Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ryan C. Smith

@rcsmitheco.bsky.social

350 followers 810 following 660 posts

Author of, "The Real Oil Shock: How Oil Transformed Money, Debt, and Finance", host of "A History of Capitalism" podcast. Economist & historian, currently #amquerying "The Emerging Energy Revolution" on how renewables+batteries are transforming the world.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · Jul 12

In the interests of saving a lot of time for everyone, here's my data on why Chinese renewable energy industrial policy has soundly outperformed US policy by every measure.

That's why, despite their emissions problems, I think their approach is worth studying.
#ClimateSky #EnergySky #EconSky

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · Mar 19

Here's some data on the growth of renewable energy in the United States and China over the past twenty years. It tells a story of a huge missed opportunity and how the United States has fallen dramatically behind in energy innovation. 1/x
#EconSky #EnergySky

A table depicting the growth of photovoltaic solar, onshore wind, and offshore wind energy capacity over time for the United States and China, broken down into five year periods from 2000-2020 and showing both overall increases in capacity in selected periods and the average year-to-year increase for each period.

1 2 7

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 23h

This is also consistent everywhere renewable energy is employed. There is simply no competition between traditional energy sources & the potential offered by wind & solar.
#Greensky #ClimateSky #EnergySky #EconSky

Zack Colman @zcolman.bsky.social · 23h

Trump & his Cabinet say wind & solar are making electricity more expensive.

Federal data say the opposite.

Our analysis showed states w/ > avg wind/solar generation & > avg acceleration of wind/solar since ‘21 were likelier to have < avg power prices.

www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

The government’s own data rebuts Trump’s claims about wind and solar prices

The Trump administration has targeted renewable energy for driving up electricity prices, but POLITICO’s analysis shows states that are growing their wind and solar power typically have lower power co...

www.politico.com

2 3

Reposted by Ryan C. Smith

Ms Marchmont @msmarchmont.bsky.social · 1d

George Square colours,
Edinburgh

1 15 82

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 23h

How is a coal plant, which relies on regular supplies of fuel that have to be dug from the ground at great expense for consumption by an expensive, complicated set of mechanisms, supposed to compete with pointing a PV panel at the sun & plugging it in?
#EnergySky #ClimateSky #GreenSky

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 23h

The reasons behind this plant closure are a perfect illustration of why renewables ARE the future. They simply outcompete all other alternatives & are easy enough to produce that it's too late to stop their growth.

The real question is what will we do with that potential.
#EnergySky #ClimateSky

Canary Media Inc. @canarymedia.com · 1d

New England has said its final goodbye to coal power. Here’s how a transition to gas — and now renewables — helped shut its last plant down early.

New England’s final coal plant shuts down years ahead of schedule

Poor economics drove the aging New Hampshire plant offline three years early, even as the Trump administration pushes to revitalize coal.

www.canarymedia.com

1 1

Reposted by Ryan C. Smith

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 3d

I’ve received multiple death threats + doxing (including my home address) directly following harassment from Turning Point USA, Jack Posobiec, Andy NGO, + Fox News which called me an antifa ‘financier.’

I have been forced to move my classes online.

If journalists want to talk, DM me or reply here.

120 1.3K 3.6K

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 1d

This seems bad, cruel, and really really dumb.

As a historian, threatening the livelihooods and stability of most of the civil service generally isn't good for the stability of regimes under pressure.

Kansas Reflector @kansasreflector.com · 1d

Trump floats plan to deny back pay to furloughed federal workers after shutdown | via @jennifershutt.bsky.social #ksleg

Trump floats plan to deny back pay to furloughed federal workers after shutdown • Kansas Reflector

The Trump administration may try to interpret a law enacted during his first term in office differently than it did following the last government shutdown, potentially denying back pay to hundreds of ...

kansasreflector.com

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 1d

It's why I switched to Linux.

And more to the point, none of it is profitable even tho it is being forced on users.

