Month: May 2025
Montana Bucks the FDA, Establishes Biotech and Longevity Hub
Longevity: The US state of Montana this week enacted a groundbreaking law that opens the door for clinics and physicians to provide experimental drugs and therapies that have not received approval from the US FDA. The new legislation, known as Senate Bill 535, was signed this week by Governor Greg Gianforte and builds upon the state’s recent expansion of so-called “Right to Try” laws.
Niklas Anzinger, the head of decentralized longevity initiative Infinita City, has long emphasized regulatory zones as a pathway to broader acceleration of therapies, and referred to the new law as a “groundbreaking moment.”
The original SB 422, passed in October 2023, expanded Right to Try access to all patients – not just the terminally ill,” he told us. “That was the first step in enabling a preventative, longevity-focused model of healthcare, rather than reactive sick care. But a major gap remained: there was no clear regulatory pathway. Uncertainty around liability, payments, insurance, and the blurred lines between drug development and clinical care left the field in limbo. SB 535 changes that.”
The new bill establishes a formal licensing framework for healthcare facilities to become experimental treatment centers. These centers can recommend and administer nearly any experimental drug manufactured within Montana, provided it has passed Phase 1 trials.
The law positions Montana as a potential hub for medical tourism and biotech innovation. The bill has been supported by libertarians and the life extension movement. Key backers saw Honduras’s Prospera (previous MR posts on Prospera) as a model. Note, however, that the law passed the Montana legislature with bipartisan backing, reflecting broad appeal for expanding medical access.
Maybe American Federalism isn’t dead yet.
Partisan Corporate Speech
We construct a novel measure of partisan corporate speech using natural language processing techniques and use it to establish three stylized facts. First, the volume of partisan corporate speech has risen sharply between 2012 and 2022. Second, this increase has been disproportionately driven by companies adopting more Democratic-leaning language, a trend that is widespread across industries, geographies, and CEO political affiliations. Third, partisan corporate statements are followed by negative abnormal stock returns, with significant heterogeneity by shareholders’ degree of alignment with the statement. Finally, we propose a theoretical framework and provide suggestive empirical evidence that these trends are at least in part driven by a shift in investors’ nonpecuniary preferences with respect to partisan corporate speech.
That is from a recent paper by William Cassidy and Elisabeth Kempf. Via the excellent Kevin Lewis.
Has Buddhism been statist for a long time?
Again, as was also the case in so many Buddhist countries, the success of Buddhism relied heavily on its connections to the court. In Korea, the tradition of “state protection Buddhism” was inherited from China. Here, monarchs would build and support monasteries and temples, where monks would perform rituals and chant sutras intended to both secure the well-being of the royal family, in this life and the next, and protect the kingdom from danger, especially foreign invasion.
…As in China, the Korean sangha remained under the control of the state; offerings to monasteries could only be made with the approval of the throne; men could only become monks on “ordination platforms” approved by the throne; and an examination system was established that placed monks in the state bureaucracy. As in other Buddhist lands, monks were not those who had renounced the world but were vassals of the king, with monks sometimes dispatched to China by royal decree. With strong royal patronage, Buddhism continued to thrive through the Koryo period (935-1392), with monasteries being granted their own lands and serfs, accumulating great wealth in the process.
That is an excerpt from Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Buddhism: A Journey through History, an excellent book. Maybe the best book on the history of Buddhism I have read? And one of the very best books of this year.
Sunday assorted links
1. Is France Coasean?: “If your pet escapes and falls onto the train tracks in France, a train can be delayed by a maximum of 20 minutes, according to the new protocol, a copy of which was seen by AFP.”
2. Anna Gát podcast with Rohit Krishnan.
3. In the last year, America’s major cities started bouncing back in terms of population.
4. This Op-Ed against selling federal lands made me more enthusiastic about the idea (NYT).
5. Photo of 14,000 year old clay bison.
6. The economics of Desi Arnaz (NYT).
7. That was then, this is now, DEI edition (WSJ).
Claims about falling
There have been many ways to describe a 2-year-old boy surviving a 15-story free fall off an outdoor balcony into a small bush last week in Montgomery County, Maryland. But any discussion quickly gives way to the question: How?
