I have several layers of protection on my most important accounts. In short, I use the following secure features: Each account has a unique random password which is generated and stored in my Lastpass Vault Lastpass requires Email authentication to login to a new device The email I use for Lastpass has two factor authentication …
Author Archives: stidmatt
Apple vs Google, smartphone edition
I recently changed from Android to iOS, and I have a number of thoughts on what the different carriers do differently. Neither is inherently better than the other, and come with some massive tradeoffs. If one of these companies chose to learn from the other, there would be millions of people migrating from one platform …
Control inflation while reducing inequality
America’s GDP per capita is at a record high. Inflation is climbing. Immediately we know that the issue is a soaring demand curve, with a supply curve which is struggling to keep up. So the answer to controlling inflation is pretty easy, either reduce demand (which would also harm GDP) or increase supply. Unemployment is …
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Why we should cancel student loan debt
The year is 1992, you just had a baby, and you live in Washington State. The cost of college at University of Washington is around $3000, and you talk to your financial advisor about how to plan to make it so your child has the best opportunity possible. You don’t live in poverty, so there …
What comes next
Two things matter right now, Do Manchin and Sinema support the bulk of BBB (hint, we know they don’t) Will voting rights be passed This will determine the next decade. Plain and simple. We have three potential futures which will be determined by these two decisions: We get only half of BBB and no voting …
Closest Presidential Elections in American History, Part 2-1
What would happen in historic presidential elections if the vote flipped by 1% in each State towards the candidate who lost that state? In 2020 Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin had margins of under 1%. Biden would have lost 37 electoral college votes compared to our reality and won 269 electoral college votes, sending the election …
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Closest presidential elections in American history, Part 1
What would happen if you were to take the states which voted for the winner with under 51% of the vote and flip those states to the loser in all historical Presidential elections since Andrew Jackson? Here’s the answer: In 2020 Joe Biden won 306 electoral college votes. Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Michigan …
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The end of legal abortion, how we got here
The year was 1972, and the Supreme Court decided 7-2 with a bipartisan majority that abortion was legal. Since this point in time, the majority of Americans have continued to support abortion rights up to the present day. when asked whether we are pro-life or pro-choice, Americans are split, but when asked whether people believe …
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Tax carbon, finance transit
So as I was sitting down tonight I was thinking about why I generally support taxing carbon versus spending our way out of climate change, while at the same time I favor financing transit over making it expensive to drive in cities. Now the first argument is fairly easy. Taxes and subsidies are essentially the …
2020 election primary, reanalyzed
In most election maps of the 2020 election it shows the candidate who received the most votes in the election, but the problem with these maps is they don’t show who got a plurality vs a majority. Because we live in a society which for some reason still uses the primitive first past the post …