1 3

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 1d

That's a bubble and one that's four times the size of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Expect to see everyone promise to stay in the room while finding quiet ways to edge towards the door before the stampede begins. It's how every bubble ends.
#EconSky #AI

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 2d

"The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year... In a way, then, America has become one big bet on AI."

America is now one big bet on AI

It’s seen as the magic fix for every threat to the US economy

www.ft.com

3 30 68

Reposted by Ryan C. Smith

Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 5d

'To put it bluntly, a path to zero emissions that relies on electrifying individual cars is not only the most resource-intensive route to zero emissions, but also the slowest route to that urgent goal'

jaja

1 model y battery requires as much Li+ as 160 e-bikes

www.commondreams.org/opinion/gree...

Can We Design a Green Transition That Doesn't Turbocharge Extraction? | Common Dreams

Policies that promote alternatives to car use, reduce sprawl, encourage more compact batteries, and require recycling would all reduce the scale of mining needed for carbon-free transportation.

www.commondreams.org

8 45 190

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 6d

What's especially maddening is it never works.

Not in the UK or Germany or the US or anywhere else.

It doesn't stop proponents from trying but they really have no basis for calling their approach "sensible".

Who benefits from the social democratic march to the middle? | European Political Science Review | Cambridge Core

Who benefits from the social democratic march to the middle? - Volume 15 Issue 4

www.cambridge.org

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 6d

This administration has burned a thousand Great Libraries every day since they took power. There are no words for how much damage such deliberate destruction of knowledge will do to society.
#AcademicSky

Jonathan L. Fischer @jonfischer.bsky.social · 6d

NEWS: White House fires much of the National Council on the Humanities www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

White House fires much of the National Council on the Humanities

The White House appeared to fire all but four members of the National Council on the Humanities, an advisory board to the head of the government’s grantmaking agency.

www.washingtonpost.com

1 8 18

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 6d

The government shutdown won't help there, those historically lead to economic pain that increases the longer the shutdown lasts.

I shudder to think of how that's going to interact with the reduced tourism, supply shocks, & tariff pain. Bad doesn't begin to describe it.
#EconSky

Forbes @forbes.com · 8d

A reading on consumer confidence featured an uptick in pessimism about job availability and future business conditions.

Americans Report ‘Sharp Deterioration’ In Economic Confidence, Survey Says

A reading on consumer confidence featured an uptick in pessimism about job availability and future business conditions.

www.forbes.com

1 7

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 6d

In Nero's defense, he didn't start the fire, wasn't even in Rome when it started, & seems to have done a decent job at initial relief efforts unlike Trump's latest shutdown.

That said, the palace was poorly received & later emperors replaced it with public buildings like the Coloseum.

Did Nero Really Burn Down Rome? The Truth Behind the Myth | Walks Inside Rome

The emperor Nero is infamous for setting the imperial capital ablaze (and fiddling while he watched it burn). Is there any truth in this?

www.walksinsiderome.com

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 6d

There's some strong parallels here with Nero building a palace on the neighborhoods in Rome that were destroyed by a major fire.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 7d

File this under “essential function.” 🤡

#Shutdown
abcnews.go.com/Politics/liv...

Reposted by Ryan C. Smith

@cr_possess 👻 @christianrincon.com · 6d

wait times are long because this guy's boss let a pandemic run riot and thousands of medical professionals left the field

this piece of shit wants you to think that every problem in your life is due to immigrants when in fact your life is much easier because immigrants choose to come here

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7d

Vance: "If you're an American citizen & you've been to the hospital in the last few years, you've probably noticed wait times are especially large & very often somebody who's there in the ER is an illegal alien. Why do those people get healthcare benefits at hospitals paid for by American citizens?"

31 190 890

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 6d

These are the kind of people who would've fought tooth & nail to save the horse & buggy industry by actively sabotaging the adoption of trains.

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 6d

The White House will open 13.1 million acres of public land to coal mining while providing $625 million for coal-fired power plants, the Trump administration has announced.

