fortune’s fickle favors
@introjecter.bsky.social
History PhD @Brown
Studying money and finance in early America
https://fortunesficklefavors.substack.com/
Studying money and finance in early America
https://fortunesficklefavors.substack.com/
a big problem for centrists and liberals is that if you dont want left-leaning people to become marxists, you should not run a government that basically functions like the marxist stereotype of a capitalist state. but they cant help themselves!
November 11, 2025 at 1:46 AM
a big problem for centrists and liberals is that if you dont want left-leaning people to become marxists, you should not run a government that basically functions like the marxist stereotype of a capitalist state. but they cant help themselves!
Reposted by fortune’s fickle favors
i'm a deleuzean in the very specific sense that i spiritually align with the freaks but i really like hanging out at home
October 31, 2025 at 3:46 PM
i'm a deleuzean in the very specific sense that i spiritually align with the freaks but i really like hanging out at home
trump’s america
October 28, 2025 at 8:54 PM
trump’s america
im like 65% of the way to convincing myself that capitalism, as most people understand it, existed for ~one century, and everything beyond that is people trying to construct a prehistory for something that was totally contingent
October 28, 2025 at 7:20 PM
im like 65% of the way to convincing myself that capitalism, as most people understand it, existed for ~one century, and everything beyond that is people trying to construct a prehistory for something that was totally contingent
this is because a successful bipartisan project of the last 40 years has been obfuscating all of the things the government does
I think very often people do not realize the sheer *scale* of government, particularly the US government.
There are already food banks/depositories in every district & a ton of Democrats have been doing events to support them, but if no one besides a staffer posts about it, no one knows about it.
Even with a massive support, it's not replacing $100 billion in SNAP. We need a functional government!
Even with a massive support, it's not replacing $100 billion in SNAP. We need a functional government!
October 27, 2025 at 2:37 AM
this is because a successful bipartisan project of the last 40 years has been obfuscating all of the things the government does
my backyard has a carefully balanced ecosystem of 5 squirrels, 2 rabbits, and one large rat
October 21, 2025 at 5:08 PM
my backyard has a carefully balanced ecosystem of 5 squirrels, 2 rabbits, and one large rat
it was such a good bit to get my entire generation addicted to the internet by making it good for the formative years of our development, and then make it completely unusable by the time we reached our 30s.
October 15, 2025 at 1:46 AM
it was such a good bit to get my entire generation addicted to the internet by making it good for the formative years of our development, and then make it completely unusable by the time we reached our 30s.
it’s good when the army is paid entirely by one anonymous rich guy
Trump: "I had a very wealthy person who called -- a donor, a great gentleman -- and he said, 'if there's any money necessary, shortfall, for the paying of the troops, then I will pay it.' Meaning he will pay it. How about that?"
October 14, 2025 at 7:15 PM
it’s good when the army is paid entirely by one anonymous rich guy
nothing really gets me going like writing historical materialist heterodox macroeconomics for 18th century french colonies
October 13, 2025 at 7:56 PM
nothing really gets me going like writing historical materialist heterodox macroeconomics for 18th century french colonies
trump snubbed again
*MOKYR, AGHION, HOWITT WON NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS
October 13, 2025 at 6:33 PM
trump snubbed again
torn between “i should flee america” and “i should move back to philly”
October 9, 2025 at 10:18 PM
torn between “i should flee america” and “i should move back to philly”
goin outside to eat a cliff bar like im having a cigarette
October 8, 2025 at 8:00 PM
goin outside to eat a cliff bar like im having a cigarette
“can a civil war be imposed from the top down” looks like a question we are going to learn the answer to soon
October 8, 2025 at 12:53 AM
“can a civil war be imposed from the top down” looks like a question we are going to learn the answer to soon
david graeber has a curious essay about why the police were so bothered by large puppets during the anti-globalization protests. i thought it was bullshit when i read it but this video is making me reconsider.
October 6, 2025 at 1:03 AM
david graeber has a curious essay about why the police were so bothered by large puppets during the anti-globalization protests. i thought it was bullshit when i read it but this video is making me reconsider.
“can the king break the law” essays in intro political theory classes probably go hard this year
October 4, 2025 at 12:34 AM
“can the king break the law” essays in intro political theory classes probably go hard this year
AI is mostly a project to find out how small you can make the ruling elite while subjecting the median individual to increasingly harsh conditions. the bet is you can proletarianize all knowledge and entertainment industry workers and suffer little to no blowback.
