Daniel Kuehn
@dkuehn.bsky.social
Research on apprenticeship, workforce development, and history of economics
Pinned
My paper on W.H. Hutt's work on the economics of race before apartheid is published! This paper accomplishes two things:
1. It analyzes the origins of Hutt's more famous 1960s work on apartheid
2. It clarifies the origins of his "weighted franchise" proposal
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
1. It analyzes the origins of Hutt's more famous 1960s work on apartheid
2. It clarifies the origins of his "weighted franchise" proposal
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
That guy wasn’t, understood in isolation, nearly as bad as what has come since. But that was the point of realization for me that in this country at this time people knowingly did murderous and immoral things with impunity because no one cared about stopping them.
February 19, 2026 at 4:41 AM
That guy wasn’t, understood in isolation, nearly as bad as what has come since. But that was the point of realization for me that in this country at this time people knowingly did murderous and immoral things with impunity because no one cared about stopping them.
Despite all of this the single biggest turning point in my political life is still the invasion of Iraq, March 20, 2003.
February 19, 2026 at 4:41 AM
Despite all of this the single biggest turning point in my political life is still the invasion of Iraq, March 20, 2003.
To Warner’s credit he was a critic of abuses in the war on terror and an early proponent of withdrawal: an unthinkable independent criticism in today’s Republican Party.
February 19, 2026 at 4:28 AM
To Warner’s credit he was a critic of abuses in the war on terror and an early proponent of withdrawal: an unthinkable independent criticism in today’s Republican Party.
The last Republican I voted for was John Warner for Senate in 2002 (the first year I could vote). He was an impressive moderate and although he technically voted for the Iraq AUMF in October 2002 that wasn’t on my radar until the actual invasion, which reshaped my politics thoroughly.
February 19, 2026 at 4:27 AM
The last Republican I voted for was John Warner for Senate in 2002 (the first year I could vote). He was an impressive moderate and although he technically voted for the Iraq AUMF in October 2002 that wasn’t on my radar until the actual invasion, which reshaped my politics thoroughly.
My voting record:
2004 - principled non-voter (they both supported the Iraq War)
Everything after that was the Democrat. Rubio in the 2016 primary to oppose Trump and Warren in the 2020 primary by preference. I was a libertarian in college but dropped that by the time I could vote in 2004.
2004 - principled non-voter (they both supported the Iraq War)
Everything after that was the Democrat. Rubio in the 2016 primary to oppose Trump and Warren in the 2020 primary by preference. I was a libertarian in college but dropped that by the time I could vote in 2004.
February 19, 2026 at 4:23 AM
My voting record:
2004 - principled non-voter (they both supported the Iraq War)
Everything after that was the Democrat. Rubio in the 2016 primary to oppose Trump and Warren in the 2020 primary by preference. I was a libertarian in college but dropped that by the time I could vote in 2004.
2004 - principled non-voter (they both supported the Iraq War)
Everything after that was the Democrat. Rubio in the 2016 primary to oppose Trump and Warren in the 2020 primary by preference. I was a libertarian in college but dropped that by the time I could vote in 2004.
Does politicization of the Fed cancel out if the politician has no idea what is going on or what he’s saying?
DONALD TRUMP SAYS "WE WANT 1% INFLATION — AND WE’RE GOING TO GET IT A LITTLE LOWER," INDICATING A GOAL TO KEEP INFLATION NEARLY AT 1% AND TRYING TO LOW
February 19, 2026 at 12:12 AM
Does politicization of the Fed cancel out if the politician has no idea what is going on or what he’s saying?
And obviously neither Aaron nor the ASA are saying that but sometimes even letting other parties fill in that subtext that you wouldn’t agree with is a problem too.
February 18, 2026 at 7:42 PM
And obviously neither Aaron nor the ASA are saying that but sometimes even letting other parties fill in that subtext that you wouldn’t agree with is a problem too.
lmao, not to mention Rufo himself! He’s skirted “groyper” successfully (probably since he’s a generation older than them), but he has been every bit as invested in the backlash against calls to dismantle systemic racism. He’s certainly been more successful at it than Fuentes.
