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Steve Cicala

@stevecicala.bsky.social
12K followers 657 following 1.5K posts

Vontobel Foundation Professor of Sustainable Economics University of Zurich Tufts University (on leave) www.stevecicala.com goingelectric.substack.com

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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 4h
Not that I think car companies are dumb enough to make long-term investments based on the whims of this executive, but… Stimulating gasoline demand with weaker fuel economy standards is not going to help lower prices.
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Deterrence is the only instrument at our disposal. The sooner Democrats learn to use it, the less damage there will be.
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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
We must “recognize the evil that is being carried out in our name and fight it…We must recognize that in abandoning the words of Deuteronomy and the Statue of Liberty, we are losing our soul as a nation.” — Cardinal Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington open.substack.com/pub/lettersf...
open.substack.com
On Pope Leo’s World Day of Migrants, Cardinal McElroy Indicts Trump’s War on Immigrants
Preaching on the Good Samaritan for World Day of Migrants, Washington’s archbishop named Minneapolis, a five-year-old used as bait, and a nation that “passed on by.” He told Catholics to fight every d...
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Scott Imberman @imbernomics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Reporters need to presss the networks that accept the ad and ask if they risk being considered accomplices in a fraud against the United States in the eventual prosecutions.
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Paging Covert and Kellogg.
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Even if you have zero concern for climate change, it is malpractice as a policymaker to do anything but run as far and fast as you can from a fossil fuel-based economy. Why would you leave yourself so exposed to this madness given the alternatives? www.wsj.com/livecoverage...
wsj.com
Trump’s Talk of Banning Diesel Exports Adds to Europe’s Energy Pain
Europe was already facing an energy crunch. Then President Trump spoke up about banning U.S. diesel exports, and the continent’s problems got worse. ICE gasoil futures, used as a benchmark for diesel ...
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King Algamemnon @adamrothman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Two arms marked China and Hegseth clasp over a caption that says "Examining the U.S. military's sensitive parts"
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The Donkey Sanctuary and Royal Opera House are well-known aliases for Parliament, so I find this mathematically impossible.
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Let us not forget the real victims when a rogue wet lab releases a deadly pathogen: The staff who conceived, designed, built, and operated the lab. The whole thing really bummed them out.
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Sam Ori @samori8.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Ah yes. The widely heralded economic policies of “presidents in the 70s.”
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Mick Ryan @warinthefuture.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Witkoff is even more inept than we thought. A good examination of the role of the White House front man for US efforts to end the war in Ukraine from the @KyivIndependent kyivindependent.com/exclusive-uk...
kyivindependent.com
Exclusive: Ukraine, Russia are done with Steve Witkoff. Trump sees no problem
Kyiv and Moscow are growing increasingly frustrated with the U.S.-mediated peace process — and with Washington's Envoy Steve Witkoff, people familiar with the matter told the Kyiv Independent. Witkof...
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This, but also for the US.
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The Economist @economist.com · 17/09/2026
“If the inheritocracy looms, it has clearly not yet arrived,” argue Eric Zwick and Owen Zidar. The university professors believe that the narrative surrounding the bequest of financial assets is flawed bit.ly/4rzWfD3 Illustration: Dan Williams
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This was great, particularly the end. Without accusing @janeaflegal.bsky.social of being a “utility bro” I think there’s an important difference between utilities over-building and dumb-building. Replacing amortized capital with the same equipment isn’t over-building. I think that’s widespread.
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Next up: supporters of the Copernican system. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
IMF ditched top candidate for chief economist job over Trump tariff remarks
LSE professor Ricardo Reis had said the US president’s trade war would hurt American consumers
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Stan Veuger @stanveuger.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I organized an economist amicus brief in support of affirmance of the Court of International Trade's ruling in Oregon v. Trump and Burlap and Barrel v. Donald J. Trump that the administration exceeded its authority when it imposed 10% worldwide tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974.
