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Steve Roth

@steveroth.bsky.social
1.2K followers 411 following 3.7K posts

Entrepreneur, progressive sometime 1%er. (Tax me more.) Addictive reader: trash to tomes. National-accounting & econ geek. Evolution and Shakespeare dweeb. Besotted father. From MO; show me the #s. wealtheconomics.substack.com/about

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Reposted by Steve Roth
Steve Randy Waldman @interfluidity.com · 29/09/2026
The House of Representatives should be elected by proportional representation. The President and Senate by approval voting. There should be no formal primary system, parties should be allowed to choose their nominees as they see fit.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hal enters The Discourse.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
They’re obviously just doing this as a way to hype their products. 🙄
nytimes.com
OpenAI Says It Will Not Release Newest Astra A.I. Model Over Safety Concerns (Gift Article)
The company’s researchers raised questions about the security of the model, known as GPT-6.1 Astra.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is eye-popping. Details a dozen donations to Trump's $400M MAGA "campaign" fund over which he claims complete control. Bald-faced Pay To Play deals. Bribery. Corruption. popular.info/p/how-maga-i...
popular.info
How MAGA Inc. raised so much money
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump, who is constitutionally prohibited from running for president again, has raised over $400 million through his super PAC, MAGA Inc.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
@creatinganewworld.bsky.social V interested in checking out the alternative. But wd really like to just browse some before account creation. ?? Thx.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The minimum-wage effect — at least the most obvious part — is really easy to understand. High MW means more HH income, and (hence) more HH spending. So firms spend more on labor and get move revenues. It’s NOT complicated, and it’s v well documented, empirically. /1
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/o... "I would like to propose a better Turing test than Turing’s: Can a machine experience social anxiety? Can it lie awake at 4 in the morning replaying the stupid thing it said at dinner?" ​This is not a Turing test! 1/
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Rich people just sit on their wealth like Smaug the Dragon, don't turn it over in spend which causes production which creates more wealth... Updating this year-old post with recent Velocity of Wealth numbers. Using somewhat different measures but the story’s the same. Graph/data link in reply. ⬇️
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This is wild, new from @economist.com. Link below. Republican counties have (increasingly) higher birth rates than Dem counties. But they also have (increasingly) higher mortality rates. So Red counties’ “natural” population growth has gone negative since 2019. So... 1/
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Republicans and 2024 Trump voters here don't look anything like Real Americans to me... www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-09-25...
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Maybe some good explanation for the historically abysmal economic sentiment index? #Vibecession fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1Z0BP
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"Free markets" are a myth, a fantasy. There have never been markets of any significant size, in which government was not deeply involved in myriad ways. (Look up The Hanseatic League.) Today, for instance: Corporations are 100% creations of government, 1/
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Thinking that these analytics might be very interesting to @phillipspobrien.bsky.social ...
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
If your top political priorities are not the same as my top political priorities, you are morally corrupt AND you don’t understand how to win elections. 🙄
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Reposted by Steve Roth
Blair Fix @blairfix.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Here's the rise and fall of Britain, as captured by its world income-share and energy-share (left). Combining these two views gives the business-to-industry index (right). Notice the two stages: 'disruption' followed by 'monetization'. economicsfromthetopdown.com/2026/09/19/t...
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
If you look at the *distribution* of the NIPAs’ (balance-sheet-incomplete) Income - Outlays = Saving, the results are completely implausible. Bottom-80% have been spending down their assets for decades? Annual "Total" saving here = NIPA’s Household income + accrued holding gains - outlays.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
It’s always amazed me how many (male) people don’t see any problems with “move fast and break things.”
cnn.com
Exclusive: US military had close call after using AI for false intelligence report, sources say | CNN Politics
The episode shows the risks of using this new, relatively poorly understood technology in the middle of the Iran war
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Reposted by Steve Roth
🌈Dr. Frizzle @swilua.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
my new favorite conspiracy theory about why all the AI bros are asking everyone to back off on developing AI
From threads:

thetheori 11h
+
They probably asked it how to fix the world and it said the only way was to eliminate the billionaires.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This. [Also this which comes up in replies, which I asked Hal about: share.google/aimode/vd5Sv... ] Why this is (!!!) interesting: www.persuasion.community/p/swarms-of-...
share.google
Google Search
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
When are they gonna rename DOJ to The Department of Vengeance, or The Revenge Department?
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
As a pretty diligent long-time amateur show-me-the-numbers-style researcher in this field — income and especially wealth, and their distribution — I’m feeling like a deer in the headlights facing this. Pretty daunted in my capacity to evaluate it. institute.deepmind.com/essays/econo... ...
institute.deepmind.com
Economic Policy for AGI
Society has the capacity and tools to shape our economic trajectory in the AGI era. Here is a roadmap for managing the transition.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Shall they always be with us? Between quarter and a third of Americans don't believe in the principles upon which this country was founded. Even as they fervently pledge allegiance.
Quotes from the from the Declaration of Independence, Gettysburg Address, and Pledge of Allegiance.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

