Mark Schaffer
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markeschaffer.bsky.social
Mark Schaffer
@markeschaffer.bsky.social
590 followers 520 following 32 posts

Professor of Economics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

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Economics 64%
Political science 16%
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markeschaffer.bsky.social
Mark Schaffer @markeschaffer.bsky.social · Oct 14
The UK macro policy problem is like the classic Irish joke about the lost traveler who asks a local farmer how to get to Dublin.

Farmer thinks for a bit and replies, "Well, I wouldn't start from here."

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

acjsissons.bsky.social
Andrew Sissons @acjsissons.bsky.social · 1d
‘A new service called Objector is offering “policy-backed objections in minutes” to people who are upset about planning applications near their homes.’

Another reminder that AI can be used for things you don’t like as well as things you like…

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Jonathan Hopkin

anandmenon.bsky.social
Anand Menon @anandmenon.bsky.social · 1d
Bloody hell www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Jason Mittell, Michael Barnett, Michael S. Rosenberg , and 30 more

brittanytrang.com
Brittany Trang @brittanytrang.com · 2d
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, John Mullahy, Kevin Carey , and 8 more

ddiamond.bsky.social
Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 2d
sometimes an Oxford comma can make all the difference
What we're watching: A new take on "Frankenstein," a lavish legal drama starring Kim Kardashian and a Tracy Morgan-led spinoff.

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Michael H. Whitworth , and 1 more

zachweinersmith.bsky.social
Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 3d
Haha, this from the New Yorker is getting passed around the math dork community. I did a comic about this kind of thought a few years ago: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/commut...

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

explodingheads.bsky.social
The Exploding Heads @explodingheads.bsky.social · 3d
"it's always the fault of the migrants. Except when it isn't."

Colin from Portsmouth thinks we should blame immigrants for things before they even happen.

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

libbyheeren.bsky.social
Libby Heeren @libbyheeren.bsky.social · 10d
Me: The least-helpful workshops are often the ones given by people who just Know Too Much 🥹
Data Friend: Have you see that blog post about this?
Me: No, show me!
Data Friend: anniemueller.com/posts/how-i-...
Me: BRB SENDING THIS TO EVERYONE I KNOW 😂

#rstats #python #databs
How I, a non-developer, read the tutorial you, a developer, wrote for me, a beginner - annie's blog
“Hello! I am a developer. Here is my relevant experience: I code in Hoobijag and sometimes jabbernocks and of course ABCDE++++ (but never ABCDE+/^+ are you kidding? ha!)  and I like working with ...
anniemueller.com

Reposted by Will Jennings, Mark E. Schaffer, Jonathan Hopkin

danneidle.bsky.social
Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 10d
The fundamental problem:

58% of voters want public spending maintained or increased.

67% want taxes to stay at their current level or be cut.

In reality, it’s a binary choice. Taxes go up, or spending is cut. That’s it.

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

sjwrenlewis.bsky.social
Simon Wren-Lewis @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social · 18d
This week's post: What the call for fiscal headroom reveals mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/10/what...
Exaggerated claims about market reactions to debt and deficits infantilize fiscal policy, and that can be dangerous. The call for more fiscal headroom is just a small example of that danger.
What the call for fiscal headroom reveals
Everyone, including the IFS, is agreed that the Chancellor should in the budget create more fiscal headroom than she did previously. Rath...
mainlymacro.blogspot.com

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Simon Wren‐Lewis, Steven Fielding

jdportes.bsky.social
Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 22d
"The government needs to take ownership of the Budget and use it to construct a convincing narrative. That means not blaming the OBR or HMT but explaining why tax reform is necessary, why it will be good for growth and public services and how pain will be fairly shared.

www.ft.com/content/a06d...
Blaming the OBR for the Budget maths is a waste of time
The government must explain why tax reform is necessary and desirable for fiscal sustainability
www.ft.com

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Tom Griffin, Dean Eckles

andycraig.bsky.social
Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 24d
Great moments in redaction history.
Interview from the Titan submarine investigation. The witness name is blacked out. The first line is "Well, I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic."

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Andrew Leyshon

Reposted by Will Jennings, Patrick Dunleavy, Andrew Scott , and 5 more

adambienkov.bsky.social
Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 26d
In today's least surprising news

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Vaughan S. Roberts

sjwrenlewis.bsky.social
Simon Wren-Lewis @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social · 27d
ew post: Populism and Economic Prosperity
mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/10/popu...
We would expect populist governments to damage the economy, and the evidence suggests that they do so in a big way. But we know from Brexit that the media typically nullifies the impact of this evidence on voters.
Populism and Economic Prosperity
Mainstream political parties normally claim that populist parties, if they ever got to power, would damage the economy. We have clear evid...
mainlymacro.blogspot.com

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

josephstrummered.bsky.social
josephstrummered.bsky.social @josephstrummered.bsky.social · Oct 10
That's pretty fucking cool too.

Reposted by Steve Peers, Mark E. Schaffer, Margot C. Finn

davidallengreen.bsky.social
dag @davidallengreen.bsky.social · Oct 9
NEW

Law versus politics

Both the UK and the US face a choice between unchecked executive power or a balanced constitution

By me at @prospectmagazine.co.uk

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...
This is the crucial choice facing those both in the United Kingdom and the United States. What is to be the relationship between those with political power and the force of law? In the United States it would seem that, at a federal level, both Congress and the Supreme Court are content to nod along with excessive use of presidential power. It is only the individual states themselves and the lower courts that are seeking to hold that executive power to account. While in the United Kingdom there are louder political demands for the government to be free from the constraints placed by international law and supposedly activist judges. The implicit call is that ministers and officials should be able to do as they like to the rest of us without any possibility of a court ever saying otherwise. What will happen in this contest between executive power and legal restraint cannot be predicted. The happy assumption of the Whig interpretation of history may not be well-grounded. From a liberal perspective things are not only getting worse, but could get a lot worse. The illiberals know what they are doing and they are doing it well.

