Dael Norwood
@dael.bsky.social
Historian of America's old, weird political economy. Unincorporated but proudly unionized citizen of Delaware. Adding “levity to discussions of financing and high politics” since 2022. Wrote Trading Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America.
Pinned
Dael Norwood
@dael.bsky.social
· Jul 14
The Best Thing to Ever Happen to the State of … Delaware?
This post argues that the forces pushing DExit – and thus the death of the corporate franchise –cannot be appeased by Delaware, so we must consider the future without the franchise ourselves,…
daelnorwood.com
A moderate-length but immodest proposal: it's time for Delawareans to start planning for a future beyond the corporate franchise – and we need to do it before angry billionaires force it on us first.
They always accused the socialists of wanting to burn the markets down, which of course they never did (or could).
Traders routinely reduced them to ashes, of course - and more than once non-metaphorically.
But before it happened, no one ever predicted the derivatives would torch themselves.
Traders routinely reduced them to ashes, of course - and more than once non-metaphorically.
But before it happened, no one ever predicted the derivatives would torch themselves.
A Chicago Data Center Overheated—and Shut Down Trade in Key Markets Across the Globe
The outage, which lasted for 10 hours, hit CME’s equity, bond and commodity futures. It also offered a warning.
www.wsj.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:52 PM
They always accused the socialists of wanting to burn the markets down, which of course they never did (or could).
Traders routinely reduced them to ashes, of course - and more than once non-metaphorically.
But before it happened, no one ever predicted the derivatives would torch themselves.
Traders routinely reduced them to ashes, of course - and more than once non-metaphorically.
But before it happened, no one ever predicted the derivatives would torch themselves.
Great questions, and equally applicable to many of the “deals” Trump has forced business corporations to make (rare earths, chips, crypto). Documents for some are available, most not; seemingly no standard template and the money’s final location is always very ill defined
Where is the university “settlement” money going? Who is the check made out to? What happens after deposit?
November 29, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Great questions, and equally applicable to many of the “deals” Trump has forced business corporations to make (rare earths, chips, crypto). Documents for some are available, most not; seemingly no standard template and the money’s final location is always very ill defined
Reposted by Dael Norwood
I didn’t want to overreact, and took time to read this. Having done so, I’m adding Northwestern to the list of places I won’t visit or speak. The concessions re: international students and gender-affirming care are not merely symbolic.
Here’s the text of the Northwestern settlement with the DoJ, which includes a $75 million financial component / payoff (cc @profmarkovic.bsky.social):
November 29, 2025 at 5:10 AM
I didn’t want to overreact, and took time to read this. Having done so, I’m adding Northwestern to the list of places I won’t visit or speak. The concessions re: international students and gender-affirming care are not merely symbolic.
Reposted by Dael Norwood
Reminds me very much of the ways that the civil rights laws of the Reconstruction era were dismantled by applying them to corporations or by using, for example, Chinese-Americans as a foil to establish Black Americans as the anti-citizen.
Everyone involved in turning dishonest antisemitism allegations into a cudgel to destroy institutions and civil rights law should be deeply ashamed of themselves. What a extraordinary perversion of the lessons of the past century
Statement from U.S. AG Pam Bondi:
“Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump Administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first…
“Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump Administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first…
November 29, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reminds me very much of the ways that the civil rights laws of the Reconstruction era were dismantled by applying them to corporations or by using, for example, Chinese-Americans as a foil to establish Black Americans as the anti-citizen.
“The typical American citizen is a business man. The typical business man is a bad citizen; he is busy.”
November 29, 2025 at 4:33 AM
“The typical American citizen is a business man. The typical business man is a bad citizen; he is busy.”
Reposted by Dael Norwood
My book is about drug addiction in the U.S. from 1776 to 1914, when it was (generally) legal to sell addictive drugs. Addiction increased rapidly, but people didn't associate drug addiction with crime. global.oup.com/ushe/product...
November 29, 2025 at 1:58 AM
My book is about drug addiction in the U.S. from 1776 to 1914, when it was (generally) legal to sell addictive drugs. Addiction increased rapidly, but people didn't associate drug addiction with crime. global.oup.com/ushe/product...
“Steffens watched the Senate, ‘a chamber of traitors,’ as he saw it, drone on in its daily support of corruption and knew that even Roosevelt would be hard-pressed to rehabilitate such compulsive grafters.”
November 29, 2025 at 4:18 AM
“Steffens watched the Senate, ‘a chamber of traitors,’ as he saw it, drone on in its daily support of corruption and knew that even Roosevelt would be hard-pressed to rehabilitate such compulsive grafters.”
Reposted by Dael Norwood
It is, in its essence, the government's playbook for how they have (and still do) destroy political movements at home and abroad through surveillance, sabotage, blackmail, and violence. This includes their historic experimentation with things like LSD, poisons, truth serums, etc.
