The post Merry Christmas appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

1. When were the Tylers born?

2. India is prepping for major economic reforms (FT).

3. One view on why computers cannot be conscious.

4. “America’s six largest banks added $600bn in market value in 2025, spurred on by the Trump administration’s push to deregulate the industry and a revival in investment banking.” (FT)  This is one reason why gdp growth has been robust.  Whatever you think of bank regulation more generally, in 2025 we needed less of it, not more.

5. Inmates could escape jail on drones (Times of London).

6. What do soccer tickets cost in New Jersey?

7. The origins of European thought on new discoveries.

8. Titanic, Hagen, 33-minute Guatemalan/Mexican musical avant-garde creation.  Here is some background (NYT).  I am growing increasingly bullish on Latin American and also Spanish-language music.  I will be following it more closely in 2026.

The post Christmas assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

1. David Brooks offers some Sidney awards, including to Works in Progress (NYT).

2. If you are the Lakers, of course you should have traded for the new superstar, namely Luka.  But by now it is clear the trade actually will not work out so well, and Dallas is better off with Cooper Flagg.

3. “The threat to German auto producers isn’t from Chinese cars flooding Germany. It’s from Chinese cars flooding to emerging markets (red), where they’re killing the market for German cars. That’s not something EU tariffs on China are going to be able to fix.” Link here.

4. Why everyone loves Japan.

5. The brother Megan McArdle lost.

6. “Our Archivara Math Research Agent (in alpha) just became the first AI system to fully solve an Erdős problem on its own (zero human input or literature online).” Link here.

7. Israel just recognized Somaliland.

The post Friday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.

"So you're telling me there's a chance." We laughed when the "Dumb and Dumber" character uttered that but that attitude was reflected in real life by a New York magazine writer which makes it even funnier. Yes, the extreme Hopium expressed by that magazine's Intelligencer section senior editor, Margaret Hartmann, over the incredibly slight possibility that Jeffrey Epstein's postcard letter to imprisoned serial sex offender Larry Nassar might be valid is made hilarious by its sheer desperation  despite the much less than million to one chance that it could be true.  You can see Hartmann on Tuesday going full "Dumb and Dumber" in her plea for even slight hint of damning evidence against President Donald Trump, "Did Epstein Really Send Larry Nassar a Suicide Note?" ...the DOJ posted the image of a handwritten letter signed by “J. Epstein,” which was sent to convicted sex offender Larry Nassar in 2019. The letter, which is postmarked three days after Epstein died in prison, seems to allude to Epstein’s plans to end his life, and accuses Trump of sharing their love of “young, nubile girls.” Soooo … did the Justice Department just unceremoniously drop an Epstein suicide note that suggests the president was involved in his crimes? Big if true! But it’s hard to know what to make of the letter, there is significant reason to doubt its legitimacy, and now the DOJ claims it’s “fake.” "Significant reason to doubt its legitimacy?" Try OVERWHELMING reason to doubt it, Margaret. We’ve known about the existence of this purported letter from Epstein to Nassar for years. In 2023, the AP published a report on more than 4,000 pages of Epstein-related documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request to the federal Bureau of Prisons. The letter itself was not included in the documents, but the AP did find correspondence between prison officials debating what to do with it... 2023? And was that not at the time when the Biden administration DOJ was conducting over-the-top lawfare against President Donald Trump? If there was the slightest chance that letter was valid does anybody think there would be any possibility that letter would not be quickly released to a very compliant media? Another document posted on Tuesday reveals that the FBI asked its handwriting analysis laboratory to examine the Epstein note in 2020. ...But the documents released so far do not say if the analysis was ever performed, or what it concluded. Later on Tuesday, the DOJ announced that the letter is “FAKE,” without providing any documentation to back up this claim, or explaining how this forgery ended up in the Epstein files... Perhaps the answer to handwriting question is so obvious that you don't need to to be a handwriting expert to come to a conclusion on this matter as the New York Times Investigation Editor David Enrich reveals:   We have compared Epstein's supposed letter to Larry Nassar with multiple examples of Epstein's actual handwriting (which were provided to @nytimes by a source). I'm no handwriting expert, but.... see for yourself. pic.twitter.com/Vk30fZOwuc — David Enrich (@davidenrich) December 23, 2025   "All we can say for sure: we’ll probably never know if the note is real, so it will just be added to the ever-growing pile of Epstein conspiracy theory fodder." Actually we do know for sure and so do you, Margaret. FAKE. Too bad you think your readers CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH so you pretend that there is still some slight doubt as to the validity of the letter.

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