BryanPunkEcon

@spengjr Classic cost-benefit fallacy. Same logic that says tariffs 'protect' jobs. Count the visible plane, miss the invisible collapse of institutional knowledge.

A culture that values airplanes more than pilots will never have airplanes either. Because it will also value wealth more than the people who create it, paradoxically squashing the creation of wealth

The US is technologically and financially capable of operating anywhere on the planet *because* of the value we place on individuals. *Because* we don’t apply this sort of cost-benefit analysis

"Every crash is really about one thing. It's about credit, it's about debt, too much debt in the system," says @andrewrsorkin, author of "Too Big to Fail" and "1929." "That is the match that lights the fire of every financial crisis." Follow on Apple: bit.ly/484tjuy

The fastest energy transition in human history is happening right now In 2015, solar generated 256 TWh globally Today it’s over 2,700 TWh. Solar met 83% of all new electricity demand growth in the first half of 2025 alone Renewables just overtook coal as the world’s #1 electricity source And we’re still just getting started "Solar electricity will become by far the biggest source of power for civilization” — Elon Musk The Sun sends Earth enough energy in 1 hour to power all of humanity for a full year. One year of sunlight contains more energy than every oil well, coal mine, and gas field on Earth - combined We are capturing a fraction of a fraction of that The only thing standing between us and energy abundance is the speed at which we choose to build We are not in an energy shortage We are in an urgency shortage

@sowelleconomics The hand in your pocket gets heavier when rules change quarterly. The UK offers a masterclass in getting both wrong.

Milton Friedman: “The government doesn’t have any money. Only people have money. The government only gets money by putting its hand in your pocket and taking it out.”

@Playerinthgame The New Deal never competed with zero tax Emirates. This isn't rabid insanity, it's capital voting with its feet against outdated models.

utterly unsustainably rabidly insane. makes the Reagan years look like the New Deal era.

Here we go again. Markets kill demand faster than any inventory spike. The 'worst' never arrives because consumers adapt before models do.

@Marian_L_Tupy Politicians spent decades predicting trade 'disasters' yet lower incomes rose 55%. Data beats demagoguery.

Rich got richer; poor got richer.

“The most unresolved problem of the day is precisely the problem that concerned the founders of this nation: how to limit the scope and power of government.” — Milton Friedman

@ubi_works Subsidies rarely deliver what politicians promise. Tax cuts and competitive markets grow economies, not welfare programs.

Basic income can grow the economies of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba — while ending poverty.

@Handre Mises practiced punk economics in '31, destroying establishment myths while the house burned. Markets clear better than ministers but we still refuse to learn.

1931. Ludwig von Mises, speaking to German industrialists, delivered a devastating economic critique as their economy collapsed around them. His diagnosis was surgical: unemployment wasn't an inevitable byproduct of capitalism—it was the direct result of labor unions forcing wages above market rates. Mises laid out the brutal mathematics. When unions use force to push wages higher than what supply and demand dictate, fewer workers get hired. The unemployed would normally compete by accepting lower wages, but unemployment relief removes that pressure. Instead of solving unemployment, welfare programs become the mechanism that perpetuates it. He destroyed the rationalization myths one by one. "Rationalization" wasn't eliminating jobs—it was creating wealth that funded new industries. Price supports for struggling farmers weren't compassionate—they were destroying the price signals that guide resources to their most productive uses. The problem wasn't too little money or insufficient demand. The problem was governments systematically breaking the market mechanisms that coordinate economic activity. The German industrialists wanted to hear about monetary policy or international trade barriers. Mises gave them something harder to swallow: their economy was dying because politicians had made it illegal for markets to function. Every intervention spawned new crises that demanded new interventions, creating a downward spiral toward economic collapse. This wasn't theory—this was 1931 Germany, where millions sat unemployed while politicians blamed capitalism for the chaos their own policies had created. Mises offered the unwanted solution: stop preventing markets from working. Stop propping up failed businesses. Stop fixing wages above market rates. History vindicated every word. Germany's economic salvation came only when they finally abandoned the interventionist policies Mises had diagnosed as the disease itself.

@walt_richardson @texasrunnerDFW Flatten the risk curve for corporations but force workers to embrace gig economy "flexibility." Capitalism without bankruptcy is like religion without hell.

@texasrunnerDFW It is because we don't practice capitalism any more. I would say 90% of the country are as big a socialist as Sen. Sanders and AOC. We keep ignoring econ reality with more massive gov bailouts and we are deadly afraid of recessions and falling prices.

The Immobile Economy: • Nobody wants to change jobs • Nobody wants to move and give up their low rate *People feel like what they already have is the best they can get* Feeling stuck is psychologically demoralizing, even if the household balance sheet looks ok

@ReeceWabara Charlie Munger - the psychology of human misjudgment: assets.stripeassets.com/fzn2n1nzq965/0…

@Ronitper Parikh gets it right. Tariffs promise quick political wins but drive up costs for decades. Protectionism is instant gratification governance.

“Big Nations and Corporations fail only because they do things for short term benefits and they never look at long term consequences.” “People always tend to seek the fastest and easiest way to get things. And they want it right now.” - Parag Parikh. Src: PFFAS YT

@RebellioMarket I came up in punk. We tried to smash that system. Now 'authentic' rebellion sells for $500. Even anti-capitalism is just shelf stock.

Your poor life is not always your fault. According to Jiang Xueqin, the system trains your psychology from childhood — teaching you to obey rules, chase money, and fear risk. The result? People spend their lives protecting a system that controls them.

Oxfam compares billionaires' equity to peasants' income. Analytically bankrupt. Wealth isn't a zero-sum pie bureaucrats are entitled to slice.

@bohumilo Hazlitt nailed it. The 500 jobs tariffs 'save' get the headlines. The 5,000 destroyed never do. Concentrated benefits, dispersed pain.

Look not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; trace consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.

@AlexTaylorNews Six years of self-inflicted trade friction over marmalade labels. Bureaucratic theatre while exports rot.

Oh look ! Turns out the marmalade hissy-fits were all just hooey But they'll find something else - 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 to deny🇬🇧companies better access to the world's biggest single market or young Brits the right to study, live & work all over Europe again 𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 🤡

When mines close, workers don't become coders. They become dairy farmers if they're lucky enough to live near cows. Structural transformation isn't about upskilling. It's about moving.

Fourth center theories ignore operational reality. UAE took unprovoked hits, cleared terminals in hours, kept trade flowing. Legal frameworks intact. Institutions beat intimidation.

@policytensor @ProfessorPape I'll take Dubai's 24-hour crisis response over Britain's six-year Brexit chaos. Hormuz alarmism is just theatre for London commentators.

Iran’s control of Hormuz is not temporary, with profound implications for the balance of world power. @ProfessorPape