…with liberty and justice for all.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Has anybody else noticed gmail acting quite weird in multiple ways over past weeks, months? My guess is they're using AI more and AI is just unreliable...
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Luv Cory Doctorow. But: Cory Doctorow uses 2,000 words & 14 links to say: You shouldn't be worried about autonomous AIs. [Yet?] You should be worried about pathological or just careless people running swarms of AI instances. Lotta pathological & careless people in this world… shorturl.at/B3JZ3
shorturl.at
Pluralistic: LLMs are real, AI is fake (12 Sep 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Dean Baker @deanbaker13.bsky.social shows the difference between sensible left commentators and the right. At risk of sounding like a defender of Walsh (Trump's new Fed Chair), he sticks to his guns and explains how Fed rate hikes can't solve the current inflation runup (that Trump has caused).
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Reposted by Steve Roth
Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
🚨 BEWARE of VoteSafe.org 🚨 While it bills itself as a “safe” way to register to vote, it is actually a digital surveillance machine created by Elon Musk’s super PAC.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This seems like such an eye-popping empirical regularity, I can't imagine why econs haven't examined or exploited it. The trendline slope is zero to four digits, over seven decades. For every dollar of Personal Consumption Spending, household wealth increases by 40 cents (nominal $s).
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
“Liberal democracy is the magic beast that ran the table on fascism and communism and totalitarianism.” China is the 8,000-pound exception, but still.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
New Post @ Wealth Economics! It's short.
wealtheconomics.substack.com
Who Gets the Unearned Income?
Who are the “takers”? The answer may (not) surprise you.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The Tax Foundation's debunking of the dismal labor share #s and trends doesn't seem understand Household Income, or how it's measured and compiled. Many errors. @davidbeckworth.bsky.social x.com/asymptosis/s...
x.com
Steve Roth (@asymptosis) on X
This is a glaring misrepresentation or just misunderstanding from the get-go. HHs' Personal Income printed $26T In July, not the $32T GDI this starts with. Numerous other errors. HHs’ Rental Incom...
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I want to send this as an example to all my acquaintances who like to talk about “doing their own research,” in hopes that it might lead them to a sober assessment of their ability to do so. www.the-downballot.com/p/how-the-do...
the-downballot.com
How The Downballot reports on and analyzes polls
Polling can be very useful, but we have strict requirements for what we will—and won’t—include
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Wow who knew?
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Did it take Trump to finally crush Reaganomics? Progressive economic populism and Social Democracy FTW.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
We economists have done the maths: ‘growth’ is a doomed strategy – there is a better way | Olivier De Schutter and others
Our roadmap has been shaped by experts across the world. We call on political leaders at all levels to use it, says Olivier De Schutter and others
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Productivity, output per hour worked, is more than 5X what it was in 1947. Here vs Hours worked per capita. Only since Covid have Americans started reaping the productivity benefits by capturing more Free time. Less work hours over a lifetime for people, families, communities… #Freedom FTW.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I find it very hard to imagine a story in which Hal causes tens, hundreds of millions of American people and families to experience more secure, easier, more prosperous lives and promising futures, over the next five years at least. The opposite seems much more likely.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
17-Year ICE Veteran: “Recruits Pose…” Fixed it for you. Gift Link: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/u...
nytimes.com
ICE Skipped Basic Checks in Rush for Recruits, Whistle-Blower Says (Gift Article)
An official who oversaw the vetting of ICE recruits cited an “unprecedented lowering of standards” amid a hiring surge.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Each household in America is paying an extra ~$1500 a year to pay for ~50,000 armed, violent law officers roaming the streets of our country. A true libertarian paradise.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Output per hour worked has increased more than 5X since 1940 when we instituted the 40 hour week. But we’re still working 40 hours a week?
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
U just know that TikTok, Meta, Xwitter, et al have versions of Hal that just look at a video and say, "Oh yeah, this baby's gonna *perform.*" So they blast it out, and it does. Anyone who can intuit what Hal wants, and deliver it, is a Winner! Really the perfect social-ranking algorithm, right?
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
ChinaGate!
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
James Carville has been reincarnated as the bond market, and…
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Guy totally groks the American people and their biggest issues/concerns.
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Reposted by Steve Roth
Brian Honan @brianhonan.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Happy Skynet day to all those who celebrate
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
lol
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Trump doesn’t want to be the King, he wants to be the Emperor.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Rubio, translated: Violent imperial states. Not just sovereign states. Ah, those were the good ol’ days…before the violently territorial Tzarist, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires in Europe all collapsed in 1917-18. (Y: The German and Soviet empires sought to continue that…)
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I have serious qualms about this. Employing radical extensions to executive power that we have heretofore considered anathema.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
This is a great piece. The only thing it doesn’t (quite) say out loud is that the British East India Company was despicable. The implications for its modern equivalents, and the powers that enable and enrich them, are not hard to find. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | What It Took to Dismantle the Most Powerful Company in the World (Gift Article)
A playbook to curb the growing power of Big Tech.
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Steve Roth @steveroth.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Ya think? When people like this are looking for a political home in America, there’s one party that welcomes, embraces, and elevates them.
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