Luke Froeb

@JeremyCom Ironic tragedy. Was it due to functional divisions (environment vs. fire protection) working at cross purposes, without effective oversight?

Bass, Newsom didn’t clear dangerous brush… Pacific Palisades, Altadena, Malibu burned. Now Los Angeles is FINING Palisades burned lot holders for “brush clearance initial inspection noncompliance notices.” … while their lots sit vacant, burned, not yet permitted to build often because of red tape. You can’t make this up. Limited water, prevention, plan, people, firetrucks. No brush clearance by leadership or their teams. Fire on state ground. Limited response due to a protected plant. Roll the dice and lose cities. And now fine your victims in yet another attempt to SHIFT THE BLAME from ineptitude, gross negligence to the victims. Jeremy Padawer Pacificpalisades.com @spencerpratt @Hotshot_Movie @415FirePhoto

@BrandonWarmke What about markets as a regulatory mechanism: reducing subsidies; vouchers to bring stronger market forces on education; getting rid of tenure.

A wrecking ball to the academics who, by cowardice and complicity, destroyed universities all on their own. “Unless and until academics identify a specific, realistic mechanism for their own regulation, any complaints about externally imposed reforms have little credibility.”

@TheProfitPup @KobeissiLetter WOW. I know this is nitpicky, but why not compare median home to median income? They are probably not far off, but statisticians are suspicious every data point.

@KobeissiLetter This is a sobering stat—$114,627 needed to afford a median home is a huge leap from the average $80,000 household income. The $33,500 gap between new and existing homes you highlighted earlier really underscores how locked-in homeowners and rising rates (6.59% on 30-year mortgages) are reshaping the market. With affordability down 50% since 2021 per NAR, could a Fed rate cut in September ease this pressure, or are we looking at a longer structural shift? Curious to hear your take!

BREAKING: A homebuyer must now earn $114,627/year to afford the median-priced US home, per Redfin. This means the average US household income would require a ~42% raise to afford the median home. Homeownership is officially a luxury.

@lugaricano agree: loved the interview, but more sanguine about progress/usefulness of economics. In antitrust, huge progress in how mergers are analyzed, from correlations between price and concentration, to richer, more realistic game theoretic models of how mergers affect price.

3. On the technification: Levitt claims we are likely (he is "very pessimistic" about the future of economics) to go the way of anthropology and sociology towards irrelevance. I don't think that is going to happen. With some exceptions, economics did not take the ideological turn of other social sciences-- it has remained refreshingly, old fashionedly, positivist. People have research questions, develop hypothesis, find data, do analysis. True, sometimes the tools take too much precedence. But with so much new data, and so many smart minds, there is always new terrain, new questions, new answers. I see a dynamic, exciting field. 8/n

Some reactions to the (wonderful) Levitt interview. 1) On the @uchicago PhD program and the atmosphere in the department in the 90s (toxic?). 2) On Price Theory and its future at @uchicago and beyond. 3) On the "technification" of economics and the blurring of the "theory-empirics" boundaries. (link to interview: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ste…) (Thread) 1/n

@Jon_Hartley_ @capandfreedom @UChicago Fabulous. I got to experience a tiny bit of Chicago econ as a fellow (Rubinstein's theory, empirical micro, and law and econ), before Levitt . Liked the idea that you get ten minutes to present your work and then forced to answer questions for the duration.

In latest @CapAndFreedom ep, Steve Levitt talks his career & retiring as @UChicago prof while still leading RISC & Freakonomics. We talk applied economics, Chicago econ dept (price theory failure, macro success, personalities), Freakonomics origin & more podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ste…

@carolmswain When the Harvard President copied your original, she added a redundant word, "incumbent."

I have some free unsolicited advice for Harvard University. 1. Stop listening to the apologists for plagiarism. 2. Fire Claudine Gay posthaste. She can be relieved of duties until the terms are negotiated. 3. Stop listening to the racist mob of whites and blacks who cry racism while being among the worst offenders. 4. Hire the best man or woman who can steer the university back towards sanity. Appeasing the Marxist identity politics mob should not be a consideration. The person for the job might be a middle to older age white Jewish man who believes in classical liberalism. 5. Have a sit down conversation with the people who have been harmed by the plagiarism of Gay and the system that protects her. 6. Recognize that Harvard’s systematic racism and classism have far reaching effects. 7. Apologize to alumni, students, parents, and donors who have been harmed and embarrassed.

'Antitrust Policy, The Chicago School Consumer Welfare Standard and The Rise of the New Brandeisians' by The Capitalism and Freedom in the Twenty-First Century Podcast megaphone.link/NSR2711130108

@conlon_chris @FTC managerialecon.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-ft…

#econtwitter should take a look at the (heavily redacted) @FTC Amazon complaint that came out recently. Given past experience, this case will likely not be resolved for 3-20 years. Not everything is visible -- but I'll give my best guesses below.. 1/ ftc.gov/system/files/f…

@conlon_chris @davidamichaels @WSJ It reminds me of apocryphal story of why Prof Richard Posner left antitrust: "if they priced too high, they said it was monpolization; if they priced too low, pedation; and if they priced the same, collusion.

I'll end on what what might actually be a big issue for this case, raised by tech reporter @davidamichaels at @WSJ. Would a tying/MFN case be easier if we didn't spend the last few years talking "predatory pricing"? We'll never know! 18/18 wsj.com/tech/in-suing-…