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Mark Schaffer

@markeschaffer.bsky.social

580 followers 510 following 32 posts

Professor of Economics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

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Economics 64%

Political science 16%

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Mark Schaffer @markeschaffer.bsky.social · Oct 14

The UK macro policy problem is like the classic Irish joke about the lost traveler who asks a local farmer how to get to Dublin.

Farmer thinks for a bit and replies, "Well, I wouldn't start from here."

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

dag @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 21h

NEW

Law versus politics

Both the UK and the US face a choice between unchecked executive power or a balanced constitution

By me at @prospectmagazine.co.uk

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

This is the crucial choice facing those both in the United Kingdom and the United States. What is to be the relationship between those with political power and the force of law?

In the United States it would seem that, at a federal level, both Congress and the Supreme Court are content to nod along with excessive use of presidential power. It is only the individual states themselves and the lower courts that are seeking to hold that executive power to account.

While in the United Kingdom there are louder political demands for the government to be free from the constraints placed by international law and supposedly activist judges. The implicit call is that ministers and officials should be able to do as they like to the rest of us without any possibility of a court ever saying otherwise.

What will happen in this contest between executive power and legal restraint cannot be predicted. The happy assumption of the Whig interpretation of history may not be well-grounded. From a liberal perspective things are not only getting worse, but could get a lot worse. The illiberals know what they are doing and they are doing it well.

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Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Mark E. Schaffer

Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · 3d

A thread of inspirational quotes from two of my idols: Kemi Badenoch and Ange Postecoglou

(uh-oh, I may have gotten some mixed up... or have I??)

🧵

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Lesley A. Hall, Christian E. Weller , and 2 more Mark E. Schaffer, Lesley A. Hall, Christian E. Weller, Philip Nel, Scott A. Imberman

Richard Kadrey @richardkadrey.bsky.social · 6d

The mystery of medical diagnosis!

Anyone: Why are there suddenly so many AHDH diagnoses?
Dr. Jen: Same reason there are suddenly more stars after we built telescopes.

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Reposted by Anna O. Law, Norbert Schwarz, Patrick Dunleavy , and 10 more Anna O. Law, Norbert Schwarz, Patrick Dunleavy, Mark E. Schaffer, Nicolas Véron, Aaron Sojourner, Larry W. Hunter, Greg Linden, Simon Lester, Blair Fix, Daxton R. Stewart, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 8d

Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later.

harpers.org/archive/1941...

Who Goes Nazi?, by Dorothy Thompson

harpers.org

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 8d

I have watched his bit and the bit after Kuenssberg asks the question about 20 times and my ribs hurt.

Janey, Janey, Janey, still making me laugh from beyond.

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Reposted by John Appleby, Christopher McCabe, Mark E. Schaffer

Simon Wren-Lewis @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social · 10d

New post: Misunderstandings on the left (and elsewhere) about the OBR, independence and the bond market
mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/09/misu...
The government delegating some highly technical tasks to independent experts doesn't create a democratic deficit, but it does avoid wishful thinking.

Misunderstandings on the left (and elsewhere) about the OBR, independence and the bond market

I often see pieces from those on the left criticising the OBR. Here is Louise Haigh , for example, talking about the “rigid orthodoxy of t...

mainlymacro.blogspot.com

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk.bsky.social · 11d

The word ‘harbour’ shares its origin with French ‘auberge’ and German ‘Herberge’ (both “hostel”).

They come from West Germanic *haribergu (military camp), a compound of *hari (army) and *bergu (shelter).

Other related English words are ‘harbinger’, ‘to harry’ and the name ‘Harold’.

Here’s more:

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

PlanetCarnival @planetcarnival.bsky.social · 13d

Virgil wrote FanFic.

And while parts of his epic are very good, Aeneas himself comes across as a self-righteous prig.

#ISaidWhatISaid

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 13d

"The tax system gets worse and worse over time."

@danneidle.bsky.social makes the case for big-picture tax reform.

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 14d

"experts say"
www.cnn.com/2025/08/11/b...

