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William D. O'Connell

@williamoconnell.bsky.social
117 followers 95 following 91 posts

Postdoc at Columbia University's Center for Political Economy ; global finance, public policy, obscure baseball references ; williamdoconnell.com

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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
As I wrote, my experience living in Quebec led me to spread the gospel of its importance and uniqueness to an increasingly less receptive English Canada. The government claiming out-of-province students are extractive and harmful to Quebec society is both inaccurate and insulting.
Explanation of the irony that the Quebec government implemented its tuition hike to preserve the sanctity of the French language, when what this policy does is destroy the sympathy the rest of Canada may have for achieving this goal. I have personally advocated for the preservation of French and Quebec culture in Canada in part due to my experience living in Quebec, and this policy ensures others will not be able to follow in spreading the gospel elsewhere.
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Beyond the wild accounting there is also this bananas policy:
Passing legislation banning tax increases or new taxes without a referendum
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Exploiting secrecy loopholes and differences in the administration of taxation on cross-border commercial activity: a tale as old as Western civilization.
Description of a tax evasion scheme where Roman slavers exploited differences in the administration of taxes on the sale of slaves in different Roman provinces.
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
At the time, I hand-waved Trump's attempts at this during his first term, as he used only words and not state power.
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
China has tended only to do this for public-facing statements and officials. The US, meanwhile, appears to be targeting the internal policies of otherwise obscure corporations.
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
"China is uniquely situated to leverage this type of market power due to its enormous, growing consumer base and authoritarian structure." Not unique any more!
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
In practice, this manifested in many high profile instances of foreign MNCs parroting Chinese gov talking points or explicitly endorsing controversial positions in their home markets. Famously, Dreamworks included a map in the background of a children's movie depicting the nine-dash line.
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
This would be so funny if it didn't belie something so terrifying.
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
This is precisely right and if other universities or, indeed, Columbia's admin, think pre-emptive compliance will save them they are gravely mistaken.
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
A woke DEI hire who casually dominated the league immediately upon arrival.
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Hyperbolic? Probably. But terrifying nonetheless!
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Primary undergraduate: 6 universities, all in the bottom 8 including the lowest 4.
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Comprehensive: 8 universities, all in the bottom 9 including the lowest 6.
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Medical/doctoral: 5 universities, all in the bottom 6, including lowest 4.
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Browsing this year's MacLean's University rankings reveals the severe state of higher ed in Ontario: Every single Ontario university has a terrible student-faculty ratio across all three categories. Not a single institution that isn't at the very bottom of this metric.
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William D. O'Connell @williamoconnell.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
A very succinct (and damning) analysis of the insularity of Canadian progressive politics.
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