November 29, 2025 at 3:43 AM
It is, in its essence, the government's playbook for how they have (and still do) destroy political movements at home and abroad through surveillance, sabotage, blackmail, and violence. This includes their historic experimentation with things like LSD, poisons, truth serums, etc.
Reposted by Dael Norwood
It's Black Friday. You might as well pre-order the first mainstream published version of the Church Committee Report. Abridged to its most essential findings, this 1975 report reads like the very best investigative journalism mixed with a spy novel covering assassinations, surveillance, sabotage.
The Church Committee Report: Revelations from the Bombshell 1970s Investigation Into the National Security State
Revelations from the Bombshell 1970s Investigation Into the National Security State
bookshop.org
November 29, 2025 at 3:40 AM
It's Black Friday. You might as well pre-order the first mainstream published version of the Church Committee Report. Abridged to its most essential findings, this 1975 report reads like the very best investigative journalism mixed with a spy novel covering assassinations, surveillance, sabotage.
Reposted by Dael Norwood
How did the @nytimes.com editors let this sentence appear?
"Critics have likened Mr. Trump’s approach to extortion, while others have chalked it up as a cost of doing business with this administration."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
"Critics have likened Mr. Trump’s approach to extortion, while others have chalked it up as a cost of doing business with this administration."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
Northwestern University Nears Deal to Resolve Its Conflict With the White House
www.nytimes.com
November 29, 2025 at 1:07 AM
How did the @nytimes.com editors let this sentence appear?
"Critics have likened Mr. Trump’s approach to extortion, while others have chalked it up as a cost of doing business with this administration."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
"Critics have likened Mr. Trump’s approach to extortion, while others have chalked it up as a cost of doing business with this administration."
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
Reposted by Dael Norwood
We can't convince universities to stop hiring Gordon Gee, so I don't know how we push for there to be any consequences for betraying the country for a few research grants. But it feels like figuring that out will be necessary.
November 28, 2025 at 9:00 PM
We can't convince universities to stop hiring Gordon Gee, so I don't know how we push for there to be any consequences for betraying the country for a few research grants. But it feels like figuring that out will be necessary.
Trump pardons almost always flow from a direct cash payoff.
The NYT story is light on a lot of details (naturally) – but even so, lists a lot of inner-circle crosswinds on this one (Roger Stone is pushing it; but Emil Bove prosecuted the larger conspiracy case; etc).
Whose money talked loudest?
The NYT story is light on a lot of details (naturally) – but even so, lists a lot of inner-circle crosswinds on this one (Roger Stone is pushing it; but Emil Bove prosecuted the larger conspiracy case; etc).
Whose money talked loudest?
November 29, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Trump pardons almost always flow from a direct cash payoff.
The NYT story is light on a lot of details (naturally) – but even so, lists a lot of inner-circle crosswinds on this one (Roger Stone is pushing it; but Emil Bove prosecuted the larger conspiracy case; etc).
Whose money talked loudest?
The NYT story is light on a lot of details (naturally) – but even so, lists a lot of inner-circle crosswinds on this one (Roger Stone is pushing it; but Emil Bove prosecuted the larger conspiracy case; etc).
Whose money talked loudest?
Reposted by Dael Norwood
The Big Store whips because it captures all the intricacies of building a con without needing to be a con artist.
ndpdesign.itch.io/the-big-store
ndpdesign.itch.io/the-big-store
November 29, 2025 at 12:17 AM
The Big Store whips because it captures all the intricacies of building a con without needing to be a con artist.
ndpdesign.itch.io/the-big-store
ndpdesign.itch.io/the-big-store
Behind every (alleged) great crime lies a Delaware business entity registration form, a continuing series…
“He said Delaware firms exploited rules that exempt them from U.S. tax if they earn no local income, leaving them untaxed in both countries, a scheme often tied to money laundering.”
“He said Delaware firms exploited rules that exempt them from U.S. tax if they earn no local income, leaving them untaxed in both countries, a scheme often tied to money laundering.”
“Brazil will seek U.S. cooperation in fighting organized crime in its fuel sector, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Thursday, after a police operation flagged money laundering by Delaware-based firms to help one of the worst tax dodgers in the South American country.”
Brazil seeks US cooperation in money-laundering probe
Brazil will seek U.S. cooperation in fighting organized crime in its fuel sector, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Thursday, after a police operation flagged money laundering by Delaware-based...
www.reuters.com
November 28, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Behind every (alleged) great crime lies a Delaware business entity registration form, a continuing series…
“He said Delaware firms exploited rules that exempt them from U.S. tax if they earn no local income, leaving them untaxed in both countries, a scheme often tied to money laundering.”
