Virginia Postrel (@vpostrel) / X

Virginia Postrel

3,784 posts

Virginia Postrel

@vpostrel

L.A. writer @WorksinProgMag @AbundanceInst Ihttp://vpostrel.substack.com History podcast w/ @CharlesCMann: abundance.institute/EverydayAbunda…

West L.A.

vpostrel.com

Born January 14

Joined January 2009

Virginia Postrel
@vpostrel
Oct 13, 2024
Worth posting again. The Coastal Commission is bad enough when it's doing its official job blocking new construction, but now it's decided its in the censorship business.
FIRE
@TheFIREorg
Oct 12, 2024
.@elonmusk's personal political views should play no role in the California Coastal Commission's evaluation of @SpaceX's plans to launch rockets in the state. The commission’s objections are non-binding, but its members appear to be pushing for greater oversight over the
Virginia Postrel
@vpostrel
Mar 3, 2023
Replying to @NyereNevarez and @nypost
The SAT is the only way people from crap schools with limited curricula and counseling have to prove they’re as promising as the educationally privileged. Anyone can read old books and build vocab. Not everyone can take a zillion AP classes. Changed my life.
Virginia Postrel
@vpostrel
Jun 20, 2025
Holy moly! I thought the Jones Act was bad.
Judge Glock
@judgeglock
Jun 16, 2025
It looks like a whole new shipping preference law is coming. The House overwhelmingly passed the American Cargo for American Ships Act that would require 100% of transportation project materials to go on US ships, driving up infrastructure costs. govtrack.us/congress/bills…
Virginia Postrel
@vpostrel
Feb 28, 2025
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Trump is venal but Vance is evil.
Virginia Postrel
@vpostrel
Apr 8, 2025
Thought experiment from @EricBoehm87 @reason:
Virginia Postrel
@vpostrel
Aug 14, 2024
This @jonathanchait piece seems like sound political analysis but what struck me was how left-wing foundations get a free pass in exercising political influence on journalism and academia. Imagine the word "Koch" instead of "Hewlett." nymag.com/intelligencer/…
Virginia Postrel
@vpostrel
Jan 9, 2024
I went to one of those lousy, obscure public high schools nobody's heard of & got very high SAT scores. That's why I wound up @Princeton, which fed my intellectual hunger & changed my life. It was long ago but kids like me haven't disappeared & not all are 1st generation.
Emma Camp
@emmma_camp_
Jan 8, 2024
Love this @nytimes article. Poor students are better off when elite unis require the SAT because (unlike grades and essays), it closely predicts student achievement. It’s mediocre rich kids, not smart disadvantaged ones who stand to gain from the recent anti-SAT trend.
Virginia Postrel
@vpostrel
Jun 29, 2024
Just think how high Nikki Haley would be polling against Biden now.
Virginia Postrel
@vpostrel
Aug 18, 2024
I'm so old I remember when Krugman was an honest economist. Harris is talking about SUPERMARKETS!!! Not examples where there was a deliberate reduction in production.
Paul Krugman
@paulkrugman
Aug 17, 2024
Harris’s gouging proposal looks mild compared with the price-control hysteria. But some are writing as if gouging never happens. Has everyone forgotten about the California electricity crisis of 2001, in which power operators deliberately cut production to raise prices?
Virginia Postrel
@vpostrel
Jun 13, 2025
One good thing about Trump's "l'état c'est moi" military parade: It inspired historian T.H. Breen to recall this charming moment in early American history.
Virginia Postrel
@vpostrel
Jun 9, 2025
Replying to @lxeagle17
Fun for the arsonists. Nothing to do with immigration, other than feeding Trump’s agenda.
Virginia Postrel
@vpostrel
Jul 18, 2024
If JD Vance had been around in late 1700s Britain he’d have been opposed to spinning machine and, a generation later, to power looms. Aka the Industrial Revolution, which threw a lot of people out of work even as it created new jobs and unprecedented increases in living standards
Abundance Institute
@abundanceinst
Jul 17, 2024
Before opposing new tech, Luddites thrived thanks to previous innovations. A reminder of tech’s complex impact on labor from @vpostrel
00:00
Virginia Postrel
@vpostrel
Mar 25, 2025
Replying to @elonmusk
Fortunately they have a high-traffic website and an editor who cares about national security.
Virginia Postrel
@vpostrel
May 23, 2025
The good thing about the bond market is that it's an emergent order whose speech, in the form of interest rates, can't be mau-maued by a vindictive POTUS.