François R. Velde @fvelde.bsky.social · 15/03/2025Cognitive sciences @ McGill - not sure how closely related that course was, but it was in the Philosophy department 020
François R. Velde @fvelde.bsky.social · 15/03/2025The timing of last night’s total lunar eclipse could have been timed by a competent student of Ptolemy 1800 years ago, +/- 13 minutes (*). A wrong but shrewd model, honed on centuries of good data, can perform very well. (*) that was my son’s final exam last year in a Babylonian astronomy class. 1100
François R. Velde @fvelde.bsky.social · 20/02/2025WaPo not on the list, though. You should have offered to do a special issue on MT for $40m. 010
François R. Velde @fvelde.bsky.social · 20/02/2025John Cochrane…. a fat finger mistake, as his commentary makes clear. 000
François R. Velde @fvelde.bsky.social · 20/02/2025The birth of coinage - c650BC, five consecutive denominations (each half of the one on the left). Lydian coins, 55% gold and 45% silver. The one on the right weighs 0.3g and could probably buy a few sheep. Not quite small change… 092
François R. Velde @fvelde.bsky.social · 02/01/2025El archivo general de Simancas has joined the 21st c.! Now we can take pictures from our seats without limit 020
François R. Velde @fvelde.bsky.social · 10/12/2024It’s Saturday Oct 16, 1582 and everyone in Naples is shopping for a new calendar (calendario novamente stampato). The Pope thought he could impose a worldwide copyright for the inventor, but the Catholic King told his viceroy to ignore this infringement on his jurisdiction. 030
Reposted by François R. VeldeNBER @nber.org · 24/11/2024Congress structured the Fed to limit politicization of monetary policy and prevent Presidents from manipulating interest rates. History of the Eccles-Glass battle proves this point, from Gary Richardson and David W. Wilcox www.nber.org/papers/w33174 2228
Reposted by François R. VeldeMicroplastics Sommelier @leastactionhero.bsky.social · 22/11/2024nobody does more brutal fashion reviews than the irish 204110913890
François R. Velde @fvelde.bsky.social · 23/11/2024Breakthrough in payments technology: a Swedish coin weighing 19kg (1648) and a note of same value (1666). 070
François R. Velde @fvelde.bsky.social · 17/11/2024Because the conclusions are always stated in the introduction - economists are impatient readers, especially with 50-page papers. 010
François R. Velde @fvelde.bsky.social · 15/11/2024Banco de la Nación Argentina: register of illiterate clients (with fingerprints), c1900-02. Several Turks, one Arab, one German. 060
François R. Velde @fvelde.bsky.social · 12/11/2024Ah, so the drawings represent the shops rather than the items. That makes more sense. 000
François R. Velde @fvelde.bsky.social · 12/11/2024How was the illiterate servant supposed to distinguish un bocal di vino from un bocal de tondo? 100
François R. Velde @fvelde.bsky.social · 08/11/2024Shouldn’t the graph be symmetric around the (0,0) point? 110
