Karthik Sankaran

@rajakorman.bsky.social

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Bay Area US. Aging macro expat. Cheap lunch guy. Unhinged pro-globalization polemicist. Neoliberal peacenik. Has Herder immunity. Virulent vector of dad jokes.

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A hypothetical world in which tariffs lead to a stronger USD that offsets the impact of tariffs as a deterrent to imports is in theory one in which someone who thinks of deals as art can offer a deal wherein a weaker dollar is a less distortionary substitute for tariffs.

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I’ve been going on about this for a while, but finally wrote up something about how a hypothetical GOP administration might actually end up (happily) with a weaker $. open.substack.com/pub/sankaran...

Trump, Vance, and the Dollaropen.substack.com As you may know, I've written and posted a few things in the past about the $'s position in the international monetary and financial system (IMFS) and about the idea that $ centrality in the IMF is an...

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Former President Donald Trump sat down with Bloomberg Businessweek to share what he'd do with taxes, tariffs, Jerome Powell, and more if he wins back the White House

Trump On What He’d Do With Taxes, Tariffs, Jerome Powell and Morewww.bloomberg.com Bloomberg Businessweek sat down with the ex-president in Mar-a-Lago for an exclusive interview.

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She can tell a story about the dangers of a woke-infected deep state; it happened to me, if you aren’t careful it can happen to you. That this has no relation to how the UK state works is irrelevant as Republicans have no intellectual curiosity about foreign nations.

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If you’ll permit me to make the analogy, she’s very much Dan Quayle to Thatcher’s Kennedy,

I think Farage is probably seen as a champion in the GOP because June 2016 foreshadowed November 2016. Truss OTOH ???? The Thatcher/Truss relationship in the mental imaginary of American conservatism IMO is very much First As Tragedy, Then As Farce.

How to weaken a currency. 1. Pick a superdove for the CB 2. Low multiplier fiscal expansion 3. Steeper curve allows bond hedging. 4. Push country away from tech frontier. 5. Have tariffs result in ISI with low IRR. 6. Engage in joint intervention. 7. Threaten inbound K controls. 8. Ask experts.

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Xan López

I think the treaty says you have to join once you fulfill the criteria but you are under no obligation to fulfill the criteria

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Mint the trillion-dollar poker chip

Speaking of FX, If both Trump and Vance want a weaker dollar, surely the easiest way to do it is to have a very public meeting at Mar-A-Lago with Warren Mosler?

I’m writing up something longer for the stack but it’s just funny that people are talking about Vance as “weak dollar guy” (which he is) when we have known for years how DJT thinks about this stuff.

The banter outcome is Vance becomes VEEP but Dems win the special election to replace him so Dems have Senate and House majorities and US ends up in paralytic gridlock because SCOTUS now wants the legislature to do stuff instead of the administrative state, and Trump has a veto.

Please remember that sex is a vehicle for creation, not for recreation. If you want a recreational vehicle, become a SCOTUS justice and have a billionaire buy you one.

One of the wilder things in Project 2025 is that they're going to fund telling women to use the rhythm method for contraception.

Quick precis of The Great Convergence by Richard Baldwin, an amazing book that has influenced a lot of my tweeting and blogging. I was predisposed to go there for many reasons but this still played a huge part in my Globalization Shilling. harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicit...

Globalization's Three Unbundlingsharvardpress.typepad.com Richard Baldwin had one goal in writing The Great Convergence: to change the way you think about globalization. His central argument is that revolutionary changes in communication technology fundament...

It’s a complete Music Of The Spheres/Hidden Order Of The Universe thing that this guy was PM of Serbia during Peak Tangentopoli, downfall of Craxi, and the rise of Berlusconi. (Inspired by watching 1992 on MHz streaming).

MOTOWN IS NOT CARVILLE. (Oddly enough).

“MOTOWN IS JOETOWN” is good

Actually, Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson had a son who took her last name to keep his identity a secret. Like the current Prince of Wales, he lost his hair young and grew up in the American town of Springfield.

If Meagan Markle & Prince Harry have a baby in California and the wind is blowing NE at 3 knots and the train leaves Chicago at 3pm, how long will it take for the Dems to run an American citizen directly in the line of succession to the English crown

Between Boeing and the 2 principals, the next Air Force 1 should probably be a Lear Jet.

Euroskepticism is an attitude. Euroexitism is a program.The program is sufficiently unpopular in current EU members that it has been buried by any party seeking power. Question is what constraints that imposes on policies influenced by that attitude if they are seen as leading inexorably to exit.

Qq.is Q.is

I don’t know why people kept waiting for the exit poll when you could just have asked Larry Summers the rough distribution of seats in the new Assemblée.

It’s The Economist wot done it.

While musing that the great American expat novels are set during $ strength (20s, 50s, 90s) I realized Gary Shteyngart wrote a strong $ novel The Russian Debutante’s Handbook (2002 - peak in DXY) & definitive “America in decline weak $” novel Supersad True Love Story (2010-secondary DXY trough).

Who better than Deval Patrick to be the POTUS who gets a new Plaza Accord to weaken the dollar?

Even if he doesn’t run again, we could title this picture President, Master, and Commander.

The problem is political systems that allow any single individual to be portrayed with laser eyes.

Obvious but in terms of “reading into things,” based on actual election results and current polling, feels like (other than AMLO’s triumphant handoff to Sheinbaum) the broadly shared global mood is not so much consistent ideological swing to either left or right and more just ornery anti-incumbency?

Tfw two of the candidates get the Earlybird special and the third one got the worm.

It’s not enough that these people already have an op-ed column. They have to preface every one of their idiotic takes with instructions on how you should communicate.

hmmm

Thinking through some stuff and did this 2x2 with axes being type of regime and degree of broad societal consensus. Probably exists in the literature somewhere?