If you want a jaw dropping exploration of how authoritarian Alberta has become over the last 4 years…

You should check this out.

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

takealbertaback.ca

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, an American journalist, has been detained for over six weeks in Kuwait under new security and fake news laws. The Kuwaiti government must release our friend and colleague immediately. Journalism is NOT a crime. Sign the petition here. #freeahmed #FreeAhmedEldin

From EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.

Octavia E. Butler, 1998:

Those US-Iran negotiations in a nutshell:

Iran sent 4 PhDs to Islamabad.

The US sent a real estate developer, a son-in-law, a lawyer and a general.

Human-caused climate change is unmistakably distinct from Earth’s natural climate variability Five independent fits across four independent archives and 66 million years — the empirical case in two figures

"Clark et al. (2016) showed that decisions made in the next few decades will lock in sea level rise, ice sheet loss, and temperature change that persist for thousands of years — well beyond any planning horizon human civilization has ever contemplated."

Collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation would lead to substantial oceanic carbon release and additional global warming - Communications Earth & Environment The collapse of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation would result in increase of 47-83 ppm of global mean atmospheric carbon dioxide and 0. 2 °C of additional global warming at higher carb...

🌊 If the AMOC collapses, the ocean could flip from a carbon sink → carbon source.

Mechanism:
↓ NADW formation
↓ Carbon sequestration efficiency
↑ Atmospheric CO2

Net effect: a shift toward ocean-driven carbon release and enhanced warming (positive feedback)

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

It is impossible to *objectively* measure 'real economic' aggregates & associated price indices, since they comprise *qualitatively different/changing* elements without an objective common denominator.

Economics rests on denying this impossibility.

bnarchives.net/id/eprint/137/

I raise a toast to Vasily Arkhipov every year on his birthday, January 30. This year would have been his 100th.

Kids with more educated parents are better readers (left). But the worst readers have gotten far worse, regardless of their parents education (right).

economicsfromthetopdown.com/2026/03/28/w...

New U.S. Missile Hit Iranian Sports Hall and School, Analysis Shows

The 12 year olds at the Pentagon had a cool new missile they wanted to use. It explodes a few feet above the ground & shoots out little tungsten pellets, killing everyone nearby.

They used it to bomb a sports facility where girls were playing volleyball. Killed 21 people.

In your name.

The System That Decides What Science Gets Published Is Breaking Down The peer review system that validates scientific research is trapped in a self-defeating cycle. A new mathematical model shows why—and what comes next.

Some first-rate science writing: For this story, @jdrakephd.bsky.social carefully read our recent paper and then we spent a very fun 90 minutes or so talking on zoom. His article that gets right to the heart of our model, explains it clearly, and then explores why it will matter in the future.

There's one trait where economists clearly outperform the other social sciences:

Hubris.

the information environment in Israel is unbelievably fucked. it wasn't great before Oct 7 and it's been catastrophic since.

Here's the change in US twelfth grade reading scores over the last three decades. Notice the gap that's emerged over time.

The best readers are actually getting better, while the worst readers are getting far worse. Why?

economicsfromthetopdown.com/2026/03/28/w...

Good question. I don't claim that whole language is the sole problem. I would be very surprised if screens are not also implicated.

Why Kids Are Getting Worse at Reading: The Case Against Whole-Language Teaching – Economics from the Top Down I look at the decline in US high-school reading scores, and discuss why the cause might have less to do with smartphones and more to do with dubious elementary school pedagogy.

Love spending Sunday morning reading @blairfix.bsky.social.

This is another compelling read about… reading.

economicsfromthetopdown.com/2026/03/28/w...

The literacy crisis is real. Here's the decline in US high-school reading scores over the last three decades.

Why are kids getting worse at reading?

economicsfromthetopdown.com/2026/03/28/w...

Support Economics from the Top Down – Economics from the Top Down Hey folks, I’m a crowdfunded scientist! I do painstaking research highlighting the empirical realities that mainstream economists prefer to ignore. All of my work is published for free under a creativ...

If you enjoy my research, consider becoming a patron. You can sign up here: economicsfromthetopdown.com/membership/

Why Kids Are Getting Worse at Reading: The Case Against Whole-Language Teaching – Economics from the Top Down I look at the decline in US high-school reading scores, and discuss why the cause might have less to do with smartphones and more to do with dubious elementary school pedagogy.

Here's a deep dive into the unfolding literacy crisis, and why I think the problem has less to do with smartphones and more to do with bad pedagogy.

economicsfromthetopdown.com/2026/03/28/w...

Fix, '‘Testing’ the Labor Theory of Value with Metaphysical Alchemy' – Capital As Power ‘Testing’ the Labor Theory of Value with Metaphysical Alchemy BLAIR FIX March 2026 Economists have developed a timeworn algorithm for ‘testing’ untestable theories: they take what they can observe, wh...

