Top all-time · #2143
Charles Hugh Smith
Personal blog · charleshughsmith.blogspot.comeconomicspolitics
Charles Hugh Smith's personal blog at charleshughsmith.blogspot.com covers economics and politics. Since 2009, 37 different Hacker News readers have linked it 88 times, most often “We have no other choice”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Most-linked posts?
- We have no other choice2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-03-18
- Last gasp of the landfill economy2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-04-11
- There's Just One Problem: AI Isn't Intelligent, and That's a Systemic Risk2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-08-09
What Hacker News says?
Because the U.S. doesn't actually have a supply problem, despite this often getting repeated. U.S. construction of homes has actually kept up with population growth and moves, by every conceivable metric. What IS happening though is that landlords (private and corporate) "warehouse" units constantly to artificially restrict supply and demand, and they do it in collaboration with each other. Every single city and sta…
Comment linking /2023/08/the-problem-isnt-housing-shortage-its.html
on “Priced out of home ownership”Submitted The Tsunami of Burnout Few See as a story · 577 points
HN discussionHere is a summary of network effect involving general government I agree with: http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2019/11/corporate-ameri...
Comment linking /2019/11/corporate-america-is-anti-social-black.html
on “Regulating Big Tech makes them stronger, so they need competition instead”Submitted How We Institutionalized Incompetence as a story · 268 points
HN discussionBroad macro inflation is due to smaller working age populations. The pandemic pulled this forward due to excess deaths and retirements (~3M). It’s also why the labor market has been so resilient (unemployment rate) in the face of so much uncertainty and volatility. There are simply not enough workers. Egg inflation is Avian flu related, housing is because of a housing shortage caused by building pipeline impairment…
Comment linking /2022/08/are-older-workers-propping-up-us-economy.html
on “In 2025, venture capital can't pretend everything is fine any more”Submitted The Cost of Financialization-Globalization: You Lost $500k and Gained $137.13 as a story · 105 points
HN discussionA hierarchical organization that centralizes so much unchecked power as the NSA will attract a good share of sociopaths. Sociopaths seek power over others. Then it's a matter of time until a sociopath manages to climb to the top, and then you have a full-blown tyranny. http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2013/05/centralization-...
Comment linking /2013/05/centralization-and-sociopathology.html
on “I Knew Snowden. And He’s Not The Story”Submitted The drivers of big tech’s growth are losing momentum as a story · 54 points
HN discussionNow that the 2008 financial crises is past (deferred?) why is no one talking about breaking up these "too big to fail" institutions into companies that are small enough to fail? I am regular reader of Charles Hugh Smith's "Of Two Minds" blog: http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/ He has a recent post where he compares the Dodd-Frank supposed reform bill (over 2300 pages!) to the Glass Steagall act (37 pages) http://…
Comment linking /2012/03/we-have-no-other-choice.html
on “Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail”Submitted The Social Recession Is Accelerating as a story · 51 points
HN discussionI agree on all of your points. If the majority supports unions (citations in my above comment), and everyone has the same vote (as you mention), it's just a matter of time of continuing organizing efforts while the folks who don't support it either exit the labor force [1] [2] or filter out of orgs attempting to organize who don't believe in it (younger workers with a longer labor participation time horizon). I full…
Comment linking /2022/08/are-older-workers-propping-up-us-economy.html
on “Microsoft to Cut 9k Workers in Second Wave of Major Layoffs”Submitted The AI Fad Just Burned to the Waterline as a story · 48 points
HN discussionThere is a good essay with a similar theme under the title of "The Nearly-Free University" at https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-nearly-fre... As someone with two degrees (B.A. English, followed after I caught on a bit, by a B.S. in physics and computer science with minors in math and chemistry), I can say that I would not take that route again. Mostly a waste. "What you can accomplish in the real wor…
Comment linking /2012/11/the-nearly-free-university.html
on “Universities should be more than toll gates”Submitted There's Just One Problem: AI Isn't Intelligent, and That's a Systemic Risk as a story · 24 points
HN discussionAn interesting analysis at http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2015/05/us-households-u... echoes these observations, concluding "How do you support a consumer economy with stagnant incomes for the bottom 90%, rising basic expenses and crashing employment for males ages 25-54? Answer: you don't."
Comment linking /2015/05/us-households-under-pressure-stagnant.html
on “U.S. GDP Shrank in Q1 2015”Submitted There's Just One Problem: AI Isn't Intelligent as a story · 19 points
HN discussionCharles Hugh Smith does a quick calculation and comes up with an income of $111k to have what the middle class of the last generation took for granted: http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2013/12/what-does-it-ta...
Comment linking /2013/12/what-does-it-take-to-be-middle-class.html
on “Rise of the 'new rich': 1 in 5 Americans reach affluence”Submitted What happens when the competent opt out as a story · 17 points
HN discussionOn why index funds are not such a safe bet necessarily: http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-illusion-of...
Comment linking /2016/01/the-illusion-of-safety-index-funds-are.html
on “Dear Hedge Funds: Index Funds Didn’t Eat Your Returns”Submitted Why I Will Never Hire Anyone, Even at $1/Hour as a story · 17 points
HN discussion> and eventually low end work simply becomes too costly to not automate anymore. Evidence from Japan (a looking glass into a declining demographic future) does not validate this thesis. Some work can be automated (kiosks for order taking, for example), but most lower wage work cannot (especially manual labor around child care and healthcare). Wages will rise, that is the unavoidable inflationary component of structu…
Comment linking /2022/08/are-older-workers-propping-up-us-economy.html
on “Florida to consider relaxing child labour laws to fill vacant jobs”Submitted Why Social Trust Is Cratering: The Difference Between Elites and Commoners as a story · 12 points
HN discussionNot to mention the plummetting labor force participation rate, in the US at least (some other countries do better): http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2015/12/why-has-labor-p...
Comment linking /2015/12/why-has-labor-participation-rate-plunged.html
on “The Mystery of Missing Inflation Weighs on Fed Rate Move”Submitted American has lost the trade war with China as a story · 11 points
HN discussionThey are potentially attempting to create surplus labor by destroying federal employment, due to the tight labor market caused by structural demographics. Demographic stats: ~2M in the US 55+ die every year, ~5k per day. ~4M Boomers retire per year, ~11k per day. A healthy economy creates ~2M jobs/year. Citations: Biden's immigration silver lining - https://www.axios.com/2024/02/27/biden-immigration-workers-i... - F…
Comment linking /2022/08/are-older-workers-propping-up-us-economy.html
on “Bessent: Federal layoffs will help fill factory jobs created by Trump tariffs”Submitted Last gasp of the landfill economy as a story · 10 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Healthcare Is in a Death Spiral: Follow the Money as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted Is the AI Mania a Psych-Ops? as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted AI Turns Us into Dummies as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted Last Gasp of the Landfill Economy as a story · 7 points
HN discussion
