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Karthik Sankaran

@rajakorman.bsky.social
7.9K followers 1.5K following 10K posts

Bay Area US. Aging macro expat. Cheap lunch guy. 1st to ever rhyme Duce and Juche. Neoliberal peacenik. Has Herder immunity. The Stakhanov of dad jokes. 1/3 each phlegm, spleen & dad humors.

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Reposted by Karthik Sankaran
Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 1h
That many of the same people who are the kind of 2A extremists who have brought us to at least 1.5 guns per capita ALSO believe that the right to vote should be restricted solely to those whose self-defense is based on UFC-style combat is a bit odd.
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Beau @runningsignal.com · 1h
It’s cosplay. They point the finger at furries while wearing tough guy outfits from Spirit Halloween.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 3h
The people behind effective altruism are borrowing so much money they’re trashing dividend stocks, which proves they’re actually anti-utilitarian.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 5h
Maybe it’s an omen.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 5h
So key BZ question is exactly what needs to change in political-economy to end a requirement for punishingly high real interest rates pretty much all the time and can one arrive at an institutional consensus that is not just “do a permanent 5% primary surplus forever.” www.piie.com/blogs/realti...
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 23h
WH HR AI
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Ken Tindell @kentindell.bsky.social · 23h
The kulcha wars come for everyone in the end.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 23h
Found this there, have to share here for all the sociologists/theorists/Area studies people.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Because the American dream is to be a member of the Mattelstand.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
He really seems much more at ease with The Patrimonial State than with The Matrimonial State.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Very excited to be at the Blue Wave Lava Jato.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
It’s “could care less” with inflection/gesture conveying opposite. Great Game should mean sideshow. Falls are precipitous, rises are vertiginous. Just say money and lives instead of Blood and Treasure. Either report Pentagon expenditures in 10 yr terms or US civilian expenditures in 1-yr terms.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
He really seems much more at ease with The Patrimonial State than with The Matrimonial State.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This is what happens when an Oracle actually wants you to invade Persia.
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ettaroo.bsky.social @ettaroo.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I remember when they called the energy projects around the Caspian in the mid 90s The Next Great Game. And I was like "What was the First Great Game" and only the Brits at school knew what it was and the rest of us just shrugged.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Yet again, I shriek into the void, Anglo-Russian rivalry in the HinduKush was a minor sideshow compared to Anglo-French rivalry everywhere, the Boer War as a Anglo-German proxy conflict, & above all, US expansion into the Pacific via the Spanish-American War, making it THE MAINE EVENT of the 1890s.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Link to my book talk with Liaquat Ahamed--we talked railroads, bimetallism, capital in an age of globalization alternating between nationalism and transnationalism, the geopolitics of lending to developing countries. And I snuck in a dad joke (archival not new). www.youtube.com/watch?v=phNp...
youtube.com
Book Talk | 1873—The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World
YouTube video by Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
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Macronin @macronin1.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Correct, but one wonders if reals are so high because such a massive part of the budget is driven by the constitution, and highly unlikely to be reformed without a major crisis…which might be bad for bondholders.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
File under have you ever considered why capital “flowing uphill” from EMs might be a strategy for success?
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
BZ predicament making me realize that if markets demand c/a deficit EMs run large primary surpluses to offset interest burden of higher rates than counterfactual, it is very rational for EMs to instead target c/a surpluses that come w. lower interest rates & more fiscal space.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
New Wave Of Crowding Out Leads To Crowded House.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
A famously stiff German Chancellor is the only visible male who is not wearing a tie or even a jacket?
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Had not seen this when it first came out but what sweet music this is. www.csis.org/analysis/how...
csis.org
How Trade Reduces the Risk of War
A new study demonstrates the quantifiable contributions of economic integration in building sustainable global security.
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Dennis @bododenden.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Muesli for Bundesanleihen. "Who uses Muesli as a spread?" WIR REGELN DAS AUF UNSERE WEISE, DANKE SEHR!
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BrokenBanker @brokenbanker.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Marmite for Gilts, Vegemite for AGBs
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
We should have a different nickname for “spread” in every EZ country. Nutella for BTPs, sobrasada for Bonos, rillete for OATs, butter (yuck) for gilts if the UK ever rejoins.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
