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Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

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280 points dargscisyhp | 3 comments | 02 Aug 25 06:28 UTC | HN request time: 0.886s | source
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padjo ◴[02 Aug 25 08:22 UTC] No.44765718[source]▶
It’s pretty clear that the only numbers this administration are interested in are ones that support the narrative that the great leader is infallible.
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exe34 ◴[02 Aug 25 08:33 UTC] No.44765768[source]▶
They just fired the commissioner of Labour Statistics. The great thing about autocrats is that they neuter their own country pretty quickly. When you make it risky for people to give you bad news, you end up with missiles that don't work and capital ships that sink.
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padjo ◴[02 Aug 25 08:37 UTC] No.44765787[source]▶
Yep. It’s odd to see classic third world dictator antics in the most powerful country in the world, but not at all unexpected given who’s running it.
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1. noir_lord ◴[02 Aug 25 09:25 UTC] No.44766003[source]▶
> the most powerful country in the world.

For now, I live in the former most powerful country in the world prior to the rise of the US.

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2. kangalioo ◴[02 Aug 25 09:36 UTC] No.44766061[source]▶
Which is, the UK? China?
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3. tialaramex ◴[02 Aug 25 10:06 UTC] No.44766253[source]▶
The UK. It had this huge navy, which amusingly is where its central bank comes from. An English Parliament wanted to buy the greatest navy the world had ever seen but that's very expensive, so their cunning scheme was, license some business people to run an exclusive Bank of England, secured by the word of the British government, the income from this funds a navy and the successors of that navy were still dominant into the 20th century.

The fact that the Bank of England was historically a private business is awkward when it comes to explaining to some modern country why it's not OK that their central bank is giving the leader's nephew $100M in unsecured loans, and this sort of discomfort is part of why it was bought by the British government and gradually ceased operating as a private bank in my lifetime. When I was younger I knew people whose mortgage was issued by the country's central bank. Not like celebrities or politicians or anything, just bureaucrats who got a good deal, sort of "mates rates" but for a house loan.