Top all-time · #6780
Michael W. Green
Personal blog · yesigiveafig.comeconomicsbusiness
Michael W. Green writes Yes, I give a fig... thoughts on markets from Michael Green, a personal blog at yesigiveafig.com about economics and business. Since 2023, 12 different Hacker News readers have linked it 13 times, most often “My Life Is a Lie: How a Broken Benchmark Broke America”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (11) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for long-form economics essays on cost of living, the 1960s-based poverty line, healthcare and education prices, and what changed in 1971, especially "Part 1: My Life Is a Lie".
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 11 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Thoughts on financial markets and economics from the founder of Tier1 Alpha Asset Management -- the passive-aware asset manager. Click to read Yes, I give a fig... thoughts on markets from Michael Green, by Michael W. Green,
Most-linked posts?
- My Life Is a Lie: How a Broken Benchmark Broke America7 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2025-11-24
- /p/what-really-happened-in-19712 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-08-25
What Hacker News says?
This explores the ideas behind your post: important things, like education and healthcare, have disproportionately risen in price while not-so-imortant thing have gotten less expensive. https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie I don't exactly agree with the numbers, but I think the basic ideas are true
Comment linking /p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
on “Average DRAM price in USD over last 18 months”Submitted My Life Is a Lie: How a Broken Benchmark Broke America as a story · 74 points
HN discussionPassive flows vis ETFs have hugely distorted the S&P. Mike Green has been sounding the alarm about this for quite some time ( https://x.com/profplum99 , https://www.yesigiveafig.com/ ).
Comment linking /
on “Pat Gelsinger was wrong for Intel”Submitted We Outsourced the Verb as a story · 2 points
HN discussion$200 seems valid - it comes from the linked article [0] and it includes home internet (I pay $110 / month Comcast just for home internet in Bellevue. In Seattle I paid $130 / month). Maybe Aaron could have phrased it better. (I also recommend to read the linked article as it is a phenomenally well done financial analysis.) [0] https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
Comment linking /p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
on “The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence”$200 seems to include home internet (which I think everyone needs these days to function). The $200 quote comes from the linked article [0] (speaking as a former financial analyst, this is an amazingly well done financial analysis). Maybe Aaron could have phrased this better. [0] https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
Comment linking /p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
on “The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence”See also this analysis that brings up trends that (e.g.) started in the 1960s: * https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/what-really-happened-in-1971 Also: * https://old.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/i9ycy9/the_br... Updated by the same author a few years later: * https://old.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/comments/sccs74/so_wtf...
Comment linking /p/what-really-happened-in-1971
on “WTF Happened in 1971? (2019)”Here is pretty much the full rebuttal to the "It really is better, but everyone is whining" points of view: https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie title: "Part 1: My Life Is a Lie" byline: "How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America" TLDR; it does actually take well over 100k for a family of four in the US to not be at significant risk of becoming de-housed and the 'poverty line' that everyone poin…
Comment linking /p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
on “If America's So Rich, How'd It Get So Sad?”This article is a great read explaining how this trap happens. https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
Comment linking /p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
on “Finland gave two groups identical payments – one saw better mental health”Wealth tax is highly impractical. Very high and inescapable death taxes is what we need. Like 80% after an initial exemption amount. https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/the-summer-slide-part-3-the-t... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mX5U5DNUfBc
Comment linking /p/the-summer-slide-part-3-the-tax-code
on “How to convert between wealth and income tax”There is nothing premium about McDonalds. We need to stop upmarketing cheap crap and accept the fact that middle class Americans are not middle class anymore. You are poor. This is hard to swallow but, we live in a country with a declining standard of living. https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
Comment linking /p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
on “McDonald's is a premium product now”The poverty line, as established in the 60s, is simply 3x the minimum food budget. Food as a percentage of spending has decreased, while housing and other expenses have dramatically increased. If the poverty line were to be adjusted to reflect the share that food takes up of income today, from ~30% in 1963 to ~6% today, the threshold for a family of four would go from ~30k a year to ~150k. More in-depth explanation…
Comment linking /p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie
on “More Americans Are Breaking into the Upper Middle Class”That graphic is misleading: https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/what-really-happened-in-1971
Comment linking /p/what-really-happened-in-1971
on “America is building chip factories. Now to find the workers”