“He said Delaware firms exploited rules that exempt them from U.S. tax if they earn no local income, leaving them untaxed in both countries, a scheme often tied to money laundering.”
“Brazil will seek U.S. cooperation in fighting organized crime in its fuel sector, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Thursday, after a police operation flagged money laundering by Delaware-based firms to help one of the worst tax dodgers in the South American country.”
Brazil seeks US cooperation in money-laundering probe
Brazil will seek U.S. cooperation in fighting organized crime in its fuel sector, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Thursday, after a police operation flagged money laundering by Delaware-based...
www.reuters.com
November 28, 2025 at 2:42 PM
“Brazil will seek U.S. cooperation in fighting organized crime in its fuel sector, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Thursday, after a police operation flagged money laundering by Delaware-based firms to help one of the worst tax dodgers in the South American country.”
Reposted by Dael Norwood
We are now further away from the theatrical release of Raiders of the Lost Ark (June 12, 1981) than it was from the year it takes place in (1936). We have reached the Indiana Jones event horizon.
November 27, 2025 at 12:49 AM
We are now further away from the theatrical release of Raiders of the Lost Ark (June 12, 1981) than it was from the year it takes place in (1936). We have reached the Indiana Jones event horizon.
Reposted by Dael Norwood
@bcdreyer.social have you seen this?!
You know what says Thanksgiving to the Macy's Parade?
LES MISERABLES.
Pass the bread!
LES MISERABLES.
Pass the bread!
November 27, 2025 at 8:57 PM
@bcdreyer.social have you seen this?!
Reposted by Dael Norwood
This Day in Labor History: November 27, 1937. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) debuted its play “Pins and Needles,” which would become the longest running musical of the 1930s. Let's talk about this moment of labor feminism meeting popular culture!
November 27, 2025 at 3:42 PM
This Day in Labor History: November 27, 1937. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) debuted its play “Pins and Needles,” which would become the longest running musical of the 1930s. Let's talk about this moment of labor feminism meeting popular culture!
anyway the Macy’s Day parade seems particularly weird and exhausted this year
November 27, 2025 at 3:30 PM
anyway the Macy’s Day parade seems particularly weird and exhausted this year
In the 19th & early 20th-centuries, the US saw massive financial panics roughly every twenty years (1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893, 1907, 1929).
In many ways, 2008 was very similar to those earlier bubble-burst disasters – hence the big regulatory response…which MAGA has now undone/rolled back.
In many ways, 2008 was very similar to those earlier bubble-burst disasters – hence the big regulatory response…which MAGA has now undone/rolled back.
November 27, 2025 at 3:27 PM
In the 19th & early 20th-centuries, the US saw massive financial panics roughly every twenty years (1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893, 1907, 1929).
In many ways, 2008 was very similar to those earlier bubble-burst disasters – hence the big regulatory response…which MAGA has now undone/rolled back.
In many ways, 2008 was very similar to those earlier bubble-burst disasters – hence the big regulatory response…which MAGA has now undone/rolled back.
Reposted by Dael Norwood
This seems like an important story.
The US is deregulating banks. Will the rest of the world follow?
New rules will boost lending and profits and entrench American dominance. But critics say they could lead to another crash
www.ft.com
November 27, 2025 at 5:49 AM
This seems like an important story.
Reposted by Dael Norwood
The Administration is restricting new clean energy supplies from coming online and making clean energy more expensive with taxes and tariffs, all while AI is spiking electricity demand. The Administration is causing electricity bills to rise. It's a crisis. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
November 27, 2025 at 2:33 AM
The Administration is restricting new clean energy supplies from coming online and making clean energy more expensive with taxes and tariffs, all while AI is spiking electricity demand. The Administration is causing electricity bills to rise. It's a crisis. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
If I can be annoyed about drafting minutia for a second, why is there not consistency about whether or not periods belong in the term "LLC"
November 27, 2025 at 2:31 AM
If I can be annoyed about drafting minutia for a second, why is there not consistency about whether or not periods belong in the term "LLC"
Reposted by Dael Norwood
PJM is the regional grid serving 67 million customers in 13 states
November 27, 2025 at 2:04 AM
PJM is the regional grid serving 67 million customers in 13 states
I have no idea what sin I committed to earn this follow, but I just want to pause a moment before blocking & gawp, slack-jawed, at the absurdity of a grifter outfit that promises to land hustling mediocrities corporate board seats naming itself after the author of The Theory of the Leisure Class.
November 27, 2025 at 2:08 AM
I have no idea what sin I committed to earn this follow, but I just want to pause a moment before blocking & gawp, slack-jawed, at the absurdity of a grifter outfit that promises to land hustling mediocrities corporate board seats naming itself after the author of The Theory of the Leisure Class.