Chris Neill 🐧
@chrisneill.bsky.social
1.7K followers 720 following 1.6K posts
Associate Professor, Economics (education, labour, public econ, policy) at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, 🇨🇦. Originally from 🇦🇺, I tend to prefer rivers that I can swim away in, rather than skate away on.
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Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
aefpweb.bsky.social
AEFP invites applications for the editorship of EFP, the association’s flagship journal. Applications are due Nov 1. Read more about it here: aefpweb.org/callfore...
chrisneill.bsky.social
I just today wrote up some slides with quotes from Termination Shock that explained what sulphur is, how its chemical symbol is S, and how that's why Texan Billionaire JR(or whatever)'s ranch is called The Flying S, because of the Sulphur, haha, how clever.

So this is flabbergasting.
chrisneill.bsky.social
In order for AI to add your name in a hallucinated reference, you must have quite a high probability of appearing which in itself is evidence of a strong international reputation. So that's stronger than a simple contribution to your h-index; can include as standalone evidence of merit.
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
alexhanna.bsky.social
I'm not an economist but seems worrying that the whole US economy is seven companies in a trenchcoat, passing the same $20 up and down
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
chrisneill.bsky.social
✅️Corporation Wars: Dissidence, MacLeod. Which meant I actually looked up Locke's Proviso, which made for some good links into the commons and property rights. (And resisted books 2 and 3.)
chrisneill.bsky.social
⁉️Snow Crash, Stephenson. Always likely to be the problem (plus maybe 3BP due to length). At 1/14 through and the sneering in the neologisms is getting to me. Bimbobox/Burbclave/Studley. Metaverse does not make up for the rest. I mean, Hiro Protagonist. Overexplaining. My memory was not off.
chrisneill.bsky.social
Set 10 books I set for Econ in Sci Fi & Fantasy. Each student reads one book. Can I finish all 10 during the term?

Progress:
✅️Red Mars, KSR. Managed not to go on Green/Blue Mars
✅️Making Money, Pratchett. Still brilliant
✅️Family Trade, Stross. Then did all of the rest through Empire Games
chrisneill.bsky.social
Ah, excellent use of probability.
chrisneill.bsky.social
Indeed, but who was most likely to rip him apart - airline staff or other passengers?
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
aaronsojourner.org
What policy:
- increases competition,
- lowers prices,
- lowers high-end taxes,
- lowers inequality?
@deanbaker13.bsky.social tells us. Preredistribution?
substack.com/inbox/post/1...
Weakening Patent Monopolies: The Most Effective Wealth Tax
It's better not to give the billionaires the money in the first place than to develop schemes to tax it away
Dean Baker
Oct 08, 2025
The idea of a wealth tax has gained considerable popularity in the dozen years since Thomas Piketty first popularized it with his book, Capital for the 21st Century. I have always been a skeptic myself, not because I have any trouble with taxing billionaires, but I think it faces enormous practical and political obstacles.
chrisneill.bsky.social
Read the comments.
kashhill.bsky.social
This is absolutely wild. I’m on a cross country flight. We are being diverted midway through to Denver. The reason? Some dude is sitting in the exit row who didn’t pay the $155 fee and he refuses to move back to his seat.
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
retired-librarian.bsky.social
A book club only it's all online, you can participate at your convenience, no pressure, and you read books that have been banned/challenged. #BannedBookSkyClub #BookSky
chrisneill.bsky.social
You go into law and the forego the job offers from the big corporate law firms because you want to make the world a better place, and this is where it gets you.

Meetings with people in animal costumes that make farting noises, and no-one willing to discuss your accommodation for misophonia.
kenwhite.bsky.social
/4 I was trying to give a litigation update to the Board of Directors and three of them were wearing those big inflatable animal costumes. They kept squeaking against the leather chairs and I couldn't concentrate. Then the hippo sprung a leak and made this farting sound for five minutes.
chrisneill.bsky.social
Some very serious people are arguing speed cameras do nothing because the consequence comes too long after the violation. I can only imagine that they would support this as a solution.
chrisneill.bsky.social
Managed that one, but absolutely don't want to interact with SmartSheets. I shouldn't have to manage both a CCV and whatever that is.
chrisneill.bsky.social
I do really object to professional writers using it instead of raises the question.

Can accept others without philosophy training or experience with a somewhat madly pedantic econ prof misusing it. Like "public goods" or "moral hazard" if you haven't been trained in economics.
chrisneill.bsky.social
Unacceptable. Rage, rage, against the dying of the light!

In good news, at least one of the 50 students in my (econ) class was correctly able to explain what begging the question is properly, so there is still hope that the next generation will carry on old traditions.
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
saskajanet.bsky.social
Look at her go!
#invertebrates 🌿
Screen shot of Project Monarch app map of progress of a monarch butterfly from southern Ontario to Oklahoma.
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
shastingssimon.bsky.social
My number one tip for researchers that do a significant amount of non peer reviewed paper publication/outreach:

Create an excel table, every time you give an interview, talk, write an oped or white paper, etc. take 5 seconds to immediately note it in the excel.
chrisneill.bsky.social
At least it seems to have penetrated his brain that Canadians may not be thrilled with a few aspects of US policy and are responding accordingly, even though quite clearly he doesn't grasp the depth of the problem.