A Very Curious Economist

@DKThomp It makes you “nervous”. Oh please. You love it!

my position is 1. most billionaires earn their money legally 2. even if billionaires mostly "earn" their billions, i think that the concentration of wealth is a political, societal, and even economic problem. (for example: billionaire contributions to national elections could easily get to 25-50% of total political spend, and the power that implies over political and agenda capture makes me nervous; plus, at some point, concentration could move money from spenders to savers in a way that could be troublesome for growth) 3. recent tax cuts for s corps and c corps really don't help with (2) 4. to begin to address (2) i think we should undo the trump tax cuts, increase avg effective estate taxes, and probably raise the national minimum effective tax rate for the wealthiest ppl. it's too easy for billionaires to pay lower effective tax rates than the middle class with the c/s corp rules we have now

@RichardHanania @RachelBitecofer Im glad that Democratic presidents like Clinton and Obama did not gain significant wealth after their presidencies were over.

This administration still finds way to shock. Trump's buddy was in a custody battle with his ex-girlfriend. So he called a top ICE official and asked she be detained. The ICE official calls the Miami office to pick the woman up from jail, telling them that "the case was important to someone close to the White House." She was deported. These people simply see government as a vehicle for advancing their own personal interests. There's no shame about it. nytimes.com/2026/03/20/us/…

@ElectTheBench Stop throwing migrant communities under the bus.

James Talarico on listening to real Texans about border policy, not the groups in DC who say they represent them.

@MillieOfferman @mattyglesias We can just as easily have other constructed rights: maybe the penalty for any landlord failing to pass a spot surprise habitability inspection is 1 year of free rent to a tenant? That would go far to cure egregious lack of maintenance in properties rented to the public

@MillieOfferman @mattyglesias What’s morally repugnant is to enlist’s the state’s support in eviction when you are willing to accept only gains, but never losses, from life’s vicissitudes.

@MillieOfferman @mattyglesias Yes, both are constructed rights.

@PolicyMulti @mattyglesias Yeah, that's totally the same thing.

@MillieOfferman @mattyglesias Property owners’ rights are neither infinite nor absolute. Try opening up drug rehab facility in your house in a residential street and claiming “but its MY PROPERTY” and you will understand this. Eviction is not some inherent right granted by the universe

@PolicyMulti @mattyglesias That is the state's problem; it's not your right to inflict your personal problems on a property owner.

@GOPsickandtired @mattyglesias No i think losing a house because of missing few mortgage payments is arbitrary and totally unnecessary. It’s just made-up rules. Instead if a tenant is non-paying, the bank must suspend collection

@PolicyMulti @mattyglesias I would say respectfully. Not the homeowners problem. Should they lose the house because of non payment?

@foodandphotos8 @mattyglesias Force majeure, ie the loss of a job, can suspend the obligation to pay for some time

@PolicyMulti @mattyglesias Is refusing to uphold your end of a contract something that breaks the social contract too? Or nah lol fuck them landlords

@foodandphotos8 @mattyglesias Yes

@PolicyMulti @mattyglesias Is the social contract some written document we all unwittingly have signed?

@foodandphotos8 @mattyglesias No we should force people to obey the social contract

@PolicyMulti @mattyglesias Should we force people to be charities?

@mattyglesias There is a balance of risks and return. High returns and free money comes with responsibility to accept void periods and losses as part of the social contracr. No man is an island

@mattyglesias What arw families with children supposed to do, just live on the sidewalk once evicted??

@EricLevitz Lolol: so private equity = diversity!!! That’s the argument? They must have a super creative PR team and journalists who are as gullible as can be

The "populist" crusade to make the suburbs more segregated and expensive vox.com/politics/48286…

@davidshor @Dan_Jeffries1 Online “panels” like this are really useful

@davidshor @Dan_Jeffries1 Yes you can see the protests in the streets against wealth taxes for billionaires, the people are rising up, it’s not just your donors telling you this

The wealth tax on the most profoundly unprofitable companies in history is going to be pretty funny. Maybe voters don't understand the concept of losses on taxes and just think these companies are magic and making trillions in profits and not losing 100s of billions? 😂 Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the rest.

@NeverSayClever @mattyglesias One absurd pro-oligarch thing is more than enough to show you are not on the side of working families. We democrats are doomed with ideas like this

@PolicyMulti @mattyglesias "relentless support for" == "said one (1) thing was bad one (1) time"

@NeverSayClever @mattyglesias The vulgarity is more in your relentless support for, and avid bootlicking of, oligarch tax problems. You know who needs tax help? The working class. Have you heard of False Consciousness?

@PolicyMulti @mattyglesias Oh my, how dare I use such vulgarity on twitter dot com? I guess I'm something of a bad boy?

@NeverSayClever @mattyglesias The f bombs are totally unnecessary

@PolicyMulti @mattyglesias Upset when you tell me to vote for the people accepting bribes, murdering citizens, and violating basic human rights over a minor policy disagreement, yeah! What the fuck is your problem? If you are really not a republican, DON'T FUCKING TELL PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR THEM!!

@NeverSayClever @mattyglesias Im only saying someone like you, who caters to every whim of the rich, would find it more comfortable there, rather than to dilute the views of the majority of the working people in the Democratic party. Since when did we spend any effort crying over unrealized freaking gains??