Wealth Economics
@steveroth.bsky.social
Entrepreneur, progressive sometime 1%er. (Tax me more.) Addictive reader: trash to tomes. National-accounting & econ geek. Evolution and Shakespeare dweeb. Besotted father. From MO; show me the #s. https://wealtheconomics.substack.com/about
Pinned
Wealth Economics
@steveroth.bsky.social
· Nov 13
Ten Fundamental Economic (Mis)understandings
It's all about the words...
wealtheconomics.substack.com
For my new followers, here's a stake in the ground for my writings, explaining how I think about and understand economics and “the economy.” Took me two decades to get to this…
It's 2,000 words, but it’s a bit of a smorgasbord, so you can take tastes and see if you'd like to read more.
It's 2,000 words, but it’s a bit of a smorgasbord, so you can take tastes and see if you'd like to read more.
Oh Sweet Mother Mary and all the saints in heaven... 🤦♂️
(This $1M/$5M "contribution": contribution to who/what?)
(This $1M/$5M "contribution": contribution to who/what?)
December 10, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Oh Sweet Mother Mary and all the saints in heaven... 🤦♂️
(This $1M/$5M "contribution": contribution to who/what?)
(This $1M/$5M "contribution": contribution to who/what?)
"The [Democratic] party's fortunes are just a referendum on how much the public hates Republicans at any given moment."
— @interfluidity.com
drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/08/20/t...
— @interfluidity.com
drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/08/20/t...
The whole point of a democracy
drafts @ interfluidity
drafts.interfluidity.com
December 10, 2025 at 8:59 PM
"The [Democratic] party's fortunes are just a referendum on how much the public hates Republicans at any given moment."
— @interfluidity.com
drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/08/20/t...
— @interfluidity.com
drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/08/20/t...
For those seeking "reasonable" people to follow here on bluesky, I really have to suggest that you not follow this guy. Just one example here.
December 10, 2025 at 8:55 PM
For those seeking "reasonable" people to follow here on bluesky, I really have to suggest that you not follow this guy. Just one example here.
Regulation of health insurers at the state level is like a highway system where each state decides whether we should drive on the left or the right.
December 10, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Regulation of health insurers at the state level is like a highway system where each state decides whether we should drive on the left or the right.
This. Crypto should be illegal, like it is in China. It has no redeeming virtue.
When the House and Senate marked up stablecoin legislation, we raised all of these concerns - their anonymity, their nearly perfect design for money laundering. All the barn doors were left wide open. It’s used for crime because that is its purpose. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/t...
How a Cryptocurrency Helps Criminals Launder Money and Evade Sanctions
www.nytimes.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:22 PM
This. Crypto should be illegal, like it is in China. It has no redeeming virtue.
For those who were wondering, this is equivalent to about 2.5% of farm revenues.
Trump: "I'm delighted to announce this afternoon that the US will be taking a small portion of the hundreds of billions of dollars we receive in tariffs ... and we're going to be giving and providing it to the farmers in economic assistance. We love our farmers. The farmers like me ... $12 billion"
December 8, 2025 at 8:05 PM
For those who were wondering, this is equivalent to about 2.5% of farm revenues.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
…
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
…
Which lines of poetry live rent-free in your head?
December 6, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
…
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
…
It's hard grasp the scale of wealth inequality, and the work-free income that wealth delivers.
If u have $10M u can spend $500K/yr w zero work, and just keep getting richer.
$10M is bubkes: $200B is 20,000 times as much.
If u have $10M u can spend $500K/yr w zero work, and just keep getting richer.
$10M is bubkes: $200B is 20,000 times as much.
December 5, 2025 at 3:13 PM
It's hard grasp the scale of wealth inequality, and the work-free income that wealth delivers.
If u have $10M u can spend $500K/yr w zero work, and just keep getting richer.
$10M is bubkes: $200B is 20,000 times as much.
If u have $10M u can spend $500K/yr w zero work, and just keep getting richer.
$10M is bubkes: $200B is 20,000 times as much.
The "no ceiling" stuff is third grade crap that would only be taken seriously by newspapers and politicians owned by billionaires. We can structure the market to make clowns like Musk & Zuckerberg incredibly rich, or we can structure it to promote more equality braveneweurope.com/dean-baker-b...
December 2, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Jeffries' "strong floor and no ceiling" is nuts.
Wildly concentrated wealth and economic/political power, in the hands of ever-fewer people, families, and dynasties, is The Great Satan. Time immemorial.
Too many econs & policy wonks are blind to that elephant in the room. x.com/RepJeffries/...
Wildly concentrated wealth and economic/political power, in the hands of ever-fewer people, families, and dynasties, is The Great Satan. Time immemorial.
Too many econs & policy wonks are blind to that elephant in the room. x.com/RepJeffries/...
Hakeem Jeffries on X: "What do we fight for as Democrats? Strong Floor. No Ceiling. https://t.co/I0cQo9X67H" / X
What do we fight for as Democrats? Strong Floor. No Ceiling. https://t.co/I0cQo9X67H
x.com
December 2, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Jeffries' "strong floor and no ceiling" is nuts.
Wildly concentrated wealth and economic/political power, in the hands of ever-fewer people, families, and dynasties, is The Great Satan. Time immemorial.
Too many econs & policy wonks are blind to that elephant in the room. x.com/RepJeffries/...
Wildly concentrated wealth and economic/political power, in the hands of ever-fewer people, families, and dynasties, is The Great Satan. Time immemorial.
Too many econs & policy wonks are blind to that elephant in the room. x.com/RepJeffries/...
