Stephen Buggy
@stephenbuggy.bsky.social
I work with data and on Homelessness. I am learning Portuguese. I live in Belfast
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
Huge respect to the papers for finding both an 88 year old worried about the tax bill on her 6 bedroom Kensington house and a 20 year old fretting about only being able to save £12k a year tax free.
Top work all around. These are not easy case studies to find.
Top work all around. These are not easy case studies to find.
November 29, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Huge respect to the papers for finding both an 88 year old worried about the tax bill on her 6 bedroom Kensington house and a 20 year old fretting about only being able to save £12k a year tax free.
Top work all around. These are not easy case studies to find.
Top work all around. These are not easy case studies to find.
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
One time I saw a distinguished British historian playing with his small child, who was doing finger guns. He put his arms up and the boy - who was about six - went "bang!" and he very seriously explained that you must never shoot a prisoner.
Regarding the latter, one could argue there is a level of seniority below which it is not reasonable to expect service members to exercise their own judgement about that.
But the former—*everyone* knows that kind of order is illegal and must be refused. This is basic-training-level stuff.
But the former—*everyone* knows that kind of order is illegal and must be refused. This is basic-training-level stuff.
Refusing to follow a “kill the survivors of the previous strike who are clearly hors de combat” order SHOULD BE significantly more clear-cut than refusing one due to “this entire operation is unlawful because citing inherent Article II authority is insufficient.”
There must be accountability.
There must be accountability.
November 28, 2025 at 7:27 PM
One time I saw a distinguished British historian playing with his small child, who was doing finger guns. He put his arms up and the boy - who was about six - went "bang!" and he very seriously explained that you must never shoot a prisoner.
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
New housing lowers rents.
Interesting new working paper that studies chains of movers after the construction of a new apartment building in Honolulu.
Paper finds that the project resulted in the opening up other, lower cost, housing on the island, benefiting the housing market overall.
Paper finds that the project resulted in the opening up other, lower cost, housing on the island, benefiting the housing market overall.
uhero.hawaii.edu
November 28, 2025 at 11:00 PM
New housing lowers rents.
It's bad for debates about healthcare in the UK that plenty of peer countries have healthcare systems with private market features but the country that dominates English language media has an insane system.
Worth saying there's a lot of completely normal ways to put the private market into health insurance (germany uses multi payer rate setting) but all of them need govt oversight
Yet another reminder of why health insurance should not be a private, for-profit industry and we should have a single payer, publicly run system
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/b...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/b...
November 28, 2025 at 3:16 PM
It's bad for debates about healthcare in the UK that plenty of peer countries have healthcare systems with private market features but the country that dominates English language media has an insane system.
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
Lots of people sharing this clip because it's funny and cathartic but I also genuinely believe it's important.
We have to win the narrative battle between "I live in a corrupt society and that's just how it is" and "I live in a corrupt society and we are going to defeat and humiliate these ghouls."
We have to win the narrative battle between "I live in a corrupt society and that's just how it is" and "I live in a corrupt society and we are going to defeat and humiliate these ghouls."
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Lots of people sharing this clip because it's funny and cathartic but I also genuinely believe it's important.
We have to win the narrative battle between "I live in a corrupt society and that's just how it is" and "I live in a corrupt society and we are going to defeat and humiliate these ghouls."
We have to win the narrative battle between "I live in a corrupt society and that's just how it is" and "I live in a corrupt society and we are going to defeat and humiliate these ghouls."
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
And honestly I don't give a fuck if it's popular or not. It's going to make a lot of kids' lives better. That's the point of government. Not an opinion poll.
November 26, 2025 at 1:12 PM
And honestly I don't give a fuck if it's popular or not. It's going to make a lot of kids' lives better. That's the point of government. Not an opinion poll.
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
Whatever else this government do (and there's plenty of issues with this budget) ministers will always be able to point to this as an incredible important contribution to the country's future. Almost half a million kids taken out of poverty.
Scrapping the two-child limit in full is a monumental decision. Well done to all involved in the Child Poverty Strategy, and everyone who has made the case against the policy.
OBR says scrapping costs £3 billion in 2029-30 and will lift 450,000 out of poverty
OBR says scrapping costs £3 billion in 2029-30 and will lift 450,000 out of poverty
November 26, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Whatever else this government do (and there's plenty of issues with this budget) ministers will always be able to point to this as an incredible important contribution to the country's future. Almost half a million kids taken out of poverty.
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
Also who cares why they did it? What matters is it's done. (In any case reducing poverty is one reason people vote for Labour MPs so mollifying is kind of the point of elected them).
I'm hearing criticisms of the end to the two child limit, because it was done just to mollify Labour backbenchers, at a cost of £billions.
I remember another govt delivering a referendum on EU membership, just to mollify restive backbenchers. That's costing way, way more... A little perspective?
I remember another govt delivering a referendum on EU membership, just to mollify restive backbenchers. That's costing way, way more... A little perspective?
November 26, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Also who cares why they did it? What matters is it's done. (In any case reducing poverty is one reason people vote for Labour MPs so mollifying is kind of the point of elected them).
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
I'd like to see the response to this if the question added "if that that means universities have less money to spend on UK students".
With Rachel Reeves reportedly set to apply a new tax on tuition fees paid by overseas students, most Britons support such a move at the previously mooted level of 6%
Support: 57%
Oppose: 18%
yougov.co.uk/topics/socie...
Support: 57%
Oppose: 18%
yougov.co.uk/topics/socie...
November 24, 2025 at 4:41 PM
I'd like to see the response to this if the question added "if that that means universities have less money to spend on UK students".
