1. Been excited about @JoeNBC's sustained convo today about @KBAndersen's new book Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America which explains how the Republican Party radicalized OVER ECONOMICS over the past 30 years. It was launched w the radical tax cuts in Reagan's presidency, but

2. as the GOP evolved through the 90s & 2000s they became dogmatic about their economic philosophy- until it became a radical litmus test/position the party followed even when conditions screamed for different policy. It was a MIRACLE the party acted to stabilize the economy at
3. at the end of 2008 when it was crashing down around us (though they just barely did & some didn't and that's bc it was before the Great Purges of 2010,2012, & 2014). America doesn't know the hit job the GOP did on the American economy as they dogmatically pursued tax cuts to
4. the exclusion of everything else while denying any policy that could grow wages or improve the economic lives of the bottom 80% aside from the 2 or 3 times Ds managed to squeeze through policy while in charge (minimum wage increase in 2007-which was the 1st time in a decade
5. and now, of course, its been another decade. It's actually a miracle wages (all wages bc when the min wage is artificially low it affects all the wages above it, that's how you end up w $10 per hr EMTs & teachers) aren't even more out of wack w inflation. As @JoeNBC points out
6. the GOP hyper-sensationalizes everything via their media systems & their campaign/political rhetoric to stave off reforms & it has worked beautifully. No matter how moderate/mainstream the reform or the Dem proposing it, the whole of Rep Party calls it socialism & denounces
7. it. What this has done is it has radicalized R voters. Keep in mind, within those 1000s of rioters many people were motivated by the core belief that Donald Trump actually won the election & somehow the entire political system, including GOP election officers, judges, & SCOTUS
8. justices are willing to conspire against him and steal the election to give it to Biden. That is obviously a stupid lie. It's bad enough coming from the president of the United States. But, in my opinion, what turns it into an insurrection-sized mob breaking into the Capitol
9. attack, maybe even kill, our legislators is the fact that the Rep Party backed him up on this lie. Not just in the beginning, which was pretty bad. But even after all the recounts & investigations. THAT's why 40% of Americans erroneously think Trump won the election. And we
10. MUST fix that problem. We cannot move onto healing until we force the Rep Party to tell the truth about the election and tell their own voters that Joe Biden absolutely won and free, fair, and fraud-free election. Today, one of Trump's biggest enablers & an anti-democracy
11. advocate @GOPLeader is meeting w the GOP caucus. Will they come out of this meeting STILL lying to their voters about the election? If so, the media MUST hold them accountable bc what they are doing is trying to end democracy. That is what it should be covered as.

More from Rachel "The Doc" Bitecofer ๐Ÿ“ˆ๐Ÿ”ญ๐ŸŒ

1. You also have to give them a landing. It's tempting, I know, to take the pent up rage out on the only ones who respond to you (like @ProjectLincoln!) or Never Trumpers like @RadioFreeTom or @BillKristol bc they were "guilty" in the past or "waited too long" like @WalshFreedom


2. but at each of the big inflection moments where Trump lost support I've begged non-Rs to consider the fact that if Trump supporters see that they have nowhere to go, they will stay w the only people that DO accept them, & the price might actually be the collapse of democracy

3. which, until Weds, some people thought I was being hyperbolic about. I WASN'T! When the MAINSTREAM of a major political party divorces themselves from democratic norms & values & its supporters turn to a fictionalized world to justify their political party's actions, your

4. country's stability is at risk & one by-product of poor messaging on the Dem side is that extremism on the Right was able to not only take root in the Rep Party, it was able to take OVER the R party & become the party's mainstream- pinnacled w the presidential win via the EC

5. of Donald Trump, w/o the GOP paying any electoral price for their extremism. A healthy Rep Party might have found the courage to reject Trump's nomination & accept the short term costs that would have come w refusing to endorse his 2016 candidacy. But the Rep Party of 2016
1. SO MUCH more than that. What Barr & the GOP pulled off w the release of the Mueller Report was demonstrated mastery of the American media & the news cycle.

They manipulated both brilliantly.

