Patrick W. Watson Profile picture
Economics journalist, editor @MauldinEcon. Opinions mine. Mastodon: @patrickw@journa.host. Also on Threads (pwwatson) and Bsky (patrickww).
Nov 21, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
Okay, let's assume Musk is right that subscriptions are a better revenue model for Twitter. Why decimate the old revenue model (ads) before the new one is ready? When he's also just added $1B/ year in interest expense?

wsj.com/articles/how-e… Further, why would any bank loan Musk money knowing he would do this? And if the banks didn't know, why not? They're supposed to ask questions.
Aug 12, 2021 4 tweets 1 min read
Texas bars try to require vax, state threatens to pull licenses. austin360.com/story/entertai… BTW, the law being used here applies to *any* business with any kind of state license: Hair salons, liquor stores, etc. All are now on notice they can't require customers prove vax and the state will punish them if they try.
Aug 11, 2021 6 tweets 2 min read
Abbott’s “personal responsibility” plan is having the predictable effect. texastribune.org/2021/08/10/cor… “If” is the wrong word here. The current trend *is* continuing.
Aug 9, 2021 4 tweets 1 min read
These may help a little but they comparable to putting a band-aid on a sucking chest wound. Too little, too late. The real point is to let Abbott claim he "did something." And Abbott's own people said just last week the nurse part is unnecessary and local hospitals should handle their own staffing.
Jul 18, 2021 4 tweets 1 min read
Here is NYT tracker ranked by per capita COVID hospitalizations. I clipped the top 15 stats and you can see it drops off quickly. The problem is highly concentrated for now (NV, MO, AR, FL) but I bet it won't stay that way. Image Note this is the number currently hospitalized in each state, not the daily new admissions.
Jan 23, 2021 14 tweets 4 min read
In Denmark, where they DNA-sequence *every* positive COVID case, the B117 variant is growing 70% per week, yes, per week, despite strict lockdown. washingtonpost.com/world/europe/u… This is happening while cases actually drop overall, giving a false sense of security.
Jan 12, 2021 5 tweets 1 min read
Remember in 7th grade when the music was playing but nobody wanted to be the first to dance? But then somebody would, and suddenly the party was on. I'll still be surprised if more than a few Republicans vote to impeach. But even a few will make it "bipartisan." That's important.
Dec 28, 2020 4 tweets 1 min read
This is the 2020 equivalent of 2001, when GWB urged everyone to keep shopping after 9/11. We've lost the ability to meet a national crisis with shared sacrifice. "Life must go on" is the shared ethos now. Not coincidence that Taiwan and South Korea, where everyone is keenly aware of potential military attack and expected to do their part, handled this pandemic better than others.
Dec 28, 2020 4 tweets 2 min read
Interesting. If this happens then either a) Trump backed down or
b) More likely, he got something he wanted.
What he received and from whom, we may not know for awhile. washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020… Probably not coincidence these three tweets came within a 32-minute period. Image
Dec 27, 2020 4 tweets 1 min read
After you lost an election and drove the national debt trillions higher is the wrong time to start talking about “pork.” Much of this pork is in the bill with full agreement of the guy you sent to negotiate it.
Dec 13, 2020 5 tweets 2 min read
THREAD: WSJ editorial page, citing NY contract tracing data, says restaurants and bars account for only 1.4% of virus cases. I doubt NY has enough data to make that conclusion so precisely, but let's assume it is right, and it applies nationally. 1/ wsj.com/articles/the-r… As of right now per Worldometers, US has apprx 16.7 million cases and 306k deaths. If 1.4% of those cases were acquired in restaurants and bars, it is 233,875 cases. 2/