…They treated the boy and took him to a nearby hospital with injuries including a broken leg and multiple internal injuries, police said. They described the injuries as “non-life-threatening” and said the child is expected to survive.
…Hosoi estimates that if a rabbit falls out of airplane and lands on dirt or something softer, the rabbit has a 50 percent chance of not being injured. From there, she said, you can look at animals and humans that are smaller or larger than rabbits.
“The rabbit is the borderline case,” Hosoi said. “Mouse survives. Smaller rabbit survives. Bigger than a rabbit probably results in injury.”
Here is the WaPo article, it is unclear what led to the fall. Should I believe that claim about the rabbit? So Noah could just toss his rabbit out of an airplane and it might be fine? I am not entirely persuaded.
Houston alligator kill markets in everything
In Houston, where custom boots are a source of great pride and style, one local brand is taking the bespoke boot experience to a new level. Republic Boot Company, known for its elevated, hand-crafted creations, just launched a Gator Hunt Experiencewhere customers can source an alligator hide, which will be transformed into a pair of cowboy boots.
Part adventure and part traditional craftsmanship, the experience begins with a hunt in the marshlands near Anahuac, about an hour from Houston, and ends with a custom-made pair of alligator-skin cowboy boots tailored to the client’s vision by a Republic Boot Company boot specialist.
Here is the full story. Note that it costs more for a larger alligator.
The new FTC commissioner Mark Meador
Frankly, he is just flat out terrible. You can read his recent document here. Early on he tells us:
Conservatives must reaffirm that concentrated economic power is just as dangerous as concentrated political power…
I suppose if you hold political power you might think that. Or try this bit from the conclusion:
But we can make it {antitrust law] more just by ensuring that we do not allow a preoccupation with economic speculation to water down robust enforcement, preferring to err on the side of cautious deconcentration rather than hopeful deference to the interests of concentrated economic powers. Powers, I will note, that apart from their putative lines of business increasingly declare open war on the moral values that undergird the foundation of our constitutional republic.
That last line segues into my next point, namely that perhaps he is hostile to economic analysis ecause it does not judge the morality of the companies under consideration. (By the way, if the company is truly evil, you might want market power and higher prices!) On p.32, he calls for explicitly limiting the influence of economists, for instance:
statutorily cabining the use of economic evidence…
You can debate what exactly he might mean by that, but he does not seem intent on raising the status of economists in governmental processes. Is moving further in that direction really the right way to go these days? He notes also that:
…antitrust law today has strayed into exactly the kind of “economic extravaganza” that Bork warned against.
Is he referring to Lina Khan?
Nor can he keep up a basic level of professionalism. Like so many on the current political right, he saves his greatest scorn for libertarians, who arguably are those most likely to see through the power charade. Here is one example:
Conservatives must reject the lies they have been told by libertarianism…
As a political motive, perhaps projection is sometimes underrated.
The link and pointer are via Larry.
Claims about police shootings
There is a new book by Tom S. Clark, Adam N. Glynn, and Michael Leo Owens, called Deadly Force: Police Shootings in Urban America. Here are a few of the conclusions:
…we were more likely to obtain records [on police shootings] from cities with women mayors and more women on municipal legislatures.
And, most interesting to me:
…we also found that fewer police shootings occurred in cities with more police, all else equal.
And:
…Black and Hispanic officers are disproportionately the ones involved in police shootings. That is particularly true when a Black civilian is the subject of the shooting.
I do not follow this area closely, but the book seems of interest.
Saturday assorted links
1. Should we change the status of statins?
2. Article once covered on MR retracted by MIT. And more detail here.
3. Single-stair apartment buildings are coming to Colorado.
4. Burgess Meredith explains a British pub, in the 1940s, eight-minute video.
5. New Yorker profile of Katherine Boyle.
7. UK overtakes China as second largest Treasuries holder (FT).
8. Henry Oliver on Jane Austen (FT).
H5N1 Hasn’t Gone Away
Trump dominates the news cycle but it’s important to remember that events continue even when not watched. In particular, we are not winning against H5N1. Here’s a summary of a recent paper in Science:
High-pathogenicity avian influenza subtype H5N1 is now present throughout the US, and possibly beyond. More cattle infections elevate the risk of the virus evolving the capacity to transmit between humans, potentially with high fatality rates. Nguyen et al. show that from a single transmission event from a wild bird to dairy cattle in December 2023, there has been cattle-to-poultry, cattle-to-peridomestic bird, and cattle-to-other mammal transmission. The movement of asymptomatic dairy cattle has facilitated the rapid dissemination of H5N1 from Texas across the US. Evolution within cattle, assessed using deep-sequencing data, has detected low-frequency sequence variants that had previously been associated with mammalian adaptation and transmission efficiency.