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
Great piece on how density restrictions in zoning are essentially BS.
November 24, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Great piece on how density restrictions in zoning are essentially BS.
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
One of my favorite things Stephen King ever wrote was more or less "No, drugs do not make you a good writer. Stop being weird" when discussing exactly this phenomenon and his own struggles with drugs.
November 22, 2025 at 3:10 AM
One of my favorite things Stephen King ever wrote was more or less "No, drugs do not make you a good writer. Stop being weird" when discussing exactly this phenomenon and his own struggles with drugs.
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
Bukowski, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway are similar figures; the drinking is not the interesting thing!
November 21, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Bukowski, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway are similar figures; the drinking is not the interesting thing!
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
Hunter S. Thompson was a good writer who was also an insane drug addict and generations of men in their 20s have destroyed their livers writing extremely boring pastiches as the result of incorrectly inferring some causal relationship there
just read a piece calling Nuzzi a "modern day political version of Hunter S. Thompson" and I think I need to log off
November 21, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Hunter S. Thompson was a good writer who was also an insane drug addict and generations of men in their 20s have destroyed their livers writing extremely boring pastiches as the result of incorrectly inferring some causal relationship there
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
Thompson also destroyed his own huge talent and became a shell of himself. It's a sad story.
Hunter S. Thompson was a good writer who was also an insane drug addict and generations of men in their 20s have destroyed their livers writing extremely boring pastiches as the result of incorrectly inferring some causal relationship there
just read a piece calling Nuzzi a "modern day political version of Hunter S. Thompson" and I think I need to log off
November 22, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Thompson also destroyed his own huge talent and became a shell of himself. It's a sad story.
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
I like this post but it stops short. It might be that building loads of flats in central London doesn't reduce rents much, but that means it's creating an enormous and growing stream of rents. It's a gdp factory as @ironeconomist.bsky.social and I have discussed previously. And we need that too.
open.substack.com/pub/backofmi...
"It can be noted that supply and demand don’t have an obvious role in this model, which appears to drive some people crazy...for the very best locations, pricing will be almost completely inelastic to supply"
"It can be noted that supply and demand don’t have an obvious role in this model, which appears to drive some people crazy...for the very best locations, pricing will be almost completely inelastic to supply"
david ricardo is not easily denied
the law of rent and its implications
open.substack.com
November 22, 2025 at 10:34 AM
I like this post but it stops short. It might be that building loads of flats in central London doesn't reduce rents much, but that means it's creating an enormous and growing stream of rents. It's a gdp factory as @ironeconomist.bsky.social and I have discussed previously. And we need that too.
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
Bizarre because Japan has one of the strictest immigration policies in the World.
You cannot please these people.
You cannot please these people.
November 18, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Bizarre because Japan has one of the strictest immigration policies in the World.
You cannot please these people.
You cannot please these people.
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
the actual suicide of the West will be combining a rapidly aging population with hostility to migrants. however we must give credit to East Asia, especially Japan, for pioneering this model.
November 18, 2025 at 8:54 PM
the actual suicide of the West will be combining a rapidly aging population with hostility to migrants. however we must give credit to East Asia, especially Japan, for pioneering this model.
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
*this is batshit insane*
Fed Governor Stephen Miran: "Cutting down net migration to 0, potentially even negative because of the deportations that have been occurring, I think is very deflationary."
November 14, 2025 at 8:31 PM
*this is batshit insane*
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
This seems like good news... www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, analysis finds
World’s biggest polluter on track to hit peak emissions target early but miss goal for cutting carbon intensity
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:00 AM
This seems like good news... www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
International being good with money championships:
Last place, Elon Musk, somehow unhappy and pining after respect despite having more money than God.
Winner: Juan, 58-year-old popcorn salesman from Rio. Earns little but enough to keep his wife and kid happy. Dreams of going to more Flamengo games
Last place, Elon Musk, somehow unhappy and pining after respect despite having more money than God.
Winner: Juan, 58-year-old popcorn salesman from Rio. Earns little but enough to keep his wife and kid happy. Dreams of going to more Flamengo games
November 11, 2025 at 3:05 AM
International being good with money championships:
Last place, Elon Musk, somehow unhappy and pining after respect despite having more money than God.
Winner: Juan, 58-year-old popcorn salesman from Rio. Earns little but enough to keep his wife and kid happy. Dreams of going to more Flamengo games
Last place, Elon Musk, somehow unhappy and pining after respect despite having more money than God.
Winner: Juan, 58-year-old popcorn salesman from Rio. Earns little but enough to keep his wife and kid happy. Dreams of going to more Flamengo games
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
The historian in me feels the need to note that contests between cities and their rural hinterland are not new things and they do not generally go great for the rural folks.
California alone produces a third of all the food America eats. So this is a lie.
But let’s break down the food produced by the red states:
Guess what percent is harvested by people from Latin America?
But let’s break down the food produced by the red states:
Guess what percent is harvested by people from Latin America?
November 11, 2025 at 1:14 AM
The historian in me feels the need to note that contests between cities and their rural hinterland are not new things and they do not generally go great for the rural folks.
Reposted by Stephen Buggy
My wife and I pay for life insurance even though we have never died. I pay for fire insurance even though my house has never burned down. That's not because we want to throw money at insurance companies. It's because THAT'S HOW INSURANCE WORKS.
November 10, 2025 at 3:44 PM
My wife and I pay for life insurance even though we have never died. I pay for fire insurance even though my house has never burned down. That's not because we want to throw money at insurance companies. It's because THAT'S HOW INSURANCE WORKS.