The reason reporters are conditioned to report a stalled bill as "Congress failing


2. to pass a covid relief bill"- the norm of objectivity- has allowed the RNC/GOP/Trump to develop a system to manipulate the media into doing their dirty work. But never have we seen it orchestrated so deliberately & cleanly as it was to neutralize the Mueller Report. By his

3. "Letter to Congress" where he intentional mispresented the findings of the report on 2 crucial areas- the investigation's conclusions regarding the activities of the Trump campaign and Russia and whether or not the President's actions to damage/disrupt the investigation

4. constitutes obstruction of justice, Barr & the GOP team understood that if the report was released, the media would likely get out on its own this meaning: Trump campaign's contacts with Russia did not rise to criminal charges and that Trump can not be charges w obstruction

5. while being president. BUT, by sending out this letter that interprets the report for the media in advance (well in advance!) of the actual report- Barr can instead tell the media a different narrative, far more favorable to Trump. These, of course, go on to become the

More from Economy

On Jan 6, 2021, the always stellar Mr @deepakshenoy tweeted, this:

https://t.co/fa3GX9VnW0

Innocuous 1 sentence, but its a full economic theory at play.
Let me break it down for you. (1/n)


On September 30, 2020, I wrote an article for @CFASocietyIndia where I explained that RBI is all set to lose its ability to set interest rates if it continues to fiddle with the exchange rate (2/n)

What do I mean, "fiddle with the exchange rate"?

In essence, if RBI opts and continues to manage exchange rate, then that is "fiddling with the exchange rate"

RBI has done that in the past and has restarted it in 2020 - very explicitly. (3/n)

First in March 2020, it opened a Dollar/INR swap of $2B with far leg to be unwound in September 2020.

Implying INR will be bought from the open markets in order to prevent INR from falling vis a vis USD (4/n)

The Second aspect is now, that dollar inflow is happening, and the forex reserves swelled -> implying the rupee is appreciating, RBI again intervened from September, by selling INR in spot markets. (5/n)
https://t.co/9kpWP7ovyM
It's out! The @EU_Commission winter economic forecast for 2021 ๐Ÿ“Š
๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ +5.6% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท +5.5% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ท +5.6% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฎ +4.7% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡น +4.5% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡น +4.1% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฐ +4.0% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡บ +4.0% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ช +3.9% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡ด +3.8% GDP
๐Ÿ’ถ +3.8% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ +3.7% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ท +3.5% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ป +3.5% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช +3.4% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น +3.2% GDP

๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช +3.2% GDP
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡พ +3.2% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡บ +3.2% GDP
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฟ +3.2% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑ +3.1% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ +2.9% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ฎ +2.8% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฌ +2.7% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ช +2.7% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ช +2.6% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡น +2.2% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡น +2.0% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑ +1.8% GDP

Vs๐Ÿ“ˆ 2020:

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ -11.0% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ท -10.0% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡น - 9.0% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ท - 8.9% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น - 8.8% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท - 8.3% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡น - 7.6% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡น - 7.4% GDP
๐Ÿ’ถ - 6.8% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ - 6.3% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ช - 6.2% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฎ - 6.2% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฐ - 5.9% GDP
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡พ - 5.8% GDP
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฟ - 5.7% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡บ - 5.3% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช - 5.0% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡ด - 5.0% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฌ - 4.9% GDP

๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑ - 4.1% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ป - 3.5% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ - 3.5% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡บ - 3.1% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ฎ - 3.1% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช - 3.0% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ช - 2.9% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ช - 2.9% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑ - 2.8% GDP
๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡น - 0.9% GDP

Commissioner @PaoloGentiloni says the forecast is based on the assumption that restrictive measures to contain the #coronavirus will be eased in the second quarter of 2021.

You May Also Like

These 10 threads will teach you more than reading 100 books

Five billionaires share their top lessons on startups, life and entrepreneurship (1/10)


10 competitive advantages that will trump talent (2/10)


Some harsh truths you probably donโ€™t want to hear (3/10)


10 significant lies youโ€™re told about the world (4/10)
I'm going to do two history threads on Ethiopia, one on its ancient history, one on its modern story (1800 to today). ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡น

I'll begin with the ancient history ... and it goes way back. Because modern humans - and before that, the ancestors of humans - almost certainly originated in Ethiopia. ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡น (sub-thread):


The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡น


Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡น


References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡น