The Times Square Rollercoaster ("The Torch") is happening by right w/o discretionary government review b/c of a historical quirk: NYC's 1961 downzoning didn't ban rollercoasters as an accessory hotel use! So it's their land, their property rights, & they don't have to ask

Benedict The best argument for how procedure *does* shape political economy is the Times Square Torch Rollercoasters are a by-right accessory use for hotels in NYC. It's unconstitutional to attempt to stop them from building a rollercoaster on this supertall x.com/i/status/17686…

for those of you who are unaware, British employment commissions have in the past found that you need to pay people the same salary for *completely different jobs* if one job attracts more men and the other more women. and that this claim can be backdated to bankrupt you.

Labor market policy in the UK is insane. Alex Tabarrok has the best explanation of how perverse the "Equality Act" is:

Mason Noël Michel ⏹️ if the jobs are legally classified as equal work. the courts keep deciding various jobs are equal work when people who work the jobs do not seem to agree (preferring one to the other). absolute madness.

Please please please don't become like the left in the UK. Entirely divorced from reality nut jobs. We'd have trump reelected a 3rd time if we tried this shit here

Utility companies are a monopoly.  You don’t have a choice which one to buy from – so the prices are supposed to be regulated. But now these monopolies are jacking up prices to rake in huge corporate profits— sometimes it’s 25% of your electric bill! That’s way higher than a

Learning today that people genuinely have no idea that humans were a major factor in the extinction of hundreds of megafauna species before we even invented agriculture. Also, China is by far the most problematic overfisher today, not the white capitalists.

The radicalizing moment for me on housing was listening to two old NIMBYs manning a CA Dems booth talk about how everyone who cant afford it here should just leave It was a pride event So, what, they go back to get abused in Arkansas because old people hate apartments? Horrific

Fascinating research about slave trade in Eastern Europe. Do you know that at least 5 million people from Lviv to Moscow were captured and sold from Crimea overseas in 15-18 centuries? After West Africa, the region was the largest source of slaves in the early modern world. 1/6

The Torch's new rollercoaster tower is rising by-right in Times Sq. NYC's 1961 downzoning made housing illegal, yes. But it also made rollercoasters a by-right accessory hotel use! There are no hearings. Thus there's simply no forum for a few dozen haters to kill the project

Left-NIMBYs think that blocking new apartments stops gentrification. What actually happens: new demand is redirected to the existing housing stock. Instead of living in new apartments, rich newcomers buy up old homes and displace renters.

This is what happened in San Francisco during the tech boom. Despite regulations designed to prevent it, landlords withdrew ~40 duplexes per year from the rent-controlled housing stock. x.com/michael_wiebe/…

They’re not even giving kids a chance to develop their brains or their social world. Hooking them as customers as early as possible.

ROI-NJ New Jersey is merely back to building at 1990s/2000s sprawl levels. The difference is now it's more infill and less greenfield, which is good.

"The idea to unite New York and New Jersey’s busiest railroads has long been dismissed by elected officials on both sides of the Hudson River for logistical and political reasons. But now the time may finally come." New from Just your friendly neighborhood transit reporter gothamist.com/news/trumps-pe…

"Are we being prices here" and "people live in houses" guy gets it

I will be ready soon to discuss new research about whether investors are pricing families out of housing. The case is so obvious, it's, frankly, embarrassing to have to write about it like it's something that needs to be pointed out and explained.

By looking at crime stats after the fact like this & prosecuting crime based on race. You end up making the life's of those you think you're helping more dangerous. Do minorities who don't commit serious crimes deserve to live in danger 24/7? How does that help anyone in poverty