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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈

@josephpolitano.bsky.social
117.7K followers 541 following 10.6K posts

Writing a data-driven newsletter about economics @ apricitas.io Nuance? In this Economy Full Employment Stan, Brazilian Coffee Tariff Victim |

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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
We're in totally unprecedented territory when it comes to computer prices; they're up a record 10% over the last year alone in data released this morning (and that's after adjusting for quality improvements, which usually are enough to drive steady *de*-flation)
a graph of US consumer computer price growth
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
NEW: CPI inflation rose to 3.7% year-on-year in data released this morning, hitting the second-highest level since 2023 while increasing 0.6% month-on-month Core CPI inflation rose to 2.6% year-on-year, increasing 0.3% month-on-month
a graph of US CPI yoy growth
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Guy is a Saudi national, which obviously isn’t a guarantee he was working for Saudi intelligence, but this is the caliber of work I would expect out of Saudi intelligence services
A chatbot account tied to Alfozan's spouse, which shared identifiers with his own account, submitted prompts between Sept. 24 and Sept. 30 about building, installing, obscuring, and remotely accessing a recording device, prosecutors said. Queries included how to
"build a continuous audio recorder" and
"encrypt the SD card," prosecutors claimed. On Sept. 27 and 28, the account asked about the specific device that was later found, including its unique MAC address.
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Again he’s really losing it with the AI stuff now
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
+
The White House considers anyone that uses the term, "Artificial Intelligence," as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term,
"Super Intelligence," THE ENEMY! President
DONALD J. TRUMP
2 ReTruths 9 Likes
10/8/26, 12:14 PM
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Another major transit story this year has been the steady rebound in LA Metro rail ridership since the opening of the first D-line extension Though still well below record highs, LA Metro moved 6.6M riders last month, up 12% from this time last year
a graph of LA Metro rail ridership
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Ridership on the Bay Area's Caltrain also continues rising in the wake of the route's electrification, with passenger counts up 31% since this time last year! Caltrain is now moving more people than it did in equivalent months pre-COVID, a massive rarity among US rail systems
a graph of Caltrain ridership
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
The biggest US transit story of this year has been the massive growth of Seattle Link Light Rail ridership in the wake of the 1 & 2 lines connecting The Link moved more than 5M passengers last month, up 39% from last year, and it's now America's biggest light rail network!
a graph of seattle link light rail ridership
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
August US transit data is in today, & all of the largest US rail networks are growing! Cali leads the way, with ridership up 15% on BART, 14% on Muni, & 10% on LA Metro PATH (NY/NJ) & MBTA (Boston) also have strong growth at 8%, while MTS (San Diego, +1.7%) is the slowest🧵
a graph of year-on-year growth in ridership
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
A picture of the soldier touching the bug alien from starship troopers and shouting “it’s afraid!”
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
getting more Toronto urban planning lore from @forkast.bsky.social
a picture of me and reia in front of the toronto skyline, with Reia pointing at the CN Towera picture of me and Reia in front of a statue of beavers
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Canada, I am in another different part of you
a picture of me in front of the toronto skylinea picture of park grasses in front of the toronto skyline
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Sort of insane fact about how broken US urban planning is—America now spends more building *just the lights for roads and highways* than on all subways & ground mass transit combined Spending on roadway *pavement* is 18x transit spending
a graph of roadway and mass transit lights
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The US tech sector continues bleeding jobs in official data released today—overall, employment decreased by 17k last month and is down 69k over the last year That's nearly as bad as the worst of the 2024 tech-cession, and much worse than the 2022 boom or even pre-2020 norms
a graph of the year-on-year change in US tech employment
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
NEW US JOBS DATA: Non-farm Payrolls: +29k Unemployment Rate: 4.2% (+0.1%) Prime Age (25-54) Employment-Population Ratio: 80.7% (+0.3%) Average Hourly Earnings: +0.1%
a graph of US jobs data
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
American factory construction inched down to the lowest level since 2022 in official data released today as CHIPS Act projects finish and tariffs weigh on nearly all industries Total US factory construction is down 33% from its 2024 highs and 20% over the last year alone
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Just last year data center construction was less than office construction, now it's larger than office construction ever has been
a graph comparing data center and office construction
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
US data center construction reached another new record high in official data released today, nearing a pace of $85B/yr (and this only includes data center facilities, not the expensive computers within) Spending is up 73% over the last year and 513% since ChatGPT's launch
a graph of data center construction rising from $10B in 2020 to $85B today