Trade sentences to ponder
The IMF puts the hidden cost of trading goods inside the EU at the equivalent of a 45% tariff. For services the figure climbs to 110%, higher than Trump’s “Liberation day” tariffs on Chinese imports—measures many saw as a near-embargo.
These barriers are not direct taxes. Instead, a construction company might find its building materials or plans, though EU-compliant, still need costly national checks. A foreign university looking to set up a campus, or a care home provider wanting to expand, could face major delays getting their staff’s qualifications accepted or dealing with complex local licensing for their buildings.
Here is more from Luis Garicano. The piece is excellent throughout.
Emergent Ventures India, 10th cohort
From Shruti Rajagopalan:
Emergent Ventures India, Cohort 10
Tanish Patare, 15, is a high school student in Mumbai and has won consecutive gold medals in the Science Olympiad Foundation’s National Science Olympiad for the last seven years. He received his grant for general career development.
Shreepoorna Rao, 22, an IIT Madras graduate passionate about aerospace, founded a crypto DeFi aggregator startup in 2021. He has developed patented drone-based robotic arms and medical delivery drones capable of flights up to 300 km carrying 500 g payloads. He received his EV grant to build a UAV with a 5-meter wingspan.
Soni Wadhwa, teaches literature at SRM University, Andhra Pradesh, and curates PG Sindhi Library, a digital archive of post-partition Sindhi literature in India. Her research explores the development of Sindhi literature, within Indian literature more broadly. She contributes regularly to Asian Review of Books, and Digital Orientalist.
Rakshita Deshmukh, is beginning her PhD in Neuroscience at IIT Kanpur, studying the impact of N3 sleep on adaptive decision-making and anxiety using EEG. She received her EV grant to present her research on N3 sleep’s effects on anxiety-induced learning at MIT.
Manoj Ramaiah, 24, received his EV grant to build Ariima DeepTech Circle, a talent cluster connecting postdocs and PhDs with industry, startups, and investors for translational research. Manoj is passionate about the history of science, particularly Asian and Indian, and dedicated to introducing first-generation graduates to startups.
Munna R. Shainy , 24, is a neurotech enthusiast specializing in developmental and affective neuroscience. He received an EV grant to attend the COGNESTIC 2024 Summer School at the University of Cambridge.
Basedcon, by Neil Shroff (26), Shruthi (30), Akash (27) and Yash (25), hosts conferences on unpopular but significant ideas in Indian tech, culture and society. The grant supports global expansion and micro-grants connecting ambitious Indians worldwide.
Nithilan Ravikumar, 17, for general education and career support including participation at the International Physics and Philosophy Olympiads. He actively pursues research in physics, explores the future implications of AI, and holds cybersecurity certifications
Parth Patel, holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and is passionate about robotics. He received an EV grant for career development and is currently applying to graduate programs.
Ramya Prakash, 16, to pursue electronics and robotics and for general education and career development.
Tamzid Rahman, 16, is a social entrepreneur dedicated to eliminating child mortality caused by blood shortages in Bangladesh. He received an EV grant to develop and scale BloodLink, a peer-to-peer blood donation app and database.
Varsha Korimath, 16, is a highschooler in Belagavi, Karnataka. She is a National Tinker Champ member and a Pratibha Poshak scholar. She has authored a book, conducted tinkering workshops, and participated in the ATL Tinkerpreneur Bootcamp. She received an EV grant to support her STEM education and general career development.
Rajsuthan Gopinath (21) and Shanjai Raj (19) for building end-to-end legal AI agents through their startup Airstrip AI. Their current project develops an intelligent AI business lawyer democratizing access to legal resources.