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Aleksandra Urman

Jack Stilgoe @jackstilgoe.bsky.social · 19d

This is not just maths. It's a design choice, supported by benchmarks that reward false certainty. Good to see OpenAI do some of the research, but it's also a reminder that OpenAI shouldn't be relied upon to do all the research.

OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws

In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...

www.computerworld.com

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Stephen Jones

Alex de Campi @alexdecampi.bsky.social · 26d

Right, so this is ol’boy’s real/regular email address, not a burner—he’s written Google Maps reviews with it three years ago. That means he’s used it for lots of other things too.

Which means if Elizabeth wanted to track this guy down it would be piss easy

9/10 trolls SUCK at OSINT

Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 26d

Today in unhelpful AI suggestions

AI suggests I respond to a death threat with “haha - thanks!”

Photo of a gun attached to a death threat

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Rebecca Tushnet

Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 26d

Today in unhelpful AI suggestions

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Colm O’Cinneíde

Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 27d

It's shocking how much consensus there is amongst tax policy wonks and economists of Left and Right on the tax reforms the UK needs to boost growth & make the tax system fairer

More shocking: they're reforms that are never mentioned by any politicians

buff.ly/rTfNmFC

Stop talking about wealth taxes — make these reforms instead

Any sane discussion of changes that both right and left could agree on is being crowded out by tax populism

buff.ly

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Reposted by Geraint Rees, Steve Peers, Albert Weale , and 7 more Geraint Rees, Steve Peers, Albert Weale, Mark E. Schaffer, Juan Cole, Margot C. Finn, Michael H. Whitworth, Michael D. McDonald, Dana R. Fisher, Massimiliano Simons

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 28d

Pet parrots which typically live alone (whilst those in the wild live in large flocks) were given the technology to call each other. They would use it for up to three hours a day, and developed favourite friends 💔
on.ft.com/3K05vhS

When a parrot wanted to connect with a distant friend, a touchscreen showed a selection of other birds available online. The parrots learned to activate the screen, designed specially for them, by touching it gently with their tongues rather than pecking aggressively with their beaks.
"We had 26 birds involved," said Hirskyj-Douglas. "They would use the system up to three hours a day, with each call lasting up to five minutes." The interactions ranged from preening and playing with toys to loud vocal exchanges.
"When we went through the data, we found that most of these parrots had favourite friends," said Hirskyj-Douglas.

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 29d

Good morning! Here is a meme (ganked from somewhere it was retooted on Mastodon, original source lost in the mists of time)

It's the classic Distracted Boyfriend, only all three participants are wearing vaguely classical robes, the woman in the red dress's hairdo is a full head of angry snakes, and the distracted boyfriend has been turned to stone.

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · Sep 8

150 years ago this week, the New York Daily Graphic newspaper featured “Professor Tigwissel’s Burglar Alarm,” a series of 17 images from young cartoonist Livingston “Hop” Hopkins that constitute (to my knowledge--corrections welcome as ever!) the first newspaper comic strip in American history. 🗃️ +

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Mark E. Schaffer, Serge Egelman , and 4 more Jonathan Portes, Mark E. Schaffer, Serge Egelman, Matt N Williams, Ben Rosamond, Gavin Kelly, Tom Louwerse

Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · Sep 5

"Sweeteners can harm cognitive health equivalent to 1.6 years of ageing, study finds"

Or does it? Let's take a look at this "study"...

www.theguardian.com/food/2025/se...

Sweeteners can harm cognitive health equivalent to 1.6 years of ageing, study finds

Researchers say low- and no-calorie sweeteners appear to affect thinking and memory in middle age

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Christina Pagel

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · Sep 3

Credit to Ed Davey for this. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

"I understand it is normally the role of opposition leaders to jump up and down and call for resignations – as we’ve seen plenty of from the Conservatives already.

Obviously if the ethics advisor says Angela Rayner has broken the rules, her position may well become untenable.

But as a parent of a disabled child, I know the thing my wife and I worry most about is our son’s care after we have gone, so I can completely understand and trust that the deputy prime minister was thinking about the same thing here.

Perhaps now is a good time to talk about how we look after disabled people and how we can build a more caring country."

