“Economics Roundup #5” by Zvi

While we wait for the verdict on Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 3.7, today seems like a good day to catch up on the queue and look at various economics-related things.

Table of Contents

1. The Trump Tax Proposals.
2. Taxing Unrealized Capital Gains.
3. Extremely High Marginal Tax Rates.
4. Trade Barriers By Any Name Are Terrible.
5. Destroying People's Access to Credit.
6. Living Paycheck to Paycheck.
7. Oh California.
8. Chinese Venture Capital Death Spiral.
9. There is Someone Elon Musk Forgot to Ask.
10. Should Have Gone With the Sports Almanac.
11. Are You Better Off Than You Were Right Before the Election?.
12. Are You Better Off Than You Were Before the Price Level Rose?.
13. Most People Have No Idea How Insurance Works.
14. Do Not Spend Too Much Attention on Your Investments.
15. Preferences About Insider Training are Weird.
16. I [...]

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Outline:

(00:15) The Trump Tax Proposals

(02:36) Taxing Unrealized Capital Gains

(03:00) Extremely High Marginal Tax Rates

(05:24) Trade Barriers By Any Name Are Terrible

(06:11) Destroying People's Access to Credit

(06:35) Living Paycheck to Paycheck

(09:54) Oh California

(10:12) Chinese Venture Capital Death Spiral

(11:20) There is Someone Elon Musk Forgot to Ask

(14:39) Should Have Gone With the Sports Almanac

(17:58) Are You Better Off Than You Were Right Before the Election?

(18:13) Are You Better Off Than You Were Before the Price Level Rose?

(25:43) Most People Have No Idea How Insurance Works

(27:25) Do Not Spend Too Much Attention on Your Investments

(28:43) Preferences About Insider Training are Weird

(30:12) I Will Not Allocate Scarce Resources Via Price

(30:33) Minimum Wages, Employment and the Equilibrium

(31:22) The National Debt

(36:09) In Brief

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
February 25th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/AAKXjRmBRbJJwGthT/economics-roundup-5

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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