government
What states are for and what they are worse at than markets and networks: legitimacy, moral hazard, and who may be entrusted with power.
FilterEveryone, all time420 from 177 people
- JC
John H. Cochrane quoted
Economist at the Hoover Institution
Their wordsRevitalizing the institutions of limited government may be more promising.
↗Affordability Trilogy, Part 3. Why is the free market so unpopular?grumpy-economist.com
- 3 days earlier
- JC
John H. Cochrane quoted
Their wordsAs I hope you know, the government cannot, by taxing, spending, borrowing or regulating, make anything “more affordable” overall.
- 6 days earlier
- MY
Matthew Yglesias quoted
Writes Slow Boring, a near-daily newsletter on American…
Their wordsThe federal government should not be subsidizing higher-education scams!
- 1 day earlier
- PL
Pieter Levels quoted
Dutch bootstrapper who builds and runs his internet startups alone
Our readingMonopoly power can capture politics
Their wordsOne interesting thing about Brazil more recently is how the Supreme Court judges are allegedly used by the ruling president to influence politics, censoring speech against the current government
- 1 day earlier
- DH
David Heinemeier Hansson quoted
Creator of Ruby on Rails, CTO of 37signals
Their wordsWell-functioning societies need the capacity for formidable violence, such that they may keep the peace, but paired with the control to use that power sparingly.
- DH
David Heinemeier Hansson quoted
Their wordsDenmark should step out of the ECHR until such a point that the articles are compatible with deporting criminals, denying citizenship to malignant individuals, and allowing the Danes full sovereignty to decide who is welcome and who is not in their country.
- 5 days earlier
- RM
Roger Martin quoted
Strategy writer and Professor Emeritus at the Rotman School of Management
Their wordsThese two personal experiences – and the many others these two have spurred me to watch – have convinced me that companies are the biggest net beneficiaries of regulation that purportedly aims to benefit customers.
↗AI Regulatory Strategyrogerlmartin.substack.com 1st of 3 in this piece
- RM
Roger Martin quoted
Their wordsAlways insist on a public choice strategy that is superior to the private choice model before accepting it. Otherwise, you will be counting on a fantasy.
↗AI Regulatory Strategyrogerlmartin.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- TC
Tyler Cowen quoted
Economist at George Mason University
Their wordsSo many policy mistakes have been made. So much leadership lost in the areas mentioned above. So much pessimism, sadly a lot of it seems to be justified.
- 1 day earlier
- SP
Sunil Pai quoted
Systems and developer-tools engineer at Cloudflare as of 2026
Their wordsmf you can barely decide what discomfort you're subjecting yourself to in finding out what you like/dislike, and I'm supposed to trust you to make decisions for millions of people?
- TL
Tobias Lütke quoted
Co-founder and CEO of Shopify
Their wordsIt’s impossible to make something free for a government. I wish we would ban the use of that word.
- ZM
Zvi Mowshowitz quoted
Writes Don't Worry About the Vase
Their wordsOpenAI: Our rationale for standards is rooted in avoiding the concentration of power, and producing better practical outcomes.
- 1 day earlier
- PL
Pieter Levels quoted
Their wordsIf you make it easy for people to start and run businesses and don't get in their way too much, everyone gets wealthier
↗It's really crazy how strongly wealth inverse correlates with regulatory burdenlevels.io
- PL
Pieter Levels quoted
Their wordsIf you make it hard for people to start and run businesses and get in their way constantly, everyone gets poorer
↗It's really crazy how strongly wealth inverse correlates with regulatory burdenlevels.io
- 2 days earlier
- NS
Noah Smith quoted
Economics writer; author of the Noahpinion newsletter
Their wordsAnd saving the government money by killing people creates a perverse incentive.
- 1 day earlier
- KJ
Katelyn Jetelina quoted
Epidemiologist; founded Your Local Epidemiologist in March…
Their wordsAdvantage plans offer the same benefits as Original Medicare plus extras like drug, dental, or vision coverage, but this privatization is known to cost taxpayers an additional $100 billion (!) a year.
↗Medicare for All: Separating the slogan from the substanceyourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com
- PL
Pieter Levels quoted
Their wordsBecause police doesn't let you file a report anymore for basic crime and people know police won't solve crime so they don't even try to file a police report
- 1 day earlier
- TC
Tyler Cowen quoted
Their wordsThe policy creates a big incentive for some other parts of the world to invest a lot more in compute.
↗Banning self-recursive improvement in AI models?marginalrevolution.com
- KJ
Katelyn Jetelina quoted
Their wordsCDC’s vaccine advisory group (ACIP) normally updates its recommendations as medical evidence evolves, but under RFK Jr., that process has completely stalled.
- 2 days earlier
- HF
Henry Farrell quoted
Professor of international affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS and co-author
Their wordsCreating institutional forms that can incorporate diversity and respond flexibly to a changing environment while maintaining legitimacy in the eyes of citizens is the fundamental project of state capacity that faces us.
↗International relations has a problem with the futureprogrammablemutter.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 1 day earlier
- BH
Byrne Hobart quoted
Writes The Diff, a newsletter on inflections in finance…
Their wordsit is simply ridiculous that a ruinously expensive policy can be budget-neutral if the expense consists of wasted time rather than wasted money. But that's still a cost!
- DD
Daniel W. Drezner quoted
Political scientist writing Drezner’s World on international relations
Their wordsThe most obvious problem is that Marco Rubio continues to hold both the Secretary of State and national security advisor positions. This has been going on for nearly 18 months now and it's obviously not working well at all.
↗The Beclowning of the State Department Continues Apacedanieldrezner.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
- AA
Anne Applebaum quoted
American-Polish journalist and historian
Their wordsThese are all additions to the existing treaty that could have been added without the drama, anger and stupid memes, without Trump blustering about "deals" and without terrifying the inhabitants of Greenland.
↗Greenland Foreveranneapplebaum.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
- DD
Daniel W. Drezner quoted
Our readingTrump's foreign policy and national security team is staffed with incompetent people at every level.
Their wordsRemember: when it comes to Trump's foreign policy and national security team, it's incompetents all the way down.
↗The Beclowning of the State Department Continues Apacedanieldrezner.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- AA
Anne Applebaum quoted
Their wordsAnd I fear that the covert and overt influence campaigns will continue.
↗Greenland Foreveranneapplebaum.substack.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- BH
Byrne Hobart quoted
Their wordsbanks can't globalize the way other firms can because the banking system is so close to a form of sovereignty: governments very carefully guard the privilege to create more money, and when they give it out, there are strings attached.
- VR
Venkatesh Rao quoted
Writer and consultant on technology
Our readingLegal personhood is an institutional technology, not a status granted for possessing a soul.
Their wordsLegal personhood is not a prize awarded for possessing a soul. It is an institutional technology.
↗Humanism without (All) Humanscontraptions.venkateshrao.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- JC
John H. Cochrane quoted
Their wordsThe tradeoff between cost of borrowing and how much interest rate risk taxpayers shoulder should be squarely on the shoulders of the politically-accountable Treasury not the independent Fed.
- JC
John H. Cochrane quoted
Their wordsSimplifying a bit, the Treasury should introduce a fixed-coupon perpetuity and a fixed-value floating-rate perpetuity. These should gradually make up the bulk of government debt.
- 1 day earlier
- KJ
Katelyn Jetelina quoted
Their wordsThere are legitimate ways to improve our systems, but what they're likely planning isn't one of them.
↗Two days left to comment on HHS's vaccine category proposalyourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com 1st of 2 in this piece