Favorites July 5th 2022

San Diego, June 2022

Joe Weisenthal @TheStalwart

From @BloombergNEF, the dilemma for oil refiners. Why invest more to expand or maintain existing capacity, given the long-term structural decline of gasoline and diesel demand

It's wild to see the profit motive leading to *less* overall oil drilling going forward.

Ian Shepherdson @IanShepherdson

Meltdown in wholesale gas prices today (white line) mean serious relief at the pump (yellow line) over the next couple weeks.

Good news in the very short term though, helps democrats in the midterms if gas stays cheap?

Rutger Bregman @rcbregman

Really impressive new research into cash transfers and the psychology of scarcity – see thread. I’ll be honest: I didn’t expect these results.

Jon M Jachimowicz @jonj

🚨 New WP 🚨 In late 2020 we gave 5,000 low-income US participants $2000, $500, or nothing ($2.5m in transfers), measured survey outcomes, & (for 43%) have access to bank info. What did we find? 1/ (w/ @AniaJaroszewicz, @julianjamison, & Oliver Hauser) 🔓https://t.co/et1W6hJhBf https://t.co/jU16SZHvKV

I've been a big fan of UBI, but this study seems to indicate that it's at least going to be much tougher to make it work in western countries. Short version is that people in poverty ended up less happy after being given $2000, because it didn't solve their problems and simply made them more aware of how bad things are. There's some chance that things would work better in a non-pandemic situation. But overall, very disappointing.

Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal

That’s not the way any of this works…

San Francisco Chronicle @sfchronicle

It’s official: Most Californians will get one-time "inflation relief" payments. Here's who is eligible for stimulus payments and when they’ll arrive: https://t.co/ENDNhABM7d

Seems sorta like putting out a fire by dousing it with oil.

Mike Duncan @mikeduncan

It's true I did pass on that chance. Because not only does history never end, it's also endlessly wide and infinitely deep. There's *always* more to be told.

Roger “Four Freedoms” Senserrich @Egocrata

The final episode of @mikeduncan´s Revolutions was awesome, but he passed on the chance of telling the story of how Trotsky had an affair with Frida Kahlo while crashing on Diego Rivera´s place. Or how Rivera´s artistic nemesis Siqueiros tried to murder Trotsky and failed.

I've listened to Mike Duncan's Revolutions podcast from beginning to end, almost a decade, it's been a great ride, and I look forward to whatever he does next!

Threads

• Dystopian thread by someone who is having trouble refilling their prescription for methotrexate which keeps them from dying, because it's an abortifacient.