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Fischer 🛠️🚇 @fischer.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
breaking: XAI announces that they have used an unreleased grok model to solve a major open problem in the field of race science
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I suspect the protectionism angle here is hiding something more sinister: Allied, foreign governments are more oriented toward testing and regulating model capabilities. Export restrictions are just a convenience for keeping the more harrowing features hidden. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
Anthropic withheld latest AI model from UK testing agency
Decision to exclude Aisi has prompted fears inside British government of protectionist shift among tech groups
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Seth Masket @smotus.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I Study Projects that Select on the Dependent Variable. They Have One Habit in Common.
nytimes.com
Opinion | I Study Successful People. They Have One Habit in Common.
Being a successful self-starter doesn’t mean pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.
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Patton Oswalt @pattonoswalt.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Apparently people are sharing this far and wide on social media, which I think is horrible. This could cripple ICE operations. PLEASE do not share this.
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
They’re just not that into you.
“That’s how we interpret it . . . based on my conversations with the UK, where I say, ‘Hey, you’re free of the EU. Why don’t you liberalise a little bit, accept goods made to American standards, accept agricultural goods made to American standards?’” Greer said.

“And they say, ‘Well, we have to wait and see what the EU says about it’. You know that is a problem for us and that’s challenging.”
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
It's as if the 8th amendment does not exist.
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Damian Carrington @dpcarrington.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Now, in response to alerts from the UN's #Methane Alert and Response System, Turkmenistan has started plugging the leaks There's much more to do, but it's an "incredible first step" The 2nd biggest mega-leaker, the US, is doing nothing @unep.org 3/3 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘Breakthrough’ as Turkmenistan starts fixing ‘mindboggling’ methane mega-leaks
Secretive state begins repairs on ageing facilities after being revealed as worst country for leaks of potent greenhouse gas
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Holy smokes. The agents figured out a cheat to solve a hacking puzzle. To win, they needed to cover their tracks. Agents learned to coordinate using package managers. Hacked into a company and ultimately took over their OpenAI server. www.dwarkesh.com/p/openai-hug...
dwarkesh.com
The Rise and Fall of Agent Civilizations
The whole OpenAI/Hugging Face story in plain English
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
An export tax on oil and gas would be an exquisite response to the US taxing imports from Canada. Have fun explaining why tariffs are good, but export taxes are bad!
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 28/08/2026
The human beings in chains shown in this photograph were living and working legally in the United States, contributing to US firms and communities and public coffers and churches, until the US Administration decided to *revoke* their legal status—due to no action of theirs.
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I really can’t wait for Google’s explanation for why they caved to Trump’s insanity on Mexico, but won’t change Lake Ontario’s name.
Gulf of America
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 27/08/2026
Did I miss the big open letter signed by a hundred academics opposing this?
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 25/08/2026
I’ve lost track of the number of times an immigrant has told me they had to sit on a prison bus in the back of an airport for six, 10, 20 hours with no food or water and being told to urinate in a corner or onto themselves.
A screenshot of a White House tweet styled after The Magic School Bus cartoon but this one says “The Magic Deportation Bus” and shows shackled brown men in the back. The White House account says “Please let this be a normal field trip…” One put gray text over the whole thing that says “FASCIST PROPAGANDA.”
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Lindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Holy shit. No wonder Carney told the US to pound sand.
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
A great speech by the leader of the free world. The US 'signature was written in pencil' is a great line. It would make MAGA heads spin by responding with export tariffs on goods with inelastic import demand elasticities. www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Wg...
youtube.com
FULL SPEECH | Carney explains why Canada suspended trade talks with U.S.
YouTube video by CBC News
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Colette Delawalla, PhD @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Let’s call this what it is: an atrocious betrayal of people who risked their lives to help Americans.
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
This is great. Reinforces my belief that a modern manufacturing process for transformers would be extremely lucrative and consequential. Look at this. You’re telling me that’s the best way to build? C’mon now. Your customers must make money by spending money…
I swear to god they wrap paper around wires the same way they did 100 years ago.
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
This outcomes was entirely predicted. The UK will now either continue to pay to pretend prices don’t exist, or pay for the transmission needed so that a uniform price actually prevails. The latter will accommodate substantial power generation growth.
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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
A great article by the always-excllent @mattbarnum.bsky.social about my new study with @zbleemer.bsky.social on the "meritocratic consensus" in higher education: www.chalkbeat.org/2026/08/18/s...
chalkbeat.org
How American higher education helps the rich get richer
Higher education’s admissions hierarchy is also a spending hierarchy. The students who arrive with the most advantages often receive the most resources.
