I want to say something about Stoller bringing a knife to a gunfight but really this fight only required Thompson to have a telephone.
https://x.com/DKThomp/status/1951083395146231957
What did Stoller think was going to happen? Calling people up on the phone is Thompson's entire schtick at this point.
Musharbash left a meaty reply in the thread:
In any event, my argument was also that three other factors — particularly financial policy changes starting in the 1980s that deprived small builders of bank capital, helped Wall Street to exert control over large builders and impose production discipline on them...
https://xcancel.com/DKThomp/status/1951089471501508766#m
Musharbash's argument, however, is dependent on the exercise of oligopoly power (whether he admits that or not, and given that he's long argued that the oligopoly is present...), and there's no evidence of it!
He tries to twist Lambert's words to say he's only saying there's no evidence of builders throttling at a national scale, thereby leaving room for his argument that it's happening in particular markets (https://x.com/musharbash_b/status/1951133245342404888). The only problem? Lambert clearly isn't specifying a national scale when he says "US," because he then continues by providing an explanation for the local weakening seen in some metros.
Musharbash seems smart enough to understand that, which leaves intentional misrepresentation. He's doing damage control, and hoping to wave his hands hard enough that it isn't noticed.
Please don't link to x.com, it is impossible to read a conversation there without an account.
BTW, you can use 'xcancel' (or even post the Blue Sky links) if you don't want to give traffic to the guy reposting what's in the screenshot:
https://bsky.app/profile/whstancil.bsky.social/post/3lv6ul7x...
Appreciate the fact digging!
[flagged]
Please don't post personal attacks to Hacker News. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Understood, but it's also the case that people frequently cite Stoller as if he's a legitimate analyst like a New York Times or Wall Street Journal reporter with skills and editors, and he doesn't actually understand any of the subjects he's trying to report on. I'll dial the snark back.
I read that as a very useful public service message. It also seems to be true. It also seems to be about a public person.