Top all-time · #5762
Scott Sumner
Personal blog · scottsumner.substack.comeconomicspolitics
Scott Sumner writes The Pursuit of Happiness, a personal blog at scottsumner.substack.com about economics and politics. Since 2024, 14 different Hacker News readers have linked it 50 times, most often “Imagine 130M Washing Machines”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-24, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (3) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Scott Sumner's Substack as economics commentary. Comments cite his posts as support on China's economy and on inequality, such as the point about mega yachts versus cruise ships.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 3 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Nostalgia for the Neoliberal Era.
Most-linked posts?
- Imagine 130M Washing Machines2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-01-05
- The Beauty of Tautologies2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-05-23
- Italian Mannerism, David Lynch, and Lars von Trier2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-09-26
- China's Mysterious Deflation2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-09-11
- Overlooked Films2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-05-28
- Should we tax realized gains?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-09-03
- When pop music went supernova2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-06-12
What Hacker News says?
Not what I'm reading on Substack/Ghost. I have a liberal bubble, though. https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/restaurant-chains-won-big... https://www.the-sentinel-intelligence.net/things-can-always-... https://scottsumner.substack.com/p/thoughts-on-the-trump-bid...
Comment linking /p/thoughts-on-the-trump-biden-trump
on “Terence Tao: "It can become more rational to think and act more boldly"”Submitted Italian Mannerism, David Lynch, and Lars von Trier as a story · 21 points
HN discussionWhat makes you think so? The Chinese problems come from different sources. For example, there's lots of corruption, they are not keeping their nominal GDP on a stable growth target, and if I remember right, they have a lot of government intervention in the real estate and credit markets. See https://www.econlib.org/the-confusing-china-debate/ for an assessment more qualified than mine. And https://scottsumner.substa…
Comment linking /p/chinas-mysterious-deflation
on “Florida Eases Licensing Requirements for Foreign Trained Doctors”Submitted Development from the outside in: Can Irvine become a central city? as a story · 14 points
HN discussionAn economy that wasted resources building mega yachts for billionaires is more unequal than one that builds cruise ships that high income families can go on an holiday. https://scottsumner.substack.com/p/imagine-130000000-washing...
Comment linking /p/imagine-130000000-washing-machines
on “Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin's Unretirement Is a Lesson for the Rest of Us”Submitted The Myths of Chinese Exceptionalism as a story · 11 points
HN discussionSubmitted Breakneck: China does the hard part first as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted What Do Economists Know? as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted Epistemology in the Age of AI as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted What Caused the Great Inflation? as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted China's Mysterious Deflation as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Films of 2026:Q2 as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Defining Deviancy Up as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Peak Cinema as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Should we tax realized gains? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Should we tax realized gains? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The world is bigger than you can imagine as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The odd disappearance of the business cycle as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Not One Penny as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Imagine a Bigger Seattle as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted When pop music went supernova as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Good vibrations-When pop music went supernova as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Overlooked Films as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Other Rivers as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Money Is Important as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How I Got Interested in Movies as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Italian Mannerism, David Lynch, and Lars von Trier as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted It's the Fun as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Cheesehead's View of the World as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Empire Strikes Back as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