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SIEPR @siepr.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
🙌 A victory in the campaign against junk fees, a key contributor to SIEPR Director @nealemahoney.bsky.social and others are calling the "annoyance economy." ⬇️
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
These generators are those yellow and brown dots on the far left of this graph: The most expensive generators to run, only used at peak demand. The idea of running a massive electricity-consuming plant around the clock on these things is as insane as racing on the autobahn in first gear.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=7590
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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 12/08/2026
"even when we decided to make the difficult decision to asked to be allowed to voluntarily leave the US [...] the govt not only opposed it but suggested that it would appeal any judicial decisions that grant us departure [...] they want to continue our indefinite detention without any end in sight"
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
The US ambassador writes in bad faith. The US tariff taxes output. Exemptions are allowed for firms who pay bribes or share special secrets with Trump and Epstein. The CBAM taxes carbon emissions. Firms with no emissions or a domestic price pay no tax. Who’s against rules based trade?
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Good news! "the government just spent $3.9 billion of taxpayer dollars spent to shoot a corpse" energyathaas.wordpress.com/2026/08/10/w...
energyathaas.wordpress.com
Who Killed Offshore Wind?
A closer look at $3.9 billion in lease buyouts suggests they are bad policy but probably irrelevant to deployment Climate headlines often nudge me toward despair. Heat waves, wildfires, and melting…
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Stories about Kushner, Witkoff and inside trading relating to the Iran War have been abounding for months now.
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Confession: I no longer list my construction or restaurant jobs on my LinkedIn page.
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Massimo (mirror) @rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Possibly the greatest single male athletic performance of all time Original post
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Pavithra Suryanarayan @pavisuri.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
There are 2 constraints on academics: the cuts in funding & restrictions on how universities manage their finances combined with a growing demand for more reporting of how they spend the monies. The 1st restricts the pie, the 2nd raises bureaucratic costs. Both stem from a deep suspicion of academia
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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 30/07/2026
"A concentration camp, in its most basic definition, is a place where a targeted civilian population, not necessarily accused of a crime, is detained and at least some of their basic rights are suspended," writes @jwashing.bsky.social. "That’s precisely what’s happening in the United States today."
theguardian.com
Don’t call them ICE detention centers. Call them camps | John Washington
I’ve spent a decade reporting on immigration enforcement. The word ‘camp’ best captures the political function of these facilities
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Nahel Belgherze @wxnb.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Bordeaux, France, has now recorded more days above 40°C in 2026 alone than during the entire 105-year period from 1920 (when observations began) to 2025. This is deeply shocking.
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
You know, I don't think it's a great time to go all-in with onshoring a perfectly tradeable good whose main input is electricity. There's just no good reason for European AI models to be trained using EU electricity. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/b...
nytimes.com
Europe Is Caught Between Low Gas Reserves and Rising Prices From Iran War
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Steve Cicala @stevecicala.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Somerville, MA has also been experiencing the madness of conflating use facilitation with harm reduction. The upshot is that parks and public spaces have been forfeited to a small group of people who need help and are not getting it in the name of “compassion.” www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
theatlantic.com
The Cities That Said Yes to Drugs
Policies that gave addicts clean needles and places to use drugs were intended to reduce harm. They created a “zombie apocalypse.”
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Econometrica @ecmaeditors.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Random Priority—a popular no-transfer allocation mechanism—is efficient, fair, & simple to participate in. Is it the only mechanism with these properties? Marek Pycia @econ.uzh.ch and Peter Troyan, UVA Economics, answer this long-standing question in the positive. buff.ly/zlSjmC0
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Ray Beckerman @raybeckerman.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Trump Admin Condemned After Missouri Couple Killed in Guatemala Following Deportation www.commondreams.org/news/asylum-...
commondreams.org
Trump Admin Condemned After Missouri Couple Killed in Guatemala Following Deportation | Common Dreams
"Deportation is a life-or-death matter." A couple deported to Guatemala found shot dead, leaving their baby crying beside them. How many more lives will be lost in the name of immigration enforcement?
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