Angus Bylsma
@AngusBylsma
Writing about economic history at https://unevenandcombinedthoughts.substack.com. Too illiterate for history, too innumerate for economics.
This week’s review! — on Catherine Schenk’s superb The Decline of Sterling, and how sterling can (and can not) help us think about the dollar today. Plus some personal news. Check it out below👇 !
This is true, but echoing some of the comments, the thing was really surprising even for those of us who had no illusions about Israel, was the extent and brazenness of the gleeful sadism and openly dehumanising genocidal intent within IDF, politics and civil society.
The Omar El Akkad "one day everyone will be against this" tweet was on October 25th, 2023. Me, probably you, everybody with a head on their shoulders knew that Israel had genocidal intent from the beginning. There have been no surprises about Gaza save the degree of inaction.
My potentially unpopular opinion? I think this trend has been disastrous for the overall quality of economic history.
4/ 🧪 Methods: From Time Series to Causal Inference In 2000, 70% of papers used mostly descriptive time-series analysis. Now? It's <40%. Econometrics (IVs, DiD, panel models) are dominant. Machine learning & text mining are on the rise. Qualitative work? Nearly extinct.
Could be worse…
why does the Fed need 5 floor underground parking? in a swamp city?? that has decent public transit
In Gaza, Israel has forfeited its right to exist just like Nazi Germany did — the state should be ripped apart, the people temporarily disenfranchised, and the whole thing rebuilt from the ground up by others.
We are at the stage of resorting to naturalized fairytale.
Of course, this is just blatantly untrue and so gross
Is it Aeroflot or a priesthood? The metaphor hygiene is not amazing here.
"Economics today resembles Catholic theology in medieval Europe: a rigid doctrine guarded by a modern priesthood who claim to possess the sole truth. Dissenters are shunned. ... Neoclassical economics has become the Aeroflot of ideas." Much truth in this.
Doing my bit by learning lots of metrics and using as little of it as possible as I spend my time instead trying to read handwriting in archives.
And not only that, but the myopic emphasis on methods means there’s now a kind of hollowing-out of historical expertise, leading to all sorts of absolute howlers being published because the peer-reviewers have no idea of the historical detail and just comment on method design
China's fastest growing sectors: solar energy, electric cars, electric batteries America's fastes growing sectors: essential oils, cryptocurrency, ponzi schemes
Break *all* collaboration with Israel, impose draconian sanctions, expel all its ambassadors - otherwise this appeal is window dressing.
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK: "the war in Gaza must end now."
Not that this was unprecedented — people had been arguing for an Empire Central Bank contra National banks through the 1920s. But this was the only such proposal presented at Ottawa.
Best find from the archives yesterday: this memo, presented personally by a Mr Darling, Director of the Midlands Bank, in his own capacity, to the Ottawa Conference 1932. Seems like he was politely laughed away. Somewhere between Eurobonds and 1930s fin-fic @adam_tooze?
Best find from the archives yesterday: this memo, presented personally by a Mr Darling, Director of the Midlands Bank, in his own capacity, to the Ottawa Conference 1932. Seems like he was politely laughed away. Somewhere between Eurobonds and 1930s fin-fic @adam_tooze?
She was murdered in an atrocious way, she did not give up her fight for life
Four-year old Razan Abu Zaher gave up her fight for life on Sunday. She died at a hospital in central Gaza from complications brought on by hunger and malnutrition, @CNN reports share.google/X06Ydl5AUQZmmE…
This strikes me as rather philistine. Consider, “if you need to attend a lecture to realise that a theorem is beautiful, it’s not beautiful”. Obviously false! Understanding and aesthetics are inextricable. As true of art as mathematics.
If you need to attend a lecture to realize that a painting is beautiful, it's not beautiful.
Many people have been saying exactly this….Much of America’s economic dominance of the last decades, particularly relative or Europe, has rested on it being more exploitative and extractive, offering higher rents to some at the expense others. This is the real ‘imbalance’ of…
Fantastic work from @adam_tooze this morning, expressing* a view I’ve come around to: to some extent, recent US financial dominance comes from the political economy’s willingness to offer investors superior pillaging opportunities. *more subtly of course…
These thoughts prompted by spending too much time reading about ancient ceramics recently
I think the best museums have not only a great collection but a sense of place, sharp curation, historical context for serious people, and thoughtful architecture. The best I have visited are: 1. SMÄK, Munich 2. Lugdunum, Lyon 3. Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki
I think the best museums have not only a great collection but a sense of place, sharp curation, historical context for serious people, and thoughtful architecture. The best I have visited are: 1. SMÄK, Munich 2. Lugdunum, Lyon 3. Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki
