I’ve always found people who bristle at “American exceptionalism” kind of… weird. Not because I lack self-awareness — I’ve spent my career cataloging every way this country fails to live up to its own rules. But that’s exactly why I love it so damn much. We built a system designed to be shamed by its own founding documents, and it still delivered one of the most spectacular, world-altering runs in human history. A genuine force for human flourishing. I also found the argument against American exceptionalism to be historically illiterate. Here’s a sample of what we were first at: • The first large-scale democratic republic in human history — not a city-state, not a monarchy with a parliament bolted on, but a bold continental experiment in self-rule, popular sovereignty, and ordered liberty. • A written Constitution (1789) with separation of powers and checks & balances — still the oldest national constitution in force anywhere. • The Bill of Rights (1791): the first time a nation wrote “the government cannot touch these” into supreme law and actually meant it. A dare the world copied — from later rights charters to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. • Public land-grant universities and mass higher education (Morrill Act), opening college to ordinary people no aristocracy would have let near the gates. (but don’t get me started about what happened after we started. Massively federally funding it.) • Kitty Hawk, 1903 — first controlled powered flight. • The Moon, 1969 — still the only ones who’ve been there. • The world’s largest economy since ~1890, powering unprecedented prosperity through grit and genius. • The assembly line, skyscraper, transistor, personal computer, ARPANET — the backbone of the modern world. • Telephone, phonograph, GPS — connecting and powering daily life. • Surgical anesthesia, polio vaccine — saving and transforming millions of lives. • Jazz, blues, rock ‘n’ roll — brand new American art forms that conquered the globe. • Hollywood’s dreams, blue jeans, bourbon, and a culture so open a kid like me could devour sushi, burritos, stuffed cabbage, and tabouli in the same week and rightfully think of it all as American. That’s the part that fills me with genuine love and pride: not just the power or the wins, but the appetite for freedom, creativity, and reinvention. The audacity to say “We the People” and keep trying to live up to it. What do you love most about this truly exceptional country? 🇺🇸

As a Euro transplant I have no issues with tipping. I assume 15% more than listed price, and most of the time I pay more. As a result we get better service at a $20 burger joint than at a €50 dinner spot in Europe.

Europe has a genuinely good burger game. Their wings are abysmal. Any European attempt on Mexican, such as tacos, should be considered a crime against humanity. Literally the worst things I’ve ever eaten.

We can finally say AI isn't killing jobs. A new paper from me, @tryramp, and @RevelioLabs uses firm-level spend and workforce data across 21K U.S. businesses to measure AI's impact on jobs. Firms that adopt AI heavily grow headcount 10% over two years following adoption. Low adopters see no statistically significant change.

That was not the definition of a red card.

The surest way to kill innovation and enrich politically connected cronies is for the UN to drive regulations around AI. The Internet prospered not because of the UN, but because leading countries drove standards that others adopted.

Current view.

What is remarkable about this isn’t the quote itself, it is the censorship the intolerant left forced upon everyone. “Before Elon Musk’s acquisition, Twitter (now X) enforced policies against “targeted misgendering or deadnaming” of transgender individuals as “hateful conduct.” This led to suspensions and permanent bans for statements affirming biological sex over gender identity—precisely the kind of view in Justice Thomas’s concurrence in West Virginia v. B.P.J. (2026), which states: “Men and boys with gender dysphoria are not women or girls, even if they believe that they are.” Sex is described there as an immutable biological characteristic, with “man” and “woman” tied to biological sex.”

Thomas Paine publishes an open letter in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, under the name “Republicus,” which advocates for the name “United States of America” for the new nation now emerging. This is the first time such a term has been used.

Thomas Jefferson submits the final draft of his Declaration of Independence to Continental Congress.

If you understand corporate America it is fairly intuitive that for the longest time the shortest path to managerial progression was increasing headcount in your department. Every cycle you made the case for why you needed more bodies as you executed against some sort of revenue target. This time things are going to go in reverse. Tokens are going to be allocated by department based on demonstrable ROI. Initially that return metric will primarily be based on incremental efficiency. Department heads that can show a clear trade-off between headcount and tokens will be rewarded. Those who can’t will be starved of compute. This means the incentives are now in reverse. The more people you can cut in your org the more tokens you’ll be allocated and the higher profile you become in the broader org. The fastest way to be promoted is to have a high token allocation and a clear track of gutting humans. When I say the Hunger Games are coming to corporate America I really mean that shit ✌️

The AI:AC Hypothesis. In the future, in each country, the amount of AI will be proportional to the amount of AC. And vice versa.

The "billionaire tax"/wealth tax debate is usually framed as economics. But there is a prior constitutional question the proposal's proponents consistently skip: Can the federal government tax unrealized wealth held as equity without triggering the Fifth Amendment and the constitutional requirement of apportionment? The answer is no. The Apportionment Problem The Constitution is explicit: direct taxes must be apportioned among the states by population. The Sixteenth Amendment carved out a single exception: taxes on income. Unrealized equity appreciation is not income. It is not a realized gain, not a flow, not a yield. The textualist case against taxing it is formidable, and Moore v. United States (2024) left the underlying tension very much alive. The Takings Problem The Fifth Amendment forbids taking private property without just compensation. A wealth tax on equity does something distinct from an income tax: it reaches into an ongoing ownership relationship and extracts value annually, whether or not the owner has received anything. If you cannot pay from liquid assets, you must sell equity to pay the bill. The government has not formally seized your property, but it has engineered the conditions under which you must surrender it. That is compelled liquidation by another name. The Founder's Intent Problem The Patent Clause, the Takings Clause, the Contracts Clause reflect a coherent theory: the right to keep what you create is the precondition for creating it. A wealth tax inverts that logic. It taxes the state of ownership rather than the act of creation or the realization of gains. It penalizes holding which is precisely the behavior that long-horizon, high-variance investment requires. The founder who owns thirty percent of her company and hasn't sold is the system working as designed. A wealth tax tells her: your ownership is a taxable event, every year, whether or not you've received a dollar (or lost money). The constitutional arguments against it are not technicalities. They are the load-bearing walls of the regime that built the entire wealth of our nation.

Usually a lurker on here but dipping my toes briefly into the "k-shaped economy" discourse. At PNC we track the debit & credit spending trends of a fixed cohort of ~4 million households. Long story short: lower-income spending/balance sheet trends have been on a tear in 2026

We need to invite Freddy to our 250th birthday party in the capital. The guy is reminding everyone of why America 🇺🇸 is such an amazing country. A modern Lafayette!

There's the World Cup and a whole bunch of other shit going on, please seek out a therapist if you're spending more than a few moments thinking about the White House Reflecting Pool.

If Germany wins the World Cup, I feel we are obligated to celebrate with our new adopted son. Goes to Canada for a match. Celebrates the win at Denny’s.

I’ve been using the Grok models for a while. They are very good. I’m stoked about our partnership. This gives our customers further optionality for high quality AI while controlling costs.

I’ve never seen a politician so upset at celebrating American success.

Flying today in @Delta’s oldest plane in their fleet. N649DL. 36 years old, and it feels like it. Seats are small. Dated interior. Technology is very outdated. Definitely not a premium experience. Time to retire this.