The first assistant Chris Rufo hired in 2021 was a Pepe the frog loving fan of “groyper mom” Michelle Malkin. That guy worked for him for 3+ years before going to work for Russell Vought in the Trump administration last year. So Rufo can miss me with the “I’m shocked by Fuentes’s popularity.”
February 17, 2026 at 11:11 PM
lmao, not to mention Rufo himself! He’s skirted “groyper” successfully (probably since he’s a generation older than them), but he has been every bit as invested in the backlash against calls to dismantle systemic racism. He’s certainly been more successful at it than Fuentes.
I love how the article characterizes the ASA as a “statistical advocacy group” 😁
February 17, 2026 at 10:33 PM
I love how the article characterizes the ASA as a “statistical advocacy group” 😁
I think the statistical agencies are perfect to highlight in a broader defense of federal workers.
February 17, 2026 at 10:31 PM
I think the statistical agencies are perfect to highlight in a broader defense of federal workers.
This is obviously worthy in isolation but is there a risk that these requests for exemptions implicitly communicate its OK to move forward with the whole policy change? It seems like asking for a tariff exemption rather than opposing the tariffs themselves.
February 17, 2026 at 10:28 PM
This is obviously worthy in isolation but is there a risk that these requests for exemptions implicitly communicate its OK to move forward with the whole policy change? It seems like asking for a tariff exemption rather than opposing the tariffs themselves.
Reposted by Daniel Kuehn
So is programming. Which is why "vibe coding" is bunk. You have to think through exactly what you want the program to do, and only writing the code will force you to actually think it through properly.
Writing is thinking.
It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.
It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.
It’s easy to think writing is mainly the transcription of ideas you already have—that is, until you try to write something worthwhile, and you find what you thought were saying transform into something far more interesting in the process. This skips that last step, and that is *not* an improvement.
February 17, 2026 at 12:37 PM
So is programming. Which is why "vibe coding" is bunk. You have to think through exactly what you want the program to do, and only writing the code will force you to actually think it through properly.
Reposted by Daniel Kuehn
Writing is thinking.
It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.
It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.
It’s easy to think writing is mainly the transcription of ideas you already have—that is, until you try to write something worthwhile, and you find what you thought were saying transform into something far more interesting in the process. This skips that last step, and that is *not* an improvement.
“We plan to hire an AI rewrite specialist to ingest the reporting by Hannah and others and use AI to convert it into stories.”
The editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer said it will use AI to ‘write’ its articles.
www.cleveland.com/news/2025/10...
The editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer said it will use AI to ‘write’ its articles.
www.cleveland.com/news/2025/10...
February 16, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Writing is thinking.
It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.
It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.
Reposted by Daniel Kuehn
In film after film, Frederick Wiseman watched with preternatural patience as systems revealed themselves through the tenacious, irreducible vitality of the people inside them.
I kept returning to his films while reporting my book, hoping to absorb some of that patience.
Such a profound loss.
I kept returning to his films while reporting my book, hoping to absorb some of that patience.
Such a profound loss.
Frederick Wiseman Dies at 96: The Documentary Legend Was One of Cinema’s Greatest Masters
Wiseman's 50-plus year career started with a bang, "Titicut Follies," and only got better.
www.indiewire.com
February 16, 2026 at 10:21 PM
In film after film, Frederick Wiseman watched with preternatural patience as systems revealed themselves through the tenacious, irreducible vitality of the people inside them.
I kept returning to his films while reporting my book, hoping to absorb some of that patience.
Such a profound loss.
I kept returning to his films while reporting my book, hoping to absorb some of that patience.
Such a profound loss.
Like everyone in the liberal tradition, libertarians do value individual liberty to varying degrees. It just doesn’t distinguish them from other liberals. Libertarians’ antistatism is why you get the obsessions with “liberal dictators” and accelerationism that can be very far right.
