David H Feldman
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dhfeldman.bsky.social
David H Feldman
@dhfeldman.bsky.social

I write about the economics of higher education and international trade.

Love New Mexico & cats.

My books:

https://academic.oup.com/book/7559
https://academic.oup.com/book/5108

Social media posts are my own views and do not reflect my employer. .. more

David John Feldman is a British legal academic, author and former judge. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of English Law at the University of Cambridge, and served as an international judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Dayton Agreement from 2002 to 2010. He is known for having shaped the development of civil liberties and human rights law in the United Kingdom. .. more

Economics 44%
Psychology 20%
Pinned
Thank you to the Peterson Institute for International Economics (@piie.com), and to my coauthor Gary Hufbauer for allowing me my say on the Trump Administration's venal power grab in destroying the world's rules-based trading system.

www.piie.com/blogs/realti...
The world trading system is dying: You should fear its replacement
Too few Americans may understand what Canadian prime minister Mark Carney is talking about when he refers to a “system of global trade.” Too few may grasp what we are losing and what we are likely to ...
www.piie.com

He needs to be replaced. His time is over.

"New leaders in the Senate."

Could you come out and say that Chuck Schumer needs to be replaced?

If so, then the caucus needs to replace Schumer. But I'll wait a bit before presuming that The Prospect is correct.

Sen. Sanders, could you pressure Schumer to demote the eight to lesser roles on the committees on which they serve? Durbin could be removed as Ranking Member on Judiciary. Shaheen is Ranking Member on Foreign Relations. He can end their leadership roles with the support of the caucus.

Does Schumer have the will to act?

bsky.app/profile/dhfe...
We'll see if Schumer has any control over the Democratic caucus ...

He could move the eight out of any major role on Senate committees and replace them with new people. Jean Shaheen is the "Ranking Member" on the foreign relations committee. Durbin on the Judiciary Committee. That should end.

We'll see if Schumer has any control over the Democratic caucus ...

He could move the eight out of any major role on Senate committees and replace them with new people. Jean Shaheen is the "Ranking Member" on the foreign relations committee. Durbin on the Judiciary Committee. That should end.

If Chuck Schumer is actually still in control of the Democratic caucus in the Senate, he should move the eight out of any major role on Senate committees and replace them with better people. Jean Shaheen, for instance, is the "Ranking Member" on the foreign relations committee. That should end.

@kaine.senate.gov, this defeat is on you. When Virginians see their ACA premiums soar and want to blame someone, many will blame Democrats. They will be right to do so.

You have failed us.
i think this is key. taking the deal would amount to taking the blame. it would turn a clear political victory into an unambiguous defeat.
If the Dems blink after all of this, for a deal that all but ensures no ACA subsidies in 2026 anyway, then what was the purpose of letting the shutdown go for 40 days in the first place?

Hard disagree, Senator. Do not do this. You will forfeit a substantial amount of support.

I do not absolve him ...
i think this is key. taking the deal would amount to taking the blame. it would turn a clear political victory into an unambiguous defeat.
If the Dems blink after all of this, for a deal that all but ensures no ACA subsidies in 2026 anyway, then what was the purpose of letting the shutdown go for 40 days in the first place?

Our government is truly foul. The people who approve of this are ... truly foul.

Our government is foul. People who think this is good are ... foul.
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️

Tonight‘s libation is the Alaska. Monkey 47 gin and yellow chartreuse, with orange bitters and a twist of lemon.

This is what 75 million of our fellow citizens voted for. Most of them would vote for this again. Says a lot about us.

2/ That is behind this duo of price indexes over long stretches of time. The great rise in labor productivity in manufacturing and farming is why we're so much better off on average. It's also why we spend a larger fraction of our income on services, and why those services are more expensive.

By the way, your point about the shrinking fraction we spend on "goods" like clothing is also one reason why "college costs so much." We have seen spectacular rises in labor productivity in producing "things" over the past century. Much smaller rises in productivity in offering personal services.

4/ for short-term political gain.

No one seems to care that a policy that helps one firm also disadvantages other American firms in the intense competition for capital and labor.

3/ This is why "Congress" and "Industrial Policy" usually shouldn't be uttered in the same sentence. Democrats used to be the party of "we know best which firms should win," and Republicans used to be more "hey, let the market decide." Now everybody seems to thinks that the market is their plaything

2/ ... whatever (supposed) spillover benefits might flow to consumers and to other firms due to the spread of this technology. "We" have no particular interest in the survival of this particular firm. A Congress-critter might, however, if it means a few hundred jobs in his district.

I'm confused. The US has a very deep capital market.

Private investors are quite used to waiting for years before a return if they think the idea will win out in the end. This is also a market with a number of good-sized players. If one of them fails, AI doesn't collapse, and we still get ...
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️

4/ the big child has decided that no constraints should stand between him and unchecked power to reward friends and punish perceived enemies.

3/ political party in a country thinks there is short run domestic political gain from manipulating trade and discriminating against (often weaker) partners, they'll reach into that cookie jar for policies that are acid to global stability.

The US has destroyed the rules, and the system, because

2/ set aside temporarily, but they did help minimize the politicization of trade policy. Without them, and without the force of international law behind them, we're in a world where there is a large cookie jar on the table and no adult in the room (and no lid on the jar). Whenever a leader or a

I might add a third. The fundamental rules of the old system -- non-discrimination and national treatment -- might not have the central place in a New World Order that they had in the rules-based system birthed by the US hegemony after WWII. Those rules were hardly perfect, and they were often

Justin has a knack for condensing a set of major arguments into less than a minute of air time.
Trump's tariffs are hurting us in two ways:

First, the obvious: Higher costs → either lower profits or higher prices.

Second, more subtle (perhaps bigger): We’ve signaled we’re an unreliable partner, so allies are reorganizing supply chains to avoid us. That's hard to unwind.
Trump's tariffs are hurting us in two ways:

First, the obvious: Higher costs → either lower profits or higher prices.

Second, more subtle (perhaps bigger): We’ve signaled we’re an unreliable partner, so allies are reorganizing supply chains to avoid us. That's hard to unwind.

The only interaction I ever had with him over on, ah, Twitter, was really ... unpleasant.

Facts do matter .... except to Fox faux-journalist commentators.