCR movies in vast quantities in the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. If foreign countries stop exporting movies to the US, we can release copies of Independence Day to meet our domestic movie needs. 130
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 30/04/2025Coming soon from Trump: "we will be firing all the Deep State actors in the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Going forward, we will get MAGA DATA about the economy not fake Biden data!" 010
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 29/04/2025Doesn't Trump claim that tariffs don't raise prices? If true, shouldn't his Administration want Amazon to display price changes due to tariffs (as they would be zeros)? 0132
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 28/03/2025@deanbaker13.bsky.social Tariffs stimulate domestic industry by making the industry MORE profitable (by increasing prices), drawing in investment, & expanding industry. But Trump wants STOP auto price increase, short circuiting what leads to increased dom investment. www.wsj.com/business/aut...wsj.comTrump Warned U.S. Automakers Not to Raise Prices in Response to TariffsThe threat came in a call earlier this month, leaving CEOs worried they would face punishment if prices go up. 010
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 13/03/2025"We believe fraud was involved in your Social Security account. As a result, we'll not only stop payment of your SS check, we'll claw back the 5 yrs of SS payments we've made to you. You don't have this money in your checking account? Well, don't worry...we'll debit your 401K account." 2497
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 12/03/2025If one alleged goal of aluminum tariffs is to create a larger US-based aluminum industry, the US will shift from importing aluminum to importing bauxite (needed to produce aluminum). I'm not sure being "dependent" on foreign bauxite is any different than being dependent on foreign aluminum. 000
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 11/03/2025We're three weeks from hearing about WMD stashed in an underground bunker in Québec City. 000
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 15/02/2025Trumpists might want to do this. But, that would be difficult. For instance, if the BLS artificially reduced CPI (perhaps accidentally because their price data was hacked), other actors outside the fed gov who collect their own price data could easily show something funky was going on with the CPI. 000
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 09/02/2025Perhaps they came across special issues bonds sold to Social Security and imagine such debts between parts of the US government don't need to be paid. 000
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 02/02/2025China might be willing to buy oil from CAN, but China's oil imports fell last year. With EV industry, China is reducing oil consumption. China might buy oil from CAN to establish greater econ links btwn countries. But oil exports to China might not be enough for CAN to significantly reduce US links. 000
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 02/02/2025What do you suppose CAN/MEX would export to China in the long-run? In the short-run, both would run huge trade deficits with China. But, I think your larger point is spot-on: MEX and CAN will likely explore greater econ connections with China and China will be happy to talk (and more than talk). 000
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 02/02/2025What you say is plausible. The issue, though, is what CAN and MEX will sell to China. Oil, autos/parts, agri products, timber, metals are not what China would want from CAN and MEX. Over time, the two economies' outputs might shift with greater trade to China, but that might take a long time. 100
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 01/02/2025If prices grow following tariffs, I expect the folks in the BLS who work on the CPI, PPI, and import/export prices will face extreme pressure from the Trump people to generate price indices that match the Trump position that tariffs don't hurt US people. 000
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 01/02/2025You don't need to take a website down to make changes to it. The goal must be to demonstrate they can and will take government websites down for whatever reason they'd like. 1132
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 12/01/2025More complicated than that. The BLS took seriously research, but a bias existed in WHAT research was done re the CPI bias: economists paid a lot more attention to sources of upward bias and a lot less on sources of downward bias. As a result, "the existing research" was biased toward upward bias. 010
Eric Nilsson @ericnilsson.bsky.social · 18/11/2024The same pattern exists for education: "education is HORRIBLE in the USA" but "my local school district is EXCELLENT." 020
