William Blair Santos Allen
LightNews LightNews
banner
willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen
@willballen.bsky.social
450 followers 120 following 350 posts

Retired consultant in international macro finance and capital markets. Converted to MMT as truth.

Now humble second career as lover of all things nautical and USCG licensed Master Mariner.

Finally doing something socially productive? .. more

Videos
Economics 76%
Political science 18%
Posts Replies Media Videos

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 1d
I expect most of CNBC hosts to become emotionally unstable as the markets start to sell off. They did that in 2008. Remember Cramer begging Bernanke for a rate cut?

Reposted by William A. Allen, Henry Jones

pematson.bsky.social
TrishEM @pematson.bsky.social · 4d
Google has started automatically opting you in to let it read your stuff to train AI. You need to turn this off in SEVERAL places in your settings (not just for Gmail), if you want to maintain privacy and confidentiality.
www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...
Gmail can read your emails and attachments to train its AI, unless you opt out
A new Gmail update may allow Google to use your private messages and attachments for AI training. Here's how to turn it off.
www.malwarebytes.com

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 5d
Trump and company were looking for some help calculating new tariffs?

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 5d
“Quiet, piggy!”

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 5d
Aldi’s pic of this marvellous Thanksgiving meal for 10 people for $40 shows a basket with only 4 bread rolls. Why am I suspicious?

Reposted by Julien Chaisse, William A. Allen

euronews.com
Euronews @euronews.com · 5d
A French court has blocked the export and foreign purchase of a 17th century arithmetic machine invented by Blaise Pascal to help ease the laborious task of calculating taxes.
French court blocks foreign purchase of 17th century calculator
A French court has blocked the export and foreign purchase of a 17th century arithmetic machine invented by Blaise Pascal to help ease the laborious task of calculating taxes.
l.euronews.com

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 5d
Raymond James trying to score points with Trump with this projection of lower Thanksgiving food prices? Not seeing this in my grocery stores.

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Katharine Hayhoe, Stéphane Hallegatte , and 20 more

booksofm.com
Monica Valentinelli is riding to Isengard @booksofm.com · 5d
If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features."

There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.

Reposted by William A. Allen

govpressoffice.gov.ca.gov
Governor Newsom Press Office @govpressoffice.gov.ca.gov · 7d
Quiet, piggy.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 11d
Take Eisen with him.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 14d
Smokey and the Bandit captures a lot of southern culture I grew up with. Driving to Texarkana to smuggle Coors beer to Deep South was a thing. Did it myself a couple of times.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 14d
These guys would also scream: www.nrmca.org
Home | NRMCA
Home National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, NRMCA, leading concrete industry association, providing leadership in safety, environmental & operational excellence, concrete technology advancements.
www.nrmca.org

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 14d
Yes. I grew up in a ready mix concrete company family. We had both types of trucks. Listen to my father and grandfather correcting people all the time. Unfortunately I guess I picked up the habit!

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 14d
Well since I know you are a word person, here goes: They are “ready mix concrete” trucks not cement trucks! Cement is a dry powder and is transported typically by a dry bulk trailer (no mixer). Concrete is the wet mix of cement, sand, and. aggregate. Love your channel!

Reposted by Fabián Muniesa, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, William A. Allen , and 1 more

atrupar.com
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 15d
Pirro: "Mr President, there is in this room a group of people who love you, who believe in you, and who are so proud to be in this Oval Office and to be part of this amazing day because you have changed the course of America."

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 15d
I think this video was one of your best yet!

Reposted by William A. Allen

robwords.bsky.social
Rob Watts (RobWords) @robwords.bsky.social · 15d
Did you know that "noon" never used to be at 12? Or that a "second" is actually the second of something?

These are just a couple of the revelations in my latest wordy nerdy video.

Do please give it a watch:
youtu.be/TK-8gfqmFNo?...
Time words don't mean what you think
YouTube video by RobWords
youtu.be

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 17d
Disagree. I think health care is a right.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 18d
Ken Galbraith is sorely missed!

Reposted by William A. Allen

isabellamweber.bsky.social
Isabella M. Weber @isabellamweber.bsky.social · 18d
Mamdani won campaigning with price controls for essentials.

Harris lost shying away from her own price gouging policy for food.

Trump won fantasizing about bringing prices of essentials down.

Sheinbaum won a landslide controlling prices of essential groceries.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 19d
Trump would know all about losing liquidity. All kinds of liquids, apparently.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 19d
Now now. Easy guys! The only way to tell if Trump is lying is to see his lips moving.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 19d
Pocket change. JPM balance sheet is maybe 3 or 4 trillion? Laughable.

Reposted by William A. Allen

euronews.com
Euronews @euronews.com · 19d
Germany’s financial watchdog BaFin has imposed a record fine on JPMorgan for systemic failings in its anti-money-laundering controls.
Germany fines JPMorgan €45 million for anti-money-laundering failings
Germany’s financial watchdog BaFin has imposed a record fine on JPMorgan for systemic failings in its anti-money-laundering controls.
l.euronews.com

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 19d
Surprise myself to agree with you. Euro isn’t working. But I come at it from opposite spectrum. MMT explains why lack of currency sovereignty by country leads to failure. Euro has miserably failed most countries save Germany and the Netherlands.

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 19d
You sure that is a pound cake? It is a pile of… something?

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 19d
Yes this is excellent. Should be required reading!

Reposted by Thomas Masterson

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 19d
“Critics dismiss this as pie-in-the-sky socialism. But what they’re really objecting to is more fundamental: the idea that democratic governments should guarantee people’s basic needs, even if it means intervening in markets”

Reposted by Benjamin Braun, Robin Celikates, William A. Allen , and 2 more

isabellamweber.bsky.social
Isabella M. Weber @isabellamweber.bsky.social · 19d
If guaranteeing essentials sounds radical in 2025, it speaks to how far we’ve drifted from democracy’s core promise. Markets will not save democracy.

My new piece for @theguardian.com:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Zohran Mamdani shows how Democrats can defeat authoritarians like Trump | Isabella Weber
Democrats have two choices: fight to make life affordable again for ordinary people or watch voters embrace authoritarians
www.theguardian.com

willballen.bsky.social
William Blair Santos Allen @willballen.bsky.social · 21d
“McDonald's CEO raked in $18.2M last year — over 1,000x the company's median employee pay.”
rbreich.bsky.social Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 21d
Walmart and McDonald’s are among the top employers of workers who rely on food stamps.

McDonald's CEO raked in $18.2M last year — over 1,000x the company's median employee pay.

Walmart's CEO pocketed $27.4M — 930x the company's median employee pay.

See the problem?