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Steve Cicala

@stevecicala

Associate Professor Tufts University Department of Economics https://www.stevecicala.com http://goingelectric.substack.com

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24.05.2023
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Latest posts by Steve Cicala @stevecicala

So, are we the kind of country that kills 150 children in a premeditated first strike with no consequences for the civilian leadership that chose the time & place of the operation with no pressure from the enemy?

Because we're already the kind of country that commits such an unforgivable atrocity.

11.03.2026 19:39 πŸ‘ 16 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Sun Tzu (D-NY) - β€œWhen your enemy is making a mistake, fix it for him at great cost to yourself.”

11.03.2026 00:40 πŸ‘ 10991 πŸ” 2761 πŸ’¬ 178 πŸ“Œ 50

I'm no data center apologist, but they only use water for cooling. Their waste water is just...warm water. Where does the cancer come from?

10.03.2026 15:54 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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On earth 2 this chart still holds up and this week is going very different

www.nber.org/digest/dec14...

09.03.2026 19:48 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The silver lining is that the metric system is coming in spite of it being the measure system of science.

Gasoline is only $1 per Liter. What a bargain!

10.03.2026 11:08 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

NBER server 😬

09.03.2026 23:32 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Do you have any experience to compare it with .feather files? I have an ungodly ton of them and it was the best solution at the time. Individual files aren’t enormous, but there are a LOT of them, and feather compresses them super well.

09.03.2026 23:00 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

There's a lot going on right now, but the US gov has acquired one of the microwave devices from the Russian mob. It was not "mass psychogenic illness." It was an attack.

This is scary as hell.

www.cbsnews.com/news/us-mili...

09.03.2026 19:25 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Comparisons btw bsky and twitter usually focus on the algo. One less discussed topic is the bots & farms.

This was a dumb post, sent at 9:15PM EST on a Friday. It got massive circulation, largely by accounts like "alice35713416"

Bsky is just as rife with these ops as the others.

09.03.2026 15:21 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

What would be the cost if the Canadians were all pretending to be nice to get our guard down while they were plotting a surprise invasion to give us all health care?

We must defend ourselves against demonstrably fantastical scenarios.

09.03.2026 12:46 πŸ‘ 47 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Volkswagen Dealers Revolt Over Plan to Sell a New Brand of SUV Directly to Consumers The latest of several lawsuits seeks to stop the automaker from bypassing dealerships.

Dealers: β€œWe provide an invaluable service the manufacturer can’t replicate…And that’s why we need laws preventing manufacturers from bypassing us.”

It is under-appreciated how strong and malevolent a force car dealers are in US society.

www.wsj.com/business/aut...

07.03.2026 12:21 πŸ‘ 79 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 20 πŸ“Œ 3

I’m not sure how the world survives the next distraction from the Epstein files.

07.03.2026 02:16 πŸ‘ 1465 πŸ” 278 πŸ’¬ 65 πŸ“Œ 14
Preview
What Does Russia Have on Trump? Americans Deserve an Answer As Russia reportedly shares intelligence with Iran that could endanger American forces, the White House chooses to ease pressure on Moscow instead of confronting it.

Ukraine offers to help defend the West from Iranian drones.

Russia helps Iran track American forces.

And the White House eases sanctions on Russian oil.

Explain that to the families of U.S. troops. My latest:
open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...

06.03.2026 17:44 πŸ‘ 4856 πŸ” 1833 πŸ’¬ 232 πŸ“Œ 92

I have never been prouder of my star alliance affiliation.

Next up: public transit.

06.03.2026 01:02 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Well it's clear PoliSci is toast.

05.03.2026 21:40 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I said, "Add labels" and decided the output was good enough for bsky.

05.03.2026 21:35 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

There's no glory in toppling minions.

With the possible exception of RFK Jr, Stephen Miller and Russel Vought are the only members of this administration with any agency.

05.03.2026 19:59 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Slope: β‰ˆ 0.477, R^2: 0.228. (Again, GPT)

05.03.2026 17:00 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Here's the (chatGPT-extracted & compiled) plot of "Total Bad" vs support for that country's right-wing party. Raw data in the alt-txt.

05.03.2026 16:57 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Trump Is Expected to Endorse Cornyn Republican strategists hope the endorsement will make the Texas Senate race less expensive and less competitive.

The easiest money in political advertising today has got to be round-the-clock ads on Fox News in the Miami market with anti-Trump quotes from John Cornyn.

www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

05.03.2026 13:06 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

EU foreign policy is a mess because the Lisbon Treaty is a mess. Hence EU β€œhigh rep” title not EU β€œforeign minister.” Member states want the EU to be strong and speak with one voice but hesitate to make the trade: control (sovereignty) for strength. And the end result is they get neither.

05.03.2026 11:41 πŸ‘ 69 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 2

Your taxes?

I'd be willing to decimate the white collar economy if it means nuking Intuit.

04.03.2026 18:48 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Man, all the neo-cons who went through that whole charade to pretend Saddam was an existential threat must feel like they were cheated.

02.03.2026 02:30 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The constitution gives congress the authority to declare war.

But a certain brand of executive can declare a β€œspecial military operation.”

02.03.2026 02:23 πŸ‘ 145 πŸ” 27 πŸ’¬ 14 πŸ“Œ 3
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My latest with @cato.org’s Clark Packard: foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/26/t...

26.02.2026 20:08 πŸ‘ 140 πŸ” 34 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 2
Preview
Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers More citizens are replanting overseas, drawn by a quality of life made easily affordable by the U.S.’s enviable salaries.

This article does a nice job raising the longer-run issues that are driving people away from the US: health care and housing costs, guns. I'd also include terrible urban planning that prioritizes cars.

Trump leaving doesn't fix this, and neither does Dem price controls.

www.wsj.com/us-news/amer...

26.02.2026 18:32 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

No, that these are two completely unrelated issues:

T&D investment has been bonkers, and is rate regulated. Lowering ROE will help reign that in, and lower bills.

Lowering regulated ROE won't deter gen investment, because that's overwhelmingly deregulated. It's being held up by different forces.

24.02.2026 23:01 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Connecting some more specific comments to the main thread:

bsky.app/profile/stev...

24.02.2026 22:55 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

There are *definitely* problems with generation investment--but it's mostly that generators that want to connect are being prevented from doing so.

This has *NOTHING* to do with keeping ROE high to encourage investment. Generation investment is deregulated, and it's banging to get in.

24.02.2026 22:33 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0