danhak

The same folks who think you can't force a bakery to bake a gay cake want to force Apple to distribute an app or Twitter to publish anyone's nonsense.

You can't have it both ways. For the self-proclaimed free-marketers, how is this different?

It's about scale. We have an antitrust issue, not a free speech issue.

More to do with the fact that Tesla is under a microscope and QC issues and mishaps with other automakers are usually not newsworthy.

No it doesn’t, it was tweeted yesterday.

If those comments are in the context of his supporters having just stormed the US Capitol at his behest, killing several people and derailing the confirmation of his political enemy, then yes.

The second one can be read as a tacit nod that the inauguration is a “safe” target.

I know many will see that as a stretch, but given the context and recent events, I do not.

Say what you will about the motivations and justification, but it's got to take some courage to make a policy decision that wipes 1.5 Billion off your market cap in an hour:

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TWTR/

Having a platform to express whatever you want is not a "human right."

And political affiliation is not a protected class under the Civil Rights Act.

If you go on a political tirade, I have every right to kick you out of my home. Or office. Or restaurant. Or app.

In my view, what is fundamentally an antitrust issue is getting improperly framed as a first amendment / free speech issue.

1) Any private company (or person) has the right to determine what speech they tolerate, amplify or disseminate

2) No company should be so big that their assertion of that right dramatically changes the national conversation

The video where he says "You're special! We love you!" to his followers as they actively besiege the U.S. Capitol and ransack congressional offices. That good enough?

Yes, this must be it. Must have nothing to do with the fact that he said "You're special, we love you!" to the people laying siege at the U.S. Capitol.

The constant false equivalence here. That some random, unnamed people ought to be held to the same standard as the President of the United States.

Precisely. YOU cannot compel ME to repeat what YOU said. That is ME asserting MY free speech.

This is not censorship, this is not about the First Amendment.

Freedom of Speech !== Entitlement to a Platform

And incitement of violence has never been protected speech. This has gone too far.

It's not true in all of the US (recourse vs. non-recourse). In all but 12 states, a lender can come after your other assets if the value of your collateral does not satisfy your debt.

Hedge against negative rates?

More like Feudalism 2.0. the "U" in UBI is important.

There are many factors at play, but in L.A. I don't believe premature reopening is one of them. Bars, indoor dining and gyms have been shut down for pretty much the whole pandemic. Outdoor dining was banned (again) about a month ago.

My take is that L.A.'s issues have more to do with housing density, high number of people living with roommates and high number of multigenerational households. Also perhaps some some challenges communicating with an extremely large and diverse immigrant population.

Of course you can short sell real estate. There is a famous motion picture about a group of people who did exactly that during the global financial crisis.

You don’t even need access to credit default swaps. REITs are publicly traded and can be shorted as easily as any stock.

If you are talking about price discovery of individual properties—-that stems more from the fact that property is generally illiquid and not fungible. Not from the fact that I can’t take a directional bet on the value of your specific house.

Price discovery happens just fine in markets that don’t have short selling.

The laws of supply and demand don’t require short selling to reach equilibrium.

In my view, there is a uniquely American fiction that there exists for everyone some pursuit that both (a) will satisfy their passion and (b) be highly remunerative. Your job is to find that pursuit. And if you fail, I guess it's because you weren't earnest enough.

I don't doubt that successful founders are highly motivated by the challenges of their work. But the suggestion that the point isn't to build a business and make money is, I'm sorry to say, typical of the self-serving retconning we are starting to see from those at the top. And that we have always seen from Silicon Valley: "Don't Be Evil," "We're Changing the World," "Facebook's mission is to make the world more open and connected."

*Thanks to my mom, barber, third grade teacher, roommate, dog and barista for reading drafts of this comment.

I would really like to see these numbers expressed in DALY / QALY, which I have not been able to find anywhere.

That's absolutely not true. Contact tracing is a thing. Most of the restaurants I've patronized in L.A. this year required a contact name / number before being seated for tracing purposes.

While that strikes me as an odd article to have shared, for some perspective, it was published in 2009--less than a year after Californians voted "yes" on proposition 8 to ban same-sex marriage.

It's not as though California was always unicorns and rainbows, either.

It's a conspiracy that the U.S. government spies on its citizens via technology companies? And that there is a clear national security interest in preventing foreign adversaries from doing the same??

It's as if we learned absolutely nothing from Snowden.

You must understand that America's goal is not to protect Americans' privacy. It is to protect its own monopoly on violations of Americans' privacy.

It sounds like you have spent real time in vanishingly few places in the U.S.

With regard to LGBT protections -- as a queer person I've experienced vibrant, proud and welcoming communities all over the place. Midwest (Twin Cities, Columbus, Chicago) south (New Orleans, Atlanta). Not to diminish the importance of making progress, but your actual life is highly unlikely to be affected by whatever laws are still on the books in certain areas. There are millions of happy, successful LGBT people all over the country.

Optimization improvements for whom? Those who already held significant assets and highly-trained white-collar knowledge workers? Yes. Others? Not so much. Wealth inequality was a serious issue before the pandemic and this so-called "K-Shaped Recovery" has dramatically accelerated the trend. We're in for some turbulent times ahead...

“The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed."

I couldn’t think of a better year for this advice.

Alright, but why is it OK that TV and Film productions are allowed to operate and consume massive testing and PPE resources while other non-essential activities are prohibited?

The existence of compound interest and exponential growth mean wealth inequality will become more and more extreme over time as generational wealth accumulates.

History teaches us that extreme inequality and class resentment leads to societal collapse. First there is civil unrest, then revolution. We have seen the beginning of some serious civil unrest this year.

From a purely self-interested point of view, if you value living in a peaceful and stable society, you ought to be concerned about wealth inequality. Generational wealth is one of the major factors here.