Mark Stephany

the news will tell you that the left are protesting because "of insufficient school funding" This is questionable at best. France has a massive welfare state. Gigantic. They do not lack for public sector expenditure. - French public spending accounts for an almost incomprehensible 57.2% of GDP - the French deficit is 5.1% of GDP and the debt to GDP ratio is 115% - France spends more on education on both a relative and absolute basis than the EU average France can't meaningfully increase public spending. they are maxed out. Their 10-year bond trades at a higher yield than Italy or Greece, historical basket cases. so, it's not about public spending. France is an insanely lavish welfare state to the point of serious dysfunction. what's it about then?

Joyce, I know you may not believe any of this. Many people won't because this way of thinking is so foreign to them. But I wouldn't take a permanent job at Princeton even if it were offered. So I'm not miffed. That's the important part. My criticisms of the humanities and social sciences come from a different place --- a desire for rigor. Now, Princeton likely also won't ever offer me a position. But I'm not upset about it - I simply do not care. I have my dream job, with amazing colleagues, both in and out of WVU's business school. Prestige games mean nothing to me. I threw that away in 2018 when I decide to focus on bitcoin as a core area of my research. I knew most academics wouldn't take bitcoin as seriously as humanitarians, technologists, politicians, and regulators already did. So your approval, and the approval of people who think Marx should be such a towering figure in English departments, mean nothing to me. Your cheapshots mean nothing to me. I also don't care about the race or gender of the authors included in a syllabus. I simply want to assign the best work that most benefits students. So this, too, is a straw man. I like Princeton generally, and have a lot of respect for many people there. I've visited a few times to give talks. But I wake up everyday feeling so grateful where I am, with ambitious, supportive colleagues who don't undermine me. Life is good. I'm honestly sorry that yours isn't good enough, as a grown woman, to avoid getting sufficiently vindictive so as to assign fictional motives to people. Take care.

Bitcoin stands apart. I'm happy to be bitcoin only in my research and allocation of attention and capital. But the purity spirals and disgraceful ignorance toxis spread are net negative. I shed no tears over their demise. Onwards.

because I'm not in 7th grade I understand my personal liberty to say anything I want ought be balanced with being a decent person in society. That's why I would never use the R word as an insult to a fellow human. That doesn't mean one isn't tempted in times like these.

THIS IS MY REGULAR. Notice anything different about him? Look at his robe. Look at his rosary. I'll give you a hint. His name's Father Jonah!

Say something nice about Iowa.

US nonprofit hospitals spent $7.8 billion on management consultants from 2009 to 2023, but contracts were not associated with meaningful changes in finance, operations, or quality of care. 🧵 ja.ma/4d46zfq