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
39 of the 50 largest metro areas now exceed their pre-COVID job levels Fastest: Austin (24.1%), Raleigh (19.7%), Dallas (13.9%), Nashville (13.2%), SLC (13.1%) Slowest: San Francisco (-3.7%), Portland (-2.5%), Boston (-2.3%), Milwaukee (-2.2%), Cleveland (-1.5%)
a map of the change in nonfarm payrolls since jan 2020 in the 50 largest metro areas by population
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Metro job data is in today, & 38 of the 50 largest metros have gained jobs over the last year Fastest: SLC (2.5%), Raleigh (2.2%), San Jose (1.6%), Charlotte (1.5%), Las Vegas (1.5%) Slowest: DC (-2%), Portland (1.5%), Indianapolis (-1.1%), Richmond (-.8%), Hampton Roads (-.6%)
a graph of change in nonfarm payrolls year on year by metro area
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
All 50 states and DC exceed their pre-COVID GDP, but some have grown more than others over the last 7 years Fastest: Idaho (31.9%), Texas (30.2%), Florida (29.5%), Utah (28.1%), Arizona (26.2%) Slowest: Wyoming (3.8%), DC (4.5%), Hawaii (5.4%), Alaska (6%), Pennsylvania (6.5%)
a graph of real gdp growth since Q3 2019
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
New GDP by State data is out today, and 44 states have seen their economies grow over the last year Fastest: New York (4.6%), Idaho (4.4%), California (3.6%), Florida (3%), Nebraska (2.7%) Slowest: DC (-2.1%), N. Dakota (-.8%), Maryland (-.6%), New Mexico (-.4%), Alaska (-.3%)
a map of real GDP growth, year on year
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Solar power also continues to skyrocket in Texas, with generation up 47% compared to last year Over the last twelve months, solar has made up 12.6% of Texas' electricity, a record high!
a graph of Texas monthly solar generation
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Solar power made up 11.3% of US electricity this July, up from 9.5% last year Over the last twelve months, solar has made up 9.5% of US electricity, another record high!
a graph of solar's share of US electricity
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Official monthly data is in, and US solar power generation hit a new record high, up 21% compared to this time last year!
a graph of US monthly solar generation
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Overall, media has always been a small share of the economy—the effect of AI art will be primarily cultural & social rather than economic Still, current arts displacement is a microcosm of disruption already happening in larger sectors like tech, and maybe coming to more sectors soon
a graph of year-on-year change in US tech employment
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Still, it's extremely difficult to predict how tech will interact with arts businesses Take US novel sales, which had been declining for decades up to 2020. Would anyone have anticipated that short-form video apps like TikTok would reverse this trend and send book sales soaring?
a graph of recreational book sales
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
But arts businesses in the AI era might end up looking like the unrecoverable devastation of writing businesses in the internet era Social media caused a total collapse of publishers' business models, leading to an 85% drop in news & book employment that shows no sign of abating
a graph of written media employment
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Can the arts business model survive AI? Perhaps the best guide is to look at how the arts survived past tech revolutions Take music—internet piracy and then streaming killed the lucrative CD market, but musicians mostly saved their jobs by focusing much more on live concerts
a graph showing music as a % of consumer spending, with album sales rising through the 90s before crashing in the 2000s and being replaced with concert revenue
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Hollywood has suffered the most in the AI era—with the movie & TV industry losing more than 100k jobs, nearly one-third of the sector’s total employment, over the last four years. Total employment in video production is approaching the fthe lowest levels in 30 years
a graph of US movie & TV production employment
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Perhaps the best evidence for AI-driven arts job loss is that all digital arts industries are losing jobs while most live arts still chug along Sectors like graphic design, streaming, & movie recording have experienced historically unusual job loss since ChatGPT's launch
a graph showing job losses of between 20-5% in all digital arts and gains of 15% in most live arts
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
he’s really losing it with the AI stuff
Donald J. Trump
@reaDonald Trump
Many people think that the words "Artificial Intelligence" are inaccurate, and very ineloquent, relative to Al, or Artificial Intelligence. A far more elegant and accurate description of this new phenomena would be Superior Intelligence (SI) or, Extreme Intelligence (El) or, Supreme Intelligence (SI). This is a Poll, and I would appreciate everybody voting! Which is the best name for this ever growing "Revolution?"
President DONALD J. TRUMP
Superior Intelligence (SI)
Extreme Intelligence (El)
Supreme Intelligence (SI)
O votes • 2 days remaining
O ReTruths
o Likes
9/19/26, 11:29 AM
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
“If you don’t rename the Kennedy Center after me I will close it forever” Again living in DC is experiencing the constant humiliation of “what if Robert Moses had the most gaudy taste possible and randomly got obsessed with musical theatre”
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
+
The Board of The Kennedy Center today agreed, almost unanimously, to close the Building for Safety reasons, and so that it can begin the process of Reconstruction. The closing will take place immediately, however, the Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board's approved name.