At the extreme risk of being Stanciled (rhymes with ...) maybe one (not the only) reason sentiment is soft is that the pace of pay increases has been falling steadily for some time, despite low U3, even as serial dumbass supply shocks (TM) have pushed headline inflation up since Feb?
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nonrenormalizable.bsky.social @nonrenormalizable.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
They have high real interest rates, but they had even higher cruzeiro interest rates.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
America, Europe and East Asia over the last 60 years.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
One key to Brazilian politics is that the basic fact of (having to?) run staggeringly high real interest rates pretty much all the time constricts fiscal space (for govts of all stripes) by constantly requiring very large primary surpluses in order to keep debt dynamics from running amok.
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GenevaGirl @michellev.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
For the kids that weren’t around last time, it’s not a debt crisis without a Landesbank
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Just say no.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Also, I had no idea that Joseph Chamberlain (whom I dislike more than Neville) looked like I imagined Erich von Stalhein (from the Biggles books).
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Douglas Irwin @douglasirwin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Lot of discussion about MFN at the recent WTO public forum.... Some thoughts (drawing on history) here: www.thefreedomfrequency.org/p/why-most-f...
thefreedomfrequency.org
Why "Most Favored Nation" Is Losing Favor
The US and Europe say the nondiscrimination ideal fails to address security and fairness—and to restrain China.
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Wealth of Nations @mpurves.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
They are still in denile
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Modern Egypt’s foreign policy is just one dam thing after another.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I can’t vouch for the details but I was curious and I typed in a query and it turns out that earth is probably logging roughly 40 billion hours of eyeballs on screens (not counting work) every day.
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wfrost @wfrost.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Neat discussion on the parallels between the late 19th century industrial boom (think railroads and canals) and today (chips and AI). At around 35mins there’s a good exploration on the intersection of deflation, monetary policy and productivity during that period vs today
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
White House continues with campaign to convince people that in an age of AI-led job destruction, it is honorable and lucrative to join the ranks of Plumbers. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...
wsj.com
Exclusive | Decades After Watergate, Justice Department Reviews Whether Nixon Got a Raw Deal
A revisionist historian went to the DOJ headquarters to present his case that the former president and his associates weren’t treated fairly.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Links to two maps-- World per capita homicide rates ourworldindata.org/grapher/homi... and World Gini Coefficients. worldpopulationreview.com/country-rank...
worldpopulationreview.com
Gini Coefficient by Country 2026
Based on the Gini coefficient (Gini index), South Africa has the highest income inequality in 2026 while Slovakia has the lowest income inequality.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The level of state fracture/reconfiguration in the Red Sea Littoral (particularly but not exclusively on the African side) is like something from the Balkans before 1914 and again after 1990.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
How come the Vikings never got their butts kicked? They were protected by their Asgard.* * I’m pretty sure I invented this, much to the delight of my then 8-year-old son, a Thor fan.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Hamilton’s Assumption Plan Unites States.
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david. @david.uncensored.zip · 01/10/2026
They come in regular envelopes so they cant be easily id and stolen.
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Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Not every investment into the 1,246 AI firms they tracked came from another AI firm. And not every one of those AI-to-AI investments was a circular financing deal. But we're still talking >1/4 of investment volumes classified as circular financing.
Doughnut chart showing 25.6% of AI investments 2021-2025 (in red) classified by the BIS as being circular financing deals. A further 29.6% of investment (grey) is AI firms investing in other AI firms. The remaining 44.8% of investment comes from everyone else.
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I made this for you, Toby
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Michael Hirson @hotpotwhynot.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
That’s when you know it’s time for a 12-steppe program. (Pun stolen from @rajakorman.bsky.social)
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Sylvia Chi 齊思涵 @sylviachi.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Today I learned some Theda Skocpol lore:
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Link here, posted by Gerardo Munck there. One of the most useful things I have ever read. www.some.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/u...
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is known as the Theory Of The Spermanent Revolution.
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