George Batta
@gbatta.bsky.social
Economics and accounting professor @cmcnews.
Faculty profile: https://www.cmc.edu/academic/faculty/profile/george-batta
Personal site: https://www.georgebatta.com/
Faculty profile: https://www.cmc.edu/academic/faculty/profile/george-batta
Personal site: https://www.georgebatta.com/
Not sure what you're getting at here, but yes, he is indeed no longer the mayor of Newark.
January 26, 2026 at 1:07 AM
Not sure what you're getting at here, but yes, he is indeed no longer the mayor of Newark.
Cory Booker was also great at this, when he was mayor of Newark.
January 26, 2026 at 12:59 AM
Cory Booker was also great at this, when he was mayor of Newark.
Final battle against the wizard in the recent D&D movie was pretty fun and fast-paced: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSyy...
4 Warriors VS 1 Wizard | Final Fight | Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves | CLIP
YouTube video by Boxoffice Movie Scenes
www.youtube.com
January 18, 2026 at 9:58 AM
Final battle against the wizard in the recent D&D movie was pretty fun and fast-paced: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSyy...
Christ, what a fucking loser.
January 16, 2026 at 7:00 AM
Christ, what a fucking loser.
Reminds me of when we watched Godfather 3 in film studies class in high school. When Sofia Coppola’s character gets shot at the end, the entire class erupted in cheers and applause.
December 26, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reminds me of when we watched Godfather 3 in film studies class in high school. When Sofia Coppola’s character gets shot at the end, the entire class erupted in cheers and applause.
Nice, will look for HOTS article! Strange times. I’ve devoted less time over the years in my financial statement analysis course to off-BS financing, post standards on VIE’s and leases, but latest big tech financial engineering making me rethink this.
December 6, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Nice, will look for HOTS article! Strange times. I’ve devoted less time over the years in my financial statement analysis course to off-BS financing, post standards on VIE’s and leases, but latest big tech financial engineering making me rethink this.
Right?The articles on the data center leases haven’t illuminated this well. The 4-year leases are (I take it) on-BS. Not classified as debt, but rating agencies regularly consider them as such. Question is whether constructive lease term is really>>>4 years, such that on-BS liability is understated.
December 6, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Right?The articles on the data center leases haven’t illuminated this well. The 4-year leases are (I take it) on-BS. Not classified as debt, but rating agencies regularly consider them as such. Question is whether constructive lease term is really>>>4 years, such that on-BS liability is understated.
…in the progressive policy world about the efficacy or desirability of big fiscal, given these political economy considerations. (2/2)
November 9, 2025 at 11:12 AM
…in the progressive policy world about the efficacy or desirability of big fiscal, given these political economy considerations. (2/2)
So ultimately no damage to median real wages. But in your estimation, was the (likely) electoral backlash due to the timing of wage catchup, the distribution of real wage changes, or else just some kind of aggregate money illusion? Just genuinely curious whether the backlash changed priors… (1/2)
November 9, 2025 at 11:09 AM
So ultimately no damage to median real wages. But in your estimation, was the (likely) electoral backlash due to the timing of wage catchup, the distribution of real wage changes, or else just some kind of aggregate money illusion? Just genuinely curious whether the backlash changed priors… (1/2)
Meta also doing an in-substance debt deal via a $30B leasing transaction in October.
November 8, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Meta also doing an in-substance debt deal via a $30B leasing transaction in October.
Whenever she was in the news, back in pre-Musk Twitter, Isaac Chotiner usually would tweet about her role as the architect of Trump I's child separation policy. Dude loathes her with the white hot intensity of a thousand burning suns.
November 7, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Whenever she was in the news, back in pre-Musk Twitter, Isaac Chotiner usually would tweet about her role as the architect of Trump I's child separation policy. Dude loathes her with the white hot intensity of a thousand burning suns.
Yeah, I like this synthesis. I mean, I think even in a pre-social media world, there still would have been a strong backlash, but the effect was def amplified via social media.
November 7, 2025 at 5:20 AM
Yeah, I like this synthesis. I mean, I think even in a pre-social media world, there still would have been a strong backlash, but the effect was def amplified via social media.
Totally reasonable explanations too; I suppose I lean harder towards inflation as the story given voter survey evidence and some other empirical work I’ve seen. Hopefully, we’re all people of good faith trying to work with what limited data and flawed models we have 🙂.
November 7, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Totally reasonable explanations too; I suppose I lean harder towards inflation as the story given voter survey evidence and some other empirical work I’ve seen. Hopefully, we’re all people of good faith trying to work with what limited data and flawed models we have 🙂.
Yeah, I view it more as likely having had an important causal effect on incumbent vote share, though certainly not the only explanation for vote share. I suppose the experiment would be: how much higher would the ruling party’s vote share have been, absent the inflation spike?
November 7, 2025 at 5:06 AM
Yeah, I view it more as likely having had an important causal effect on incumbent vote share, though certainly not the only explanation for vote share. I suppose the experiment would be: how much higher would the ruling party’s vote share have been, absent the inflation spike?
…controlling for observables in a multivariate setting, etc.
November 7, 2025 at 4:57 AM
…controlling for observables in a multivariate setting, etc.
OK, the large N version: If we regressed incumbent vote share change on an inflation spike dummy, over a long period and for many countries, we’d see a negative coeff. estimate, ceteris paribus. ofc, the ceteris paribus is load-bearing, but now we’re both arguing post hoc narratives on unobservables
November 7, 2025 at 4:54 AM
OK, the large N version: If we regressed incumbent vote share change on an inflation spike dummy, over a long period and for many countries, we’d see a negative coeff. estimate, ceteris paribus. ofc, the ceteris paribus is load-bearing, but now we’re both arguing post hoc narratives on unobservables
Oh I agree, I don’t like the implications of it at all; I’d rather we aim for policies that aimed to boost, say, median real earnings. But I think there’s a greater degree of money illusion operating here, which should give us all pause.
November 7, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Oh I agree, I don’t like the implications of it at all; I’d rather we aim for policies that aimed to boost, say, median real earnings. But I think there’s a greater degree of money illusion operating here, which should give us all pause.
Went overboard with *all*, but there was def a broad anti-incumbency backlash. Hence, the chart:
November 7, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Went overboard with *all*, but there was def a broad anti-incumbency backlash. Hence, the chart:
Incumbent parties, the world over, who were in power during a price level jump without precedent in recent memory all took a shellacking at the polls. No one is arguing for some tight linear relationship between popularity and moderate inflation, just that incumbents were blamed for the sharp spike
November 7, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Incumbent parties, the world over, who were in power during a price level jump without precedent in recent memory all took a shellacking at the polls. No one is arguing for some tight linear relationship between popularity and moderate inflation, just that incumbents were blamed for the sharp spike
Government's entire case falls apart when jury learns ranged subs attack with disadvantage within 5 feat.
November 4, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Government's entire case falls apart when jury learns ranged subs attack with disadvantage within 5 feat.
Yeah this is similar to take-or-pay or throughput arrangements in the energy industry, which can help finance construction off balance sheet. But leases are basically all on-BS nowadays, so not sure how this helps hide debt (eg, rating agencies regularly treat all lease commitments as debt capital).
October 31, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Yeah this is similar to take-or-pay or throughput arrangements in the energy industry, which can help finance construction off balance sheet. But leases are basically all on-BS nowadays, so not sure how this helps hide debt (eg, rating agencies regularly treat all lease commitments as debt capital).