If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place. The attorneys from the DOJ will ask for an expedited appeal. In the meantime, 17 Million Dollars, raised by President Trump, has been put into The Kennedy Center account to keep it afloat. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President
DONALD J. TRUMP
234 ReTruths 767 Likes
9/15/26, 2:54 PM
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The Census Bureau's official quarterly financial data came out this week, and companies in the information technology sector broke another investment record amidst the AI boom Net holdings of property, plant, & equipment are up more than $350B over the last year alone
a graph of information tech sector net investment
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Unspeakably excited to finally have this book in my hands
A book called “is this it: the never ending rise and fall of the strokes (and rock n roll)
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
a meme where the 30 rock bit where Liz Lemon says "jack, just say Jewish this is taking forever" where the word Jewish is replaced with white
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
every day it gets dumber and worse
A pain Wojack
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Lucked into the best day possible to visit Glenstone. Highly recommended!
a picture of a beatiful day over a field in Glenstone Maryland
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
if you go to Glenstone it's actually illegal to take photos of any art except the flower horse/dinosaur. they won't let you do it.
a picture of me in front of Jeff Koons' Split-Rocker, a giant sculpture of the top of a rocking horse covered in flowersa picture of me in front of Jeff Koons' Split-Rocker, a giant sculpture of the top of a rocking horse covered in flowers
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Ridership on the Bay Area's Caltrain also continues rising in the wake of the route's electrification, with passenger counts up 23% compared to this time last year! Caltrain has taken more than 14.5M passengers over the last twelve months, the highest since 2019
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Kansas City's streetcar is also seeing a major ridership boom in the wake of the new extensions to UMKC and the riverfront Ridership has more than tripled over the last year, and the system now has more passengers than the Sacramento or Charlotte light rail systems!
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Another major transit story this year has been the steady rebound in LA Metro rail ridership since the opening of the first D-line extension Though still well below record highs, LA Metro moved 6.6M riders last month, up 16% from this time last year
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The biggest US transit story of this year has been the massive growth of Seattle Link Light Rail ridership in the wake of the 1 & 2 lines connecting The Link moved a record 5M passengers last month, up 35% from last year, and it's now America's biggest light rail network!
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
July US transit data is in today, & all of the largest US rail networks are growing! Cali leads the way, with ridership up 15% on Muni, 14% on BART, & 10% on LA Metro SEPTA (Philly) & MBTA (Boston) also have strong growth at 8%, while MTS (San Diego, +1.4%) is the slowest🧵
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
we’re like half a step away from him mailing a ransom note made of cut up magazines to Kevin Warsh at this point
Donald J. Trump
@realDonald Trump
+
Great jobs number just announced, breaking all estimates (except mine!) by double and triple - And you haven't seen anything yet! EMPLOYERS ADDED 162,000 JOB IN AUGUST. Lower the interest rates because the U.S.A. is a much stronger credit than it was just a short time ago!
A STRONG COUNTRY MEANS A LOWER INTEREST RATE - IT'S A BETTER CREDIT...Very simple! We should have the LOWEST RATE of any country in the World, like "the old days." Without the United States agreeing to allow them their big surpluses, and we could stop that immediately, they would no longer be considered financially ELITE! LOWER THE RATE OR I'LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT, which the U.S. Supreme Court, in its ridiculous and very costly Tariff decision, strongly acknowledged "the President" has an absolute right to do. ITS BETTER THAN TARIFFS!
The Fed Board, with its great new leader, must get smart - BE PATRIOTS for a change. High interest rates put the U.S.A. at a very unfair disadvantage, and I won't allow that to happen!
President DONALD J. TRUMP
1 ReTruth 3 Likes
9/4/26, 9:41 AM
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
What I watched in August: letterboxd.com/josephpolita...
a screenshot of Letterboxd, showing movies watched
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The core economic pitch for Trump's deportations was "fewer immigrants means more jobs for Americans" Unsurprisingly, that's just not happening Prime-age employment rates for native-born Americans held near the lowest levels in more than four years in data released today
a graph of employment rates for native and foreign born americans
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The US tech sector continues bleeding jobs—official data released this morning shows employment dropped by 4k last month and is down 42k over the last year That's not as bad as the worst of the 2024 tech-cession, but extremely bad compared to the 2022 boom or even pre-2020 norms
a graph of the year-on-year change in US tech employment
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
NEW US JOBS DATA: Non-farm Payrolls: +162k Unemployment Rate: 4.1% (+0%) Prime Age (25-54) Employment-Population Ratio: 80.4% (+0%) Average Hourly Earnings: +0.3%
a graph of US jobs data
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Of course, none of the AI buildout would be possible except for the fact that Trump has completely exempted the industry from tariffs The exemption for computers & parts is now so large that it represents nearly 1/5 of imports on its own, dwarfing every other tariff exemption
a graph comparing the largest tariff exemptions, showing computers & parts at 73B per month, more than triple the next highest category
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Hard to overstate the degree to which AI-related imports have completely reshaped US trade flows at this point Another record high for computer & parts imports in official data released this morning, tracking at nearly $700B annualized, up 126% over the last year alone
a graph of US computer imports
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