February 16, 2026 at 9:07 PM
Like everyone in the liberal tradition, libertarians do value individual liberty to varying degrees. It just doesn’t distinguish them from other liberals. Libertarians’ antistatism is why you get the obsessions with “liberal dictators” and accelerationism that can be very far right.
The single biggest mistake you can make when trying to understand libertarians is to assume libertarianism is distinguished by believing in individual liberty. But what distinguishes libertarianism is antistatism, and when you realize that, lots of things that seem odd fall into place.
Libertarianism believes in individual liberty. Why then are so many who use the label inclined toward authoritarianism, conspiracy thinking, and bigotry?
I explain the strange phenomenon of the populist libertarian and what drives such people. www.richardhanania.com/p/thoughts-o...
I explain the strange phenomenon of the populist libertarian and what drives such people. www.richardhanania.com/p/thoughts-o...
Thoughts on Elite Versus Populist Libertarianism
Why vice signallers say they believe in liberty
www.richardhanania.com
February 16, 2026 at 9:06 PM
The single biggest mistake you can make when trying to understand libertarians is to assume libertarianism is distinguished by believing in individual liberty. But what distinguishes libertarianism is antistatism, and when you realize that, lots of things that seem odd fall into place.
My love language is a sugaring class at a mill built in 1811. It also happens to have been my Valentines Day present this year.
February 16, 2026 at 2:33 AM
My love language is a sugaring class at a mill built in 1811. It also happens to have been my Valentines Day present this year.
Reposted by Daniel Kuehn
The pace at which US wealth concentration is rising is simply staggering
The concentration of AI wealth into the hands of a few tech barons + plutocratic capture ==> unchartered territory
The concentration of AI wealth into the hands of a few tech barons + plutocratic capture ==> unchartered territory
February 15, 2026 at 2:47 PM
The pace at which US wealth concentration is rising is simply staggering
The concentration of AI wealth into the hands of a few tech barons + plutocratic capture ==> unchartered territory
The concentration of AI wealth into the hands of a few tech barons + plutocratic capture ==> unchartered territory
Historians of capitalism naturally see things in historically contingent ways. I think that’s fine. Economic historians don’t. I think that’s fine too. But a lot of useless arguments have come from that difference.
February 15, 2026 at 5:22 AM
Historians of capitalism naturally see things in historically contingent ways. I think that’s fine. Economic historians don’t. I think that’s fine too. But a lot of useless arguments have come from that difference.
So if you’re defining its indispensability in a historically contingent way I think indispensability can be true. It was incredibly important to the growth of capitalism. If you’re defining indispensability in a “growth wouldn’t happen without it” way that’s definitely wrong.
February 15, 2026 at 5:21 AM
So if you’re defining its indispensability in a historically contingent way I think indispensability can be true. It was incredibly important to the growth of capitalism. If you’re defining indispensability in a “growth wouldn’t happen without it” way that’s definitely wrong.
This actually introduces another distinction: we acknowledge and say it’s allocatively inefficient—we would be further along in the progressive march of history without it—but it was a major economic force in its time that powered a lot of change in the economy and just socially.
February 15, 2026 at 5:19 AM
This actually introduces another distinction: we acknowledge and say it’s allocatively inefficient—we would be further along in the progressive march of history without it—but it was a major economic force in its time that powered a lot of change in the economy and just socially.
Ok. I know he goofed on GDP accounting but I’m not sure how bad the rest of it is. I thought you were saying that of the two points I made allocative inefficiency was the correct one.
February 15, 2026 at 5:17 AM
Ok. I know he goofed on GDP accounting but I’m not sure how bad the rest of it is. I thought you were saying that of the two points I made allocative inefficiency was the correct one.
In fact if it weren’t compatible slavery wouldn’t have been so damned persistent.
February 15, 2026 at 5:04 AM
In fact if it weren’t compatible slavery wouldn’t have been so damned persistent.
So I’m reluctant to criticize what I’m not closely familiar with.
February 15, 2026 at 5:01 AM
So I’m reluctant to criticize what I’m not closely familiar with.