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Mark E. Schaffer

sophieehill.bsky.social
Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · Oct 6
A thread of inspirational quotes from two of my idols: Kemi Badenoch and Ange Postecoglou

(uh-oh, I may have gotten some mixed up... or have I??)

🧵

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Lesley A. Hall, Christian E. Weller , and 2 more

richardkadrey.bsky.social
Richard Kadrey @richardkadrey.bsky.social · Oct 3
The mystery of medical diagnosis!
Anyone: Why are there suddenly so many AHDH diagnoses? Dr. Jen: Same reason there are suddenly more stars after we built telescopes.

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Norbert Schwarz, Patrick Dunleavy , and 10 more

kenwhite.bsky.social
Point Blank Sandwich Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · Oct 1
Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later.

harpers.org/archive/1941...
Who Goes Nazi?, by Dorothy Thompson
harpers.org

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

sturdyalex.bsky.social
Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · Oct 1
I have watched his bit and the bit after Kuenssberg asks the question about 20 times and my ribs hurt.

Janey, Janey, Janey, still making me laugh from beyond.

Reposted by John Appleby, Christopher McCabe, Mark E. Schaffer

sjwrenlewis.bsky.social
Simon Wren-Lewis @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social · Sep 30
New post: Misunderstandings on the left (and elsewhere) about the OBR, independence and the bond market
mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/09/misu...
The government delegating some highly technical tasks to independent experts doesn't create a democratic deficit, but it does avoid wishful thinking.
Misunderstandings on the left (and elsewhere) about the OBR, independence and the bond market
I often see pieces from those on the left criticising the OBR. Here is Louise Haigh , for example, talking about the “rigid orthodoxy of t...
mainlymacro.blogspot.com

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

yvanspijk.bsky.social
Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk.bsky.social · Sep 28
The word ‘harbour’ shares its origin with French ‘auberge’ and German ‘Herberge’ (both “hostel”).

They come from West Germanic *haribergu (military camp), a compound of *hari (army) and *bergu (shelter).

Other related English words are ‘harbinger’, ‘to harry’ and the name ‘Harold’.

Here’s more:

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

planetcarnival.bsky.social
PlanetCarnival @planetcarnival.bsky.social · Sep 26
Virgil wrote FanFic.

And while parts of his epic are very good, Aeneas himself comes across as a self-righteous prig.

#ISaidWhatISaid

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

resolutionfoundation.org
Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · Sep 26
"The tax system gets worse and worse over time."

@danneidle.bsky.social makes the case for big-picture tax reform.

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Jan W. Mueller, Richard S.J. Tol , and 19 more

crampell.bsky.social
Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · Sep 26
"experts say"
www.cnn.com/2025/08/11/b...

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Aleksandra Urman

jackstilgoe.bsky.social
Jack Stilgoe @jackstilgoe.bsky.social · Sep 21
This is not just maths. It's a design choice, supported by benchmarks that reward false certainty. Good to see OpenAI do some of the research, but it's also a reminder that OpenAI shouldn't be relied upon to do all the research.
OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws
In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...
www.computerworld.com

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Stephen Jones

alexdecampi.bsky.social
Alex de Campi @alexdecampi.bsky.social · Sep 13
Right, so this is ol’boy’s real/regular email address, not a burner—he’s written Google Maps reviews with it three years ago. That means he’s used it for lots of other things too.

Which means if Elizabeth wanted to track this guy down it would be piss easy

9/10 trolls SUCK at OSINT
espiers.bsky.social Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · Sep 13
Today in unhelpful AI suggestions
AI suggests I respond to a death threat with “haha - thanks!” Photo of a gun attached to a death threat

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Rebecca Tushnet

espiers.bsky.social
Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · Sep 13
Today in unhelpful AI suggestions
AI suggests I respond to a death threat with “haha - thanks!” Photo of a gun attached to a death threat

Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Colm O’Cinneíde

danneidle.bsky.social
Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · Sep 13
It's shocking how much consensus there is amongst tax policy wonks and economists of Left and Right on the tax reforms the UK needs to boost growth & make the tax system fairer

More shocking: they're reforms that are never mentioned by any politicians

buff.ly/rTfNmFC
Stop talking about wealth taxes — make these reforms instead
Any sane discussion of changes that both right and left could agree on is being crowded out by tax populism
buff.ly

Reposted by Geraint Rees, Steve Peers, Albert Weale , and 7 more

hetanshah.bsky.social
Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · Sep 12
Pet parrots which typically live alone (whilst those in the wild live in large flocks) were given the technology to call each other. They would use it for up to three hours a day, and developed favourite friends 💔
on.ft.com/3K05vhS
When a parrot wanted to connect with a distant friend, a touchscreen showed a selection of other birds available online. The parrots learned to activate the screen, designed specially for them, by touching it gently with their tongues rather than pecking aggressively with their beaks. "We had 26 birds involved," said Hirskyj-Douglas. "They would use the system up to three hours a day, with each call lasting up to five minutes." The interactions ranged from preening and playing with toys to loud vocal exchanges. "When we went through the data, we found that most of these parrots had favourite friends," said Hirskyj-Douglas.