The latest from our friends at @theguardian.com:

Team Trump will spend $625 million and open public lands to revive a dying industry

Coal is the world's most expensive and polluting fossil fuel.

www.motherjones.com

1 1

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 10d

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

Upton Sinclair

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 10d

Good lord, these dudes will never understand that the whole *point* of the "cancel culture" moral panic in which they participated was to create a permission structure for the current crackdown.

Chait et al were used, precisely to produce this outcome, & they'll never, ever look it in the face.

The Emptiness of Attacking Critics for Their Hypocrisy

It’s hard to defend crackdowns on free speech. It’s easier to simply claim everyone’s doing it.

www.theatlantic.com

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 11d

When is the last time *anyone* liked getting a, "drop everything and jump on a plane?" message, especially when the subject sounds like something that could've been an email?

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 11d

I still don't trust the intentions behind this but I'd imagine the official reason will not endear the Trump gov with the top brass.

David Doniger @daviddoniger.bsky.social · 11d

Who’s the brilliant guy who assembles all our generals and admirals in one place, and gives all our adversaries a week’s notice?
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

New details emerge on Hegseth’s unusual mass gathering of top brass

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has summoned hundreds of generals for what is expected to be a short lecture on the “warrior ethos.” But top brass is bracing for possible firings or demotions.

www.washingtonpost.com

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 12d

Going to be interesting seeing that happen when actual spending on AI & consumer spending generally are both in decline. Even *if* AI could deliver as promised, the guaranteed destruction of so many jobs & consumers was always going to strangle this industry.
#AI #EconSky

Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 12d

*The AI boom = one of the costliest building sprees in world history

* Past 3 years' commitments are greater than the cost of building the U.S. interstate highway system

* Consumers must spend $800 billion on AI within a few years, to justify investment from 2023-24

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-b...

This week, consultants at Bain & Co. estimated the wave of AI infrastructure spending will require $2 trillion in annual AI revenue by 2030. By comparison, that is more than the combined 2024 revenue of Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and Nvidia, and more than five times the size of the entire global subscription software market.

Morgan Stanley estimates that last year there was around $45 billion of revenue for AI products. The sector makes money from a combination of subscription fees for chatbots such as ChatGPT and money paid to use these companies’ data centers.

How the tech sector will cover the gap is “the trillion dollar question,” said Mark Moerdler, an analyst at Bernstein.

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 12d

This is concerning.

Pete Hegseth Orders Top Military Leaders to Attend Mystery Meeting

“To say the military leadership is anxious would be an understatement,” one defense official told The Intercept.

theintercept.com

Reposted by Ryan C. Smith

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12d

Jeffries: "As a negotiating tactic, our response to Russ Vought is simple: Get lost."

330 1.2K 5.5K

Reposted by Ryan C. Smith

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 14d

7. The most banal thing you can say about NYC, but so true: the diversity -- of races, ethnicities, hair & dress, attitude, gender presentation, behavior -- is just spectacular. I guess this is precisely what scares conservatives about cities, but it fills me with energy & life. Cities, man!

3 41 390

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 14d

This is one of the many reasons why petrostates (which includes the US) are centers of opposition to energy transition. They lose a lot of their power in a post-carbon world.
#ClimateSky #Greensky

FinTwitter @fintwitter.bsky.social · 14d

EU’s Von Der Leyen Says Meeting With Trump Focused On Russia’s War In Ukraine, Agreed On Urgent Need To Cut Russia’s Fossil Fuel Revenues

Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 14d

Good for the AHA!

American Historical Association @historians.org · 14d

The AHA has sent a letter to Texas State University president Kelly Damphousse registering strong objection to the university’s decision to terminate the employment of Dr. Thomas Alter without due process. 🗃️

AHA Sends Letter Objecting to Firing of Texas State University Professor

The AHA has sent a letter to Texas State University professor Kelly Damphousse registering strong objection to the university’s decision to terminate the employment of Dr. Thomas Alter without due pro...