1/ Labour values, says @blairfix.bsky.social, can be neither observed nor measured; this inability means we cannot prove that labour values determine money prices; and as long as this inability remains, such proofs cannot but rely on ‘metaphysical alchemy’.

🧵
capitalaspower.com/2026/03/fix-...

Traders placed $580mn in oil bets ahead of Donald Trump’s social media post on Iran talks Thousands of Brent and WTI contracts changed hands 15 minutes before president’s message on Truth Social

Someone or someones made $580,000,000 in exquisitely well-timed oil trades that took place 15 minutes before Trump's dubiously optimistic post about the negotiations with Iran.

Gift link ⤵️

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Face mask ban for police in Washington state is signed into law - Nisqually Valley News SEATTLE — Law enforcement officers in Washington state can no longer cover their faces to conceal their identities. The law, signed Thursday by Gov. Bob Ferguson, seeks to unmask federal …

www.yelmonline.com/stories/face...

SEATTLE — Law enforcement officers in Washington state can no longer cover their faces to conceal their identities.

Denton County and its economy are built around the University of North Texas. Denton County also went 56/43 for Trump in 2024. That's because most voters there wanted to get rid of immigrants.

Now, as international students disappear, the university is collapsing. They burned down their own house.

Fix, '‘Testing’ the Labor Theory of Value with Metaphysical Alchemy' – Capital As Power ‘Testing’ the Labor Theory of Value with Metaphysical Alchemy BLAIR FIX March 2026 Economists have developed a timeworn algorithm for ‘testing’ untestable theories: they take what they can observe, wh...

Is Marx' labour theory of value scientific?

Sabatino's 'Humbug Labor Values' shows the theory is consistent with any data, however nonsensical.
capitalaspower.com/2026/03/isab...

@blairfix.bsky.social's paper shows the circularity built into trying to prove it. capitalaspower.com/2026/03/fix-...

Fix, '‘Testing’ the Labor Theory of Value with Metaphysical Alchemy' – Capital As Power ‘Testing’ the Labor Theory of Value with Metaphysical Alchemy BLAIR FIX March 2026 Economists have developed a timeworn algorithm for ‘testing’ untestable theories: they take what they can observe, wh...

I have a new paper out, which has a modest proposal: Marxists should stop claiming that they can test the labor theory of value.

The theory is fundamentally untestable, and every attempt to do so rests on circular premises.

capitalaspower.com/2026/03/fix-...

Isabella K. Sabatino wins the 2026 CASP Essay Prize – Capital As Power The Review of Capital as Power is pleased to announce that Isabella K. Sabatino has won the 2026 CASP Essay Prize for her landmark paper ‘Humbug Labor Values’.1 Sabatino’s paper takes aim at Anwar Sha...

'Isabella K. Sabatino wins the 2026 CASP Essay Prize', by @blairfix.bsky.social.
capitalaspower.com/2026/03/isab...

Sabatino, 'Humbug Labor Values' – Capital As Power Humbug Labor Values ISABELLA K. SABATINO March 2026 In 1974, Anwar Shaikh published a landmark paper demonstrating that the Cobb-Douglas production function was in fact an accounting identity. As such...

Isabella Sabatino and @blairfix.bsky.social wrote two path-breaking articles on the circularity of Marxist attempts to empirically test the labour theory of value.

Here is Sabatino’s paper, which won the CasP Essay Prize.

The LTV will never look the same.
capitalaspower.com/2026/03/saba...

Sabatino, 'Humbug Labor Values' – Capital As Power Humbug Labor Values ISABELLA K. SABATINO March 2026 In 1974, Anwar Shaikh published a landmark paper demonstrating that the Cobb-Douglas production function was in fact an accounting identity. As such...

Read the full prize-winning paper here: capitalaspower.com/2026/03/saba...

Isabella K. Sabatino wins the 2026 CASP Essay Prize – Capital As Power The Review of Capital as Power is pleased to announce that Isabella K. Sabatino has won the 2026 CASP Essay Prize for her landmark paper ‘Humbug Labor Values’.1 Sabatino’s paper takes aim at Anwar Sha...

The Review of Capital as Power is pleased to announce that Isabella K. Sabatino has won the 2026 CASP Essay Prize for her landmark paper ‘Humbug Labor Values’.

Sabatino's paper unpacks the circularity in Marxist attempts to test the labor theory of value.

capitalaspower.com/2026/03/isab...

Hegseth: "We will keep pushing, keep advancing. No quarter, no mercy for our enemies."

No quarter is the refusal to take prisoners and instead just execute everyone. It's been considered a war crime for over a century.