Zubin Sharma, a social entrepreneur, founded Project Potential in rural Bihar. His EV grant supports research into innovative talent identification and acceleration strategies for high-poverty regions with limited resources and institutional support, particularly outside India’s tier-1 cities.
Sumuk Hegde, 22, for developing an automated beach-cleaning robot that detects, segregates, and disposes of waste.
Tithi Paul a master’s student in Environmental Pollution Management (Ecotoxicology) at the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, and develops algorithms using zebrafish fin patterns to assess water safety. She received an EV grant for travel to present her work at international conferences.
Sachin Raghunath Pachorkar is a professor specializing in entrepreneurship and corporate governance. He founded Project Bandhan, generating tribal employment through bamboo crafts, and established Kumbhathon to address logistical challenges of the Nashik Kumbh Mela using technology. He received an EV grant for STEM education initiatives in rural and tribal schools.
Surya Maddula, 17, for developing an open-air active noise cancellation system through his startup Whisperwave.
Those unfamiliar with Emergent Ventures can learn more here and here. The EV India announcement is here. More about the winners of EV India second cohort, third cohort, fourth cohort, fifth cohort, sixth cohort, seventh cohort, eighth cohort, and ninth cohort. To apply for EV India, use the EV application, click the “Apply Now” button and select India from the “My Project Will Affect” drop-down menu.
And here is Nabeel’s AI engine for other EV winners. Here are the other EV cohorts.
If you are interested in supporting the India tranche of Emergent Ventures, please write to me or to Shruti at [email protected].
The Fed will cut its staff
The Federal Reserve has said it will slash its workforce by 10 per cent in the coming years as it seeks to be a “responsible steward of public resources”.
Fed chair Jay Powell said in an internal email seen by the Financial Times that he had directed leadership at the Federal Reserve Board and its network across the US to “find incremental ways to consolidate functions where appropriate, modernise some business practices and ensure that we are right-sized and able to meet our statutory mission”.
He added: “Over the next couple of years, our overall staffing level will decline by about 10 per cent from today.”
The Federal Reserve Board in Washington employs about 3,000 people, while the entire system has 24,000 employees.
Here is the FT article. Not a bad thing in my view.
Friday assorted links
1. The cost disease and AI. And will AI raise health care costs?
2. Nate Soares and Eliezer have a book coming out. Don’t wait for the paperback!
3. The wisdom of Andrew Batson.
4. U.S. overdose deaths continue to drop.
5. Developments with school vouchers (NYT). I worry about this direction.
6. My Free Press livestream with Bari Weiss and Avital Balwit on AI.
7. Stephen Smith profile (NYT).
Why (and How) Young People Should Go Into Debt to Buy Stocks
In 2022, I highlighted Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff’s proposal that young people should borrow to invest in the stock market. Why? Most people invest gradually, which leads to a concentration of stock holdings late in life. By borrowing early, young investors can spread market risk more evenly across their lifetime, much like diversifying across assets. Put differently, a young person’s biggest asset is their future labor income. Borrowing to invest reduces overexposure to that single asset, effectively diversifying their portfolio away from specific human capital and toward financial capital.
I supported the idea writing that “I agree with Ayres and Nalebuff that young people should be [at least] 100% in equities” but I didn’t expect people to go beyond this until the idea became standardized in a similar way to home mortgages. I wrote, “It could be standardized, however, with retirement planning products.”
Well, we now have our first product in this category, Basic Capital. Basic Capital is a mortgage for investing in stocks and bonds. You put in $1 and you get $5 of investment. Moreover, you cannot lose more than you put in. How is that possible? The investments are constrained–85% of it goes to bonds and 15% to equity but remember that 15% is on $5 rather than $1 so instead of investing $1 in stocks you are investing $.75 in stocks and $4.25 in bonds. The net result is broader exposure at lower individual risk. Whether it’s a compelling product depends on fees and execution, which seem high, but the underlying idea is innovative, and I’m excited to see how products in this new category evolve.
Addendum: Matt Levine offers further commentary. On the general topic of innovative financial products, see also my previous post on Shiller’s Macro Markets.
Hat tip: Naveen.