Aston Crown

Things I think are of note in the realms of law, technology, and political economy.

"I am not playing cards." --Volodomyr Zelensky

Last Notes

2026-09-16 23:28:45 UTC

It's somewhat weird that so many people (most?) are worried that AI might kill us all, SkyNet-style, but relatively few (maybe less than half?) are worried that climate change -- something well underway, and shockingly faster than predicted -- will kill us all.
@npub153l…caex

2026-07-31 19:23:10 UTC

Very compelling evidence and argument that Elon musk is betting on permanent US oligarchy: https://withallduerespectpodcast.substack.com/p/elon-musk-the-arithmetic-of-impunity-010
@npub153l…caex @npub1dck…0u0f

2026-07-02 19:49:59 UTC

Apparently, the US adding 57k jobs in a month (June report, just out) is now "a steady pace" (per NYTimes).
I'm old enough to remember when 150k jobs/month was "maintenance growth" (and that was with a smaller population).
The Trump economy continues to get graded on a steep curve.
@npub153l…caex @npub1dck…0u0f

2025-12-11 18:05:12 UTC

In a release that seems to have escaped mainstream notice, the Trump OCC is now saying that banks not providing financing for various ventures including "drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic" is an example of "debanking":
https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2025/nr-occ-2025-123.html
I'm very much against "debanking" in the sense of closing or denying basic banking like checking and transactional accounts -- but are Trumpists sure they want to force banks to finance (i.e. invest in) ANY legal business?
@npub153l…caex

2025-11-30 20:40:23 UTC

Without immigration, US headed for contraction
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/opinion/jobs-report-immigration-trump.html
"It was easy to predict that Trump’s immigration policies would reduce the number of people looking for work, what wasn’t[] considered was that the choking-off of immigration would reduce labor demand as well: The immigrants who aren’t here.. not only aren’t working here; they’re also not spending money here. When demand for goods and services diminishes, business owners don’t need to hire as many people."
@npub153l…caex

2025-09-09 21:07:19 UTC

Does the BLS benchmark revision downwards of almost 1M jobs thru March 2025 prove "Trump was right"? No. I got the BLS updated series, and charted and compared the data. Results: Biden (in his final year) demolished Trump-2 in his first year so far, with a 2.6x greater rate of job creation.
https://files.mstdn.party/media_attachments/files/115/176/372/721/013/140/original/41b67d9f96b0f553.png

2025-05-28 14:53:03 UTC

@npub153l…caex What do you think of this budget/trade balance article from Orszag? To me, the "balanced budget -> reduced trade deficit" argument sounds like a dubious first-order analysis. Like, we balance the US budget and Americans suddenly will not buy cheap products from overseas? I don't see it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/26/opinion/deficits-debt-federal-budget.html

2025-04-04 16:18:49 UTC

- reply

nonsense, I'm sure Americans will quickly line up to make sneakers at sweatshop wages! 😆