Digressionsimpressions
@nescio13.bsky.social
Philosopher who got a gig as political theorist at University of Amsterdam; also known as Ghent Zeppelin. I have a daily substack:
https://digressionsimpressions.substack.com/publish
https://digressionsimpressions.substack.com/publish
If the us ever gets to redesign its constitution it has to change how federal district attorneys are appointed
I genuinely don't understood how America took the emoluments clause -- the common-sense bar on a president using his powers to line his own pockets, a law children can understand -- and just said, nah, that doesn't apply for our Very Special Boy.
He’s turned the presidency into the world’s largest ATM machine.
January 17, 2026 at 2:00 AM
If the us ever gets to redesign its constitution it has to change how federal district attorneys are appointed
Reposted by Digressionsimpressions
I genuinely don't understood how America took the emoluments clause -- the common-sense bar on a president using his powers to line his own pockets, a law children can understand -- and just said, nah, that doesn't apply for our Very Special Boy.
He’s turned the presidency into the world’s largest ATM machine.
January 17, 2026 at 1:26 AM
I genuinely don't understood how America took the emoluments clause -- the common-sense bar on a president using his powers to line his own pockets, a law children can understand -- and just said, nah, that doesn't apply for our Very Special Boy.
Dewey on Adam Smith (and Bentham)
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
Dewey on Adam Smith (and Bentham)
Trevor Pearce alerted me to Dewey’s relatively brief discussion of Adam Smith in his early lectures on ethics.
open.substack.com
January 17, 2026 at 12:25 AM
Dewey on Adam Smith (and Bentham)
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
I don't get why the Economist seems increasingly like a non-liberal zine. It's not one article just a cumulative effect
January 16, 2026 at 9:30 PM
I don't get why the Economist seems increasingly like a non-liberal zine. It's not one article just a cumulative effect
I wonder if we have to rethink publicity requirements in an era of government vice signalling. I call it 'don't feed the trolls epistemology "
January 16, 2026 at 8:55 PM
I wonder if we have to rethink publicity requirements in an era of government vice signalling. I call it 'don't feed the trolls epistemology "
“A prince, who should enact that a certain proportion of his taxes be paid in a paper money of a certain kind, might thereby give a certain value to this paper money.” Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (WN2.2)
#doreadbookII
#doreadbookII
January 16, 2026 at 4:36 PM
“A prince, who should enact that a certain proportion of his taxes be paid in a paper money of a certain kind, might thereby give a certain value to this paper money.” Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (WN2.2)
#doreadbookII
#doreadbookII
I increasingly think philosophical taste is not transitive. Whenever I discuss other philosophers' work, my friends are polarised in ways that baffle me regularly.
#alsoaumanniswrong
#alsoaumanniswrong
January 15, 2026 at 11:19 PM
I increasingly think philosophical taste is not transitive. Whenever I discuss other philosophers' work, my friends are polarised in ways that baffle me regularly.
#alsoaumanniswrong
#alsoaumanniswrong
On Rawls' use of different sources of TMS, and some digressive stuff on an episode in American philosophy
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On Rawls' use of different sources of TMS, and some digressive stuff on an episode in American philosophy
One of the minor oddities of Rawls’ engagement with Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments (hereafter TMS) in The Theory of Justice is that he cites two separate sources.
open.substack.com
January 15, 2026 at 8:16 PM
On Rawls' use of different sources of TMS, and some digressive stuff on an episode in American philosophy
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
Sure we can call it graft. But, and perhaps it's a bit anachronistic to put it like this, Charles I lost his head over trying to access an unappropriated funding stream.
Seizure ... by whom? If we're asserting that the money is safer in Qatar than the US, that suggests that it is being protected because Qatar has something the US lacks — presumably a lack of accountability to American courts and Congress. www.semafor.com/article/01/1...
January 15, 2026 at 4:52 AM
Sure we can call it graft. But, and perhaps it's a bit anachronistic to put it like this, Charles I lost his head over trying to access an unappropriated funding stream.
A neat footnote in Rawls on Adam Smith
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
A neat footnote in Rawls on Adam Smith
As regular readers know, I have a tendency to read Rawls’ reception of Adam Smith through his engagement with Elie Halévy, The growth of philosophic radicalism, which he cites in The Theory of Justice...
open.substack.com
January 14, 2026 at 7:32 PM
A neat footnote in Rawls on Adam Smith
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
I am pretty sure that Marx did not coin the category 'classical' economics (I think it was already being used a bit), but that Marx did cause the wide circulation of it. Does anyone know any scholarship on this?
January 13, 2026 at 10:51 PM
I am pretty sure that Marx did not coin the category 'classical' economics (I think it was already being used a bit), but that Marx did cause the wide circulation of it. Does anyone know any scholarship on this?
Asking for a former student. Can any of my academic colleagues speak to the international reputation of IBEI (Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals)? Much obliged.
January 13, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Asking for a former student. Can any of my academic colleagues speak to the international reputation of IBEI (Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals)? Much obliged.
On West Coast Straussianism and the Imperial Presidency — Crooked Timber
crookedtimber.org/2026/01/13/o...
crookedtimber.org/2026/01/13/o...
crookedtimber.org
January 13, 2026 at 8:45 PM
On West Coast Straussianism and the Imperial Presidency — Crooked Timber
crookedtimber.org/2026/01/13/o...
crookedtimber.org/2026/01/13/o...
CFPs Special Issue: 250th Anniversary of The Wealth of Nations, deadline March 1.
Sam Fleischacker (University of Illinois, Chicago)
Maria Carrasco (Universidad de los Andes)
Sam Fleischacker (University of Illinois, Chicago)
Maria Carrasco (Universidad de los Andes)
January 12, 2026 at 10:23 PM
CFPs Special Issue: 250th Anniversary of The Wealth of Nations, deadline March 1.
Sam Fleischacker (University of Illinois, Chicago)
Maria Carrasco (Universidad de los Andes)
Sam Fleischacker (University of Illinois, Chicago)
Maria Carrasco (Universidad de los Andes)
On Our Post-Constitutional Moment, PT 6; on Kendall and the reception of Jaffa's Crisis open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On Our Post-Constitutional Moment, PT 6; on Kendall and the reception of Jaffa's Crisis
One of the very nice features of Laura K. Field’s (2025) Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right (Princeton) is the documentation of the very broad and intense embrace of MAGA among so-called ...
open.substack.com
January 12, 2026 at 8:02 PM
On Our Post-Constitutional Moment, PT 6; on Kendall and the reception of Jaffa's Crisis open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
Yep, nobody wants to be without a chair when the music stops; but they don't want to miss out on all the slimey opportunities while the music plays
(To be clear, we already know the answer: Trump's dictatorship is stronger. His previous moves against it already showed all meaningful defenses are down. Nobody is talking about removing the mad king if he goes after the Fed, markets are calm & will continue to be until it's much too late)
January 12, 2026 at 5:06 AM
Yep, nobody wants to be without a chair when the music stops; but they don't want to miss out on all the slimey opportunities while the music plays
I do wonder whether the Fed's real 'crime' was not paying kickbacks to some favored contractor.
January 12, 2026 at 4:18 AM
I do wonder whether the Fed's real 'crime' was not paying kickbacks to some favored contractor.
Reposted by Digressionsimpressions
This is the sort of statement that was expected from every university president and law firm partner over the last year. That those statements weren’t made played a huge part in where we are now and people will remember.
Jerome Powell: "This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation."
January 12, 2026 at 1:45 AM
This is the sort of statement that was expected from every university president and law firm partner over the last year. That those statements weren’t made played a huge part in where we are now and people will remember.
I didn't think Sen Tillis would become the adult in the republican caucus. But here we are.
Tillis is spot on. The Senate can't confirm a Trump toady to succeed Powell at the Fed. The rest of the game is now out in the open, and it doesn't end well.
January 12, 2026 at 3:26 AM
I didn't think Sen Tillis would become the adult in the republican caucus. But here we are.
1. POTUS aided by Scotus are trying to create a presidency/executive that has few checks on its power.
2. It's not true that nobody is above the law. And it is silly to keep repeating it as fact even if it is a useful ideal.
1/2
youtu.be/KckGHaBLSn4?...
2. It's not true that nobody is above the law. And it is silly to keep repeating it as fact even if it is a useful ideal.
1/2
youtu.be/KckGHaBLSn4?...
Statement by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell
YouTube video by Federal Reserve
youtu.be
January 12, 2026 at 3:10 AM
1. POTUS aided by Scotus are trying to create a presidency/executive that has few checks on its power.
2. It's not true that nobody is above the law. And it is silly to keep repeating it as fact even if it is a useful ideal.
1/2
youtu.be/KckGHaBLSn4?...
2. It's not true that nobody is above the law. And it is silly to keep repeating it as fact even if it is a useful ideal.
1/2
youtu.be/KckGHaBLSn4?...
Reposted by Digressionsimpressions
Closet Socinians Against Trump!
January 12, 2026 at 12:59 AM
Closet Socinians Against Trump!
At some point, investors will sell dollars or demand a much higher risk premium...
January 12, 2026 at 12:49 AM
At some point, investors will sell dollars or demand a much higher risk premium...
It would be ironic if greenland sends two Democrats to the senate.
#hawaiofthenorth
#hawaiofthenorth
January 10, 2026 at 3:32 PM
It would be ironic if greenland sends two Democrats to the senate.
#hawaiofthenorth
#hawaiofthenorth
My research takes an unexpected turn
January 9, 2026 at 10:44 PM
My research takes an unexpected turn