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Reposted by Peter Thorne, Scott L. Greer, Mark E. Schaffer , and 9 more Peter Thorne, Scott L. Greer, Mark E. Schaffer, Efrén O. Pérez, Smith, Rebecca Tushnet, Adrian Daub, Thomas Masterson, Seth Masket, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Annalee Newitz, Southern Africa

Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · Sep 3

When people say "We used to drink raw milk from our own cow and it was fine,"

That's... usually not the case!

In families w their own cow, the mom usually boiled it before using.

We just forgot bc that's a boring chore that mom did. And who pays attention to that?

youtu.be/vKDPast9WFk

"Everyone Drank Raw Milk!" No They Didn't

YouTube video by Farm to Taber

youtu.be

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Reposted by Mark A. Lemley, Mark E. Schaffer, Greg Linden

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · Sep 2

Sea Level

xkcd.com/3135/

Comic. [Two people on shore looking at body of water] PERSON 1: Hey, where’s that big island we were looking at this morning? PERSON 2 with short hair: Oh, it’s underwater. The ocean’s depth here goes up and down by like ten feet every day. PERSON 1: What? PERSON 2: It’s because the planet has a big moon orbiting near the surface. It causes weird gravity effects. PERSON 1: *What???* [caption] People here are used to them, but tides are one of the weirdest and most sci-fi elements of life on Earth.

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Reposted by Steve Peers, Mark E. Schaffer, Bill Bowring , and 5 more Steve Peers, Mark E. Schaffer, Bill Bowring, Tom Griffin, Margot C. Finn, Rory O’Connell, Glen O’Hara, Colm O’Cinneíde

dag @davidallengreen.bsky.social · Aug 31

Apparently “leading” lawyers and “experts” say that the Good Friday Agreement is no obstacle to UK leaving ECHR.

Me, being neither, merely sets out what the Good Friday Agreement expressly says.

davidallengreen.com/2023/07/why-...

Why the United Kingdom government cannot leave the ECHR without either breaching or re-negotiating the Good Friday Agreement

1st July 2023 * The overlooked obstacle to the United Kingdom withdrawing from the ECHR * From time to time the demand comes from a government minister, or from one of their political and media sup…

davidallengreen.com

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Simon Wren‐Lewis, Feargal Cochrane , and 1 more Mark E. Schaffer, Simon Wren‐Lewis, Feargal Cochrane, Michael Larkin

Matt Thrower @mattthr.bsky.social · Aug 27

There's no better poster child for the mess the UK is now in than the fact that the Financial Times - home to the "how to spend it" supplement on luxury geegaws - is now one of the most left-wing media channels in the country simply because it's still interested in reality.

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Reposted by Stephen P. Jenkins, Mark E. Schaffer, Peter Holmes

Simon Wren-Lewis @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social · Aug 26

New post: Reform and the UK press
mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/08/refo...
We have reached the point where a majority of the print media are in effect encouraging civil unrest and racial hatred, yet thanks to political short termism this press remains essentially unaccountable for their behaviour

Reform and the UK press

It was entirely predictable that immigration/asylum would become the issue voters thought was the most important facing the country. Many p...

mainlymacro.blogspot.com

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer, Simon Wren‐Lewis

Chris Dillow @chrisdillow.bsky.social · Aug 25

Blogged: how the ruling elite's failure to stand up against fascism is causing a crisis for UK democracy: stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...

The crisis of UK democracy

Conventional UK politics is in crisis. By this I don't mean merely that things are bad. I mean that destabilizing forces have strengthened and stabilizing ones have weakened. To see what I mean, think...

stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk.bsky.social · Aug 24

The English words 'galaxy' and 'latte' are etymologically related.

'Galaxy' stems from the Ancient Greek word for "milk", 'gála', which has the same Proto-Indo-European ancestor as Latin 'lactem', which became 'latte' in Italian.

Click my new graphic to learn more about this word family:

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Reposted by Mark E. Schaffer

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @charlescmann.bsky.social · Aug 23

"It’s a genetic sandwich with a thin Denisovan filling surrounded by thick Neanderthal bread."

@johnhawks.net on the fascinating discovery of a DNA segment that slipped from Denisovans to Neanderthals to, among others, Native peoples in Mesoamerica.