October 3, 2025 at 1:33 AM
AI is mostly a project to find out how small you can make the ruling elite while subjecting the median individual to increasingly harsh conditions. the bet is you can proletarianize all knowledge and entertainment industry workers and suffer little to no blowback.
sometimes I think about how probably the most important class I ever took in my life was a year-long typing class in high school where we all had to be able to type ~60wpm with few mistakes to pass
October 2, 2025 at 3:29 PM
sometimes I think about how probably the most important class I ever took in my life was a year-long typing class in high school where we all had to be able to type ~60wpm with few mistakes to pass
i just read a bunch of books about the seven years war and every single one starts and ends with: logistics, not bravery or even really strategy, wins wars
Hegseth: "A few months ago I was at the White House when President Trump announced his liberation day for America's trade policy. It was a landmark day. Well, today is another liberation day. The liberation of America's warriors ... you kill people and break things for a living."
September 30, 2025 at 11:25 PM
i just read a bunch of books about the seven years war and every single one starts and ends with: logistics, not bravery or even really strategy, wins wars
Reposted by fortune’s fickle favors
We Should Have Finished Reconstruction: A Brief History Of American Politics, 1865-2025
yeah, this is hegseth straightforwardly announcing that it is free play time for bigots in the ranks. and together with his comments on standards, he clearly wants to purge as many women, black and brown people as he can from the armed services. a white man's military.
Hegseth: "We are overhauling an inspector general process that has been weaponized, putting complainers and poor performers in the driver seat. We are doing the same with the equal opportunity policies. No more frivolous complaints, no more anonymous complains ... no more walking on eggshells."
September 30, 2025 at 1:13 PM
We Should Have Finished Reconstruction: A Brief History Of American Politics, 1865-2025
i can tell how bad my caffeine addiction is by what time in the evening i begin to crave coffee again. 10pm? that's fine. 7pm? we're in trouble.
September 28, 2025 at 11:09 PM
i can tell how bad my caffeine addiction is by what time in the evening i begin to crave coffee again. 10pm? that's fine. 7pm? we're in trouble.
love that we are reinventing in real time 'dementia-ridden sovereign controlled by conniving advisors' as a form of government. famously not a particular stable political structure!
So considering he reposted that AI medbed thing last night there's a nonzero chance his own advisors have been showing him AI Fox News clips in the oval office and he thinks they're real
September 28, 2025 at 9:29 PM
love that we are reinventing in real time 'dementia-ridden sovereign controlled by conniving advisors' as a form of government. famously not a particular stable political structure!
Reposted by fortune’s fickle favors
My essay "Money is a thing: coins and bills in late medieval Europe" is now out in the Research Handbook on Law and Political Economy. This is a relatively concise statement of the numismatic (i.e. anti-chartalist) view of medieval European money. I hope it's of interest and use.
September 27, 2025 at 12:08 AM
My essay "Money is a thing: coins and bills in late medieval Europe" is now out in the Research Handbook on Law and Political Economy. This is a relatively concise statement of the numismatic (i.e. anti-chartalist) view of medieval European money. I hope it's of interest and use.
my promise as a historian: if you give historians a couple hundred billion dollars, we will not misspend it
ZUCKERBERG: “If we end up misspending a couple of hundred billion dollars, I think that that is going to be very unfortunate, obviously. .. But what I’d say is I actually think the risk is higher on the other side.”
$META
youtu.be/23FyskyFoP8?...
$META
youtu.be/23FyskyFoP8?...
September 26, 2025 at 6:22 PM
my promise as a historian: if you give historians a couple hundred billion dollars, we will not misspend it
i am very perplexed by the fact that the rightwing resurgent catholics seem to disagree with the pope about everything
September 25, 2025 at 12:33 AM
i am very perplexed by the fact that the rightwing resurgent catholics seem to disagree with the pope about everything
damn it almost seems like companionship is an emergent property of talking with people more. maybe we should organize our society around… that.
A month after my last skeet, the subreddit "My Boyfriend is AI" now has 88,000 members and is the subject of an MIT study that found that "AI companionship emerges unintentionally through functional use rather than deliberate seeking."
arxiv.org/html/2509.11...
arxiv.org/html/2509.11...
September 22, 2025 at 5:31 PM
damn it almost seems like companionship is an emergent property of talking with people more. maybe we should organize our society around… that.