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As usual, a terrific article. economists can’t figure out why people are so upset when “ inflation is not that bad”.
In the real world, affordability is what governance people’s lives. Affordability is defined as income divided by the cost of living.
In a rentier economy, the cost of living is designed to be more than people’s income.
It doesn’t matter if inflation is half percent 1% 5% to a population that can’t already pay for the necessities
Have you seen Benn Jordan's 'You Are Witnessing the Death of American Capitalism'? It reminded me of your work, but with animations.
I especially liked the private equity fish that converts companies into turds.
YouTube
Monetary policy in the United States isn't set by the FOMC, it's unilaterally set by the NY Fed (and it's shareholders, i.e. banks).
Bernie Madoff had $58B in CASH in a checking account at the largest voting member of US monetary policy.
Scams absorb excess liquidity and don't increase the number of people receiving unemployment benefits. So they should be A-OK according to the dual mandate monetary policy.
The PROBLEM is, when all investments are scams, and value investing is effectively impossible, everyone just buys index funds.
When everyone is betting on the continued existence of the Monopoly, all members of the public receive dividends from the big public trust. It becomes like the other side of Elizabeth Magie's Landloard's game: Prosperity.
And Americans aren't allowed to know of or play Prosperity.
So will the "never choose" punters get taken?
https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-landlords-game/
I'm coming to Colorado! Catch me in #Denver on Jan 22 at The Tattered Cover:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow-live-at-tattered-cover-colfax-tickets-1976644174937
And in #ColoradoSprings from Jan 23-25, where I'm the Guest of Honor at COSine:
https://www.firstfridayfandom.org/cosine/
Then I'll be in #Ottawa on Jan 28 at Perfect Books:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DS2nGiHiNUh/
And in #Toronto with Tim Wu on Jan 30:
https://nowtoronto.com/event/cory-doctorow-and-tim-wu-enshittification-and-extraction/
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Where did the money go?: Turning a mountain of (their) money into a pile of (your) money.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/115859727137101061
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Hey look at this
* when an ad campaign has zillions of variants https://tushnet.blogspot.com/2026/01/what-particularity-is-required-when-ad.html
* Narco-Terrorist Elite https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
* Section 230 Doesn’t Cover Elon Musk’s Ass When It Comes to Deepfake Abuse, Senator Says https://gizmodo.com/section-230-doesnt-cover-elon-musks-ass-when-it-comes-to-deepfake-abuse-senator-says-2000706234
* Mamdani Targets Junk Fees and Hidden Charges in Two Executive Orders https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/nyregion/mamdani-afforda
bility-consumer-protections.html
* 500,000 tech workers have been laid off since ChatGPT was released https://www.anildash.com/2026/01/06/500k-tech-workers-laid-off/
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My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels
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My latest nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/
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#10yrsago Caught lying by an EFF investigation, T-Mobile CEO turns sweary https://www.theverge.com/2016/1/7/10733298/john-legere-binge-on-lie
#10yrsago Code for America’s year in civic tech https://web.archive.org/web/20160811012751/https://www.codeforamerica.org/blog/2015/12/22/this-year-in-civic-tech-2015-in-review/
#10yrsago Flying while trans: still unbelievably horrible https://trans-fusion.blogspot.com/2016/01/traveling-while-trans-false-promise-of.html
#10yrsago Resilience over rigidity: how to solve tomorrow’s computer problems today https://locusmag.com/feature/cory-doctorow-wicked-problems-resilience-through-sensing/
#10yrsago Dear Comcast: broadband isn’t gasoline https://www.techdirt.com/2016/01/07/with-fixed-costs-fat-margins-comcasts-broadband-cap-justifications-are-total-bullshit/
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