David F Wagner

Reciprocal Tariff Calculations Executive Summary Reciprocal tariffs are calculated as the tariff rate necessary to balance bilateral trade deficits between the U.S. and each of our trading partners. This calculation assumes that pe...

18th century sent a letter and they want their economic thinking back:

"This calculation assumes that persistent trade deficits are due to a combination of tariff and non-tariff factors that prevent trade from balancing."

ustr.gov/issue-areas/...

Už jsem viděl různý přiměřený reakce, ale tohle fakt není jedna z nich.

Tech Coup was one of the more interesting books last year, short reflection here. If you are into tech-oligopoly regulation, recommended

EN - www.dfw.cz/2025/03/27/b... (very fast translation, will include problems)
CZ - www.dfw.cz/2025/03/27/r...

f) after so many runs (35-38), it is quite clear that it has some quality

The game is very open to non-larpers, the only requirement is being to walk some 20km in two days (not a lot).

Would be glad to see you there!

Why you should try that?

a) drama
b) strong experiences/ emotions
c) want to experience some new dilemmas
d) like running around in snow with rifles: that is a possible experience
e) do not like running around in snow with rifles: that is a possible experience

I am honestly a bit too lazy to update often enough here on the policy or work in general (which has been hectic).

So, time for NICE THINGS and invitations to my other projects.

We are opening new runs for both CZ and INT runs of legie.rolling.cz/ legion.rolling.cz for Jan 2026!

While you were _having opinions_ this guy mastered the strategy.

Surviving a Disco Elysium LARP Have you ever had to admit to your boss that your gun got stolen because you were distracted writing poetry with your f…

Nice reflection on a game we made - and you can still participate in the next runs in August.

Napjaté čekání jestli na základě Musk efektu po prodejích Tesly v Evropě padne i obliba kulometného rodičovství a ketaminu

Happy Twin Peaks Day, my friends ☕️

Picture worth a thousand words

Last month has been the most dramatical upheaval in international policy in quite some time, the AI race is escalating with clear trajectory to conflict and very _weird_ changes to world inevitable.

And at the same time, the vibes of it all are just..._pathetic_. Elon and Donald, worst villains fr

Scheme for next 4 years

Monday: Trump/ Musk randomly fire people and put in weirdos
Tuesday: oh no there were consequences
Wednesday: harebrained bombshell foreign policy agenda to get attention
Thursday: other countries say "wtf" or "concerned about Y"
Friday: new tariffs drop, DEI gets blamed

As a techno-optimist who believes in an iterative approach, I have to say: this wasn’t it. Let’s try again.

Yes, regulation IS very different, the principles of precaution are no longer dominant in most fields etc.: could somebody please expand on that? Like, really expand, including the side effects and how do the regulatory regimes work now?
Not here.

There was a great opportunity here: lay out practical areas where advancements will bring tangible results. The book mentions psychohygiene & self-driving cars in passing, but everything else gets the same weight as vague takes like “regulation is now different because of Uber.”

(c) The heart of the argument: “Technology can be good, even with some wrinkles.” I agree! Humanity has usually harnessed tech in ways that brought more benefit than suffering.

But this core idea gets buried under name-calling, defensiveness and Twitter thread recaps (not a great sign of signal).

The weird historical parallels do not really end there.

Industrialization and trade laws in Britain? Fascinating, but they don’t vibe with what’s happening now. The timelines are very different, the stakes are different, the dynamics of competition are completely different.

(b) The historical parallels are just bad. It´s great that the author read Blood in the Machine (a great book!), but existential AI safety fears have totally different mechanisms than the Luddite movement.

That is not reflected and it does not advance anything. One wants to ask: so what?

(a) The past successes with LinkedIn the author likes to reminiscence on don’t help the book advance anything. It reads more like “see, I did a good thing in the past, and I still want it to be relevant.” A solid editor would have cut this, sorry.

Just finished Superagency (published 28.1.) and have some strong opinions on it. If you are into AI optimism, might be interesting for you: or you can read what I think to be able to flex in bars or sthg.

Trump's Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just sent out a memo directing staff to "give preference to
communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average"

Reminiscing about their books, perhaps all we need is Steven Pinker and Hans Rosling to assure us—yet again—that we live in the best of all possible worlds and nothing is on fire.

Feel good cosy books for millenials <3

Administrative joys and sorrows—like spreading everything across dozens of separate Acts or some peculiar ideas about reducing bureaucracy—are a topic for broader discussion, but they’re not unsolvable problems.

(For absolutely no reason, I’m attaching a picture of Guildenstern and Hamlet.)

Overall, this is, in my opinion, a slow but somewhat functional path for Europe to finally emerge from its now nearly 15-year stagnation and decline.

But it’s also a path that will require courage and the understanding that we’re in a crisis that won’t be solved through fragmented efforts.

One thing that is clearly in everyone’s interest—and something the Commission is actually quite competent at—is trade negotiations and agreements.

The focus on “we must trade as much as possible and find new sources and partnerships” is a major challenge for Josef Síkela. Also some landmines there.

Another idea that would be nice but politically extremely difficult is simply funding.

The Compass clearly implies that it's time to finance critical infrastructure and, for example, fix gaps in the electricity grid, rather than necessarily funding farmers and cohesion policy.

Then there’s the “28th regime” – a European-level framework for SMEs, offering simple and clear taxation, labor laws, etc., for companies that choose to use it.

But will the member states allow it? Will they have the courage?

Also, many “good intentions, hard to implement.”

Example: harmonizing rule implementation so that every single measure doesn’t go through complex "improvements" at the government level—and reducing the total number of regulations—sounds great, but it requires discipline from member states.

Approach to finance: One undeniable issue is the weak capital market and investment capability: global venture capital – EU 5%, US 52%, China 40%.

The effort to accelerate a common capital market and make it more dynamic is absolutely necessary—including the ability to let things fail, of course.