In the 90s, 25% of Democrats were self-identified conservatives. Easy pickings. I very much doubt you would have found anything like that many low-hanging liberals in the Republican camp.
These days it’s all about base turnout.
These days it’s all about base turnout.
What's a little misunderstood about the influence of Fox News is there used to be tons of self-identified conservatives who voted for Democrats, so a one-off burst of info that's like "hey, vote for the more right-wing party" is very potent in a way that's not necessarily replicable.
December 2, 2025 at 3:31 PM
In the 90s, 25% of Democrats were self-identified conservatives. Easy pickings. I very much doubt you would have found anything like that many low-hanging liberals in the Republican camp.
These days it’s all about base turnout.
These days it’s all about base turnout.
Reposted by Wealth Economics
"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”
—FDR, 1944
—FDR, 1944
November 30, 2025 at 8:08 PM
"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”
—FDR, 1944
—FDR, 1944
All these arguments about median "real" income vs expenses exist because they're trying to condense the world in a single-dimensional number or graph.
God, and the devil, are in the details. The arithmetic is simple, but one graph doesn't cut it.
www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2025/08/29/t...
God, and the devil, are in the details. The arithmetic is simple, but one graph doesn't cut it.
www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2025/08/29/t...
The Simple Math of Poverty
Poverty is just not as exciting as people want it to be.
www.peoplespolicyproject.org
November 30, 2025 at 5:32 PM
All these arguments about median "real" income vs expenses exist because they're trying to condense the world in a single-dimensional number or graph.
God, and the devil, are in the details. The arithmetic is simple, but one graph doesn't cut it.
www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2025/08/29/t...
God, and the devil, are in the details. The arithmetic is simple, but one graph doesn't cut it.
www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2025/08/29/t...
When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:33-34
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:33-34
November 30, 2025 at 4:06 PM
When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:33-34
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:33-34
Medicare just informed me (in passing, in a statement) that my Medigap supplemental insurance is provided by Loyal American Life Insurance Company. Who knew?
November 30, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Medicare just informed me (in passing, in a statement) that my Medigap supplemental insurance is provided by Loyal American Life Insurance Company. Who knew?
Finance types luv these kind of "vital" claims for their purview.
You gotta ask: how DID the world get by in the 90s and 00s? John Auters @ Bloomberg.
Gift article: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
You gotta ask: how DID the world get by in the 90s and 00s? John Auters @ Bloomberg.
Gift article: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
November 30, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Finance types luv these kind of "vital" claims for their purview.
You gotta ask: how DID the world get by in the 90s and 00s? John Auters @ Bloomberg.
Gift article: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
You gotta ask: how DID the world get by in the 90s and 00s? John Auters @ Bloomberg.
Gift article: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
Reposted by Wealth Economics
That feeling you get when you post and then it hits you that there’s probably a brilliant @interfluidity blog post answering the question you asked and the questions you didn’t think to ask.
Why doesn’t any lender offer a variable rate interest only with a perpetual term? Assuming prices generally rise over time, the LTV shrinks in expectation.
November 11, 2025 at 9:34 PM
That feeling you get when you post and then it hits you that there’s probably a brilliant @interfluidity blog post answering the question you asked and the questions you didn’t think to ask.
Reposted by Wealth Economics
Goodbye Jimmy Cliff. His vocal in this 1976 SNL performance, good lord---one of the best singers of his generation, of any generation. vimeo.com/155135842
many rivers to cross
jimmy cliff on saturday night live, 1976.
vimeo.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Goodbye Jimmy Cliff. His vocal in this 1976 SNL performance, good lord---one of the best singers of his generation, of any generation. vimeo.com/155135842
Reposted by Wealth Economics
first they mock you… :)
November 24, 2025 at 4:55 PM
first they mock you… :)
It's so great seeing all the self-described libertarians out there at the barricades and yelling from the rooftops, protesting these violent attacks on people's liberty.
Oh, wait...
Oh, wait...
Remember when Joe Biden was president and U.S. citizens didn't have to worry about being kidnapped by federal police agents?
In Portland, Oregon, masked ICE GOONS abducted and vanished US citizen Gonzalo Catalan last week. Tragically, his family remains unaware of his whereabouts and has not received any communication from him as of today.
November 23, 2025 at 5:49 PM
It's so great seeing all the self-described libertarians out there at the barricades and yelling from the rooftops, protesting these violent attacks on people's liberty.
Oh, wait...
Oh, wait...
Reposted by Wealth Economics
Sign at the US Military Academy at West Point:
November 23, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Sign at the US Military Academy at West Point:
[email protected] tell us today:
"a good outcome in this [zero net-immigration] economic environment will consist of a low unemployment rate with low or no employment growth." /1
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...
"a good outcome in this [zero net-immigration] economic environment will consist of a low unemployment rate with low or no employment growth." /1
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...
Opinion | We’re Seeing What a No-Immigration Economy Looks Like
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 4:48 PM
[email protected] tell us today:
"a good outcome in this [zero net-immigration] economic environment will consist of a low unemployment rate with low or no employment growth." /1
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...
"a good outcome in this [zero net-immigration] economic environment will consist of a low unemployment rate with low or no employment growth." /1
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...
"The private sector is so much more efficient than government!"
$800B over ten years?
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/b...
$800B over ten years?
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/b...
November 22, 2025 at 3:41 PM
"The private sector is so much more efficient than government!"
$800B over ten years?
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/b...
$800B over ten years?
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/b...
Reposted by Wealth Economics
incentives matter, but disproportionately to the worst people.
November 21, 2025 at 7:32 PM
incentives matter, but disproportionately to the worst people.
Yes, I went and asked Grok. Real.
November 21, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Yes, I went and asked Grok. Real.