Marc Joffe Profile
Marc Joffe

@joffemd

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Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute focusing on fiscal sustainability and transparency. Happily married for 17 years and counting!

Walnut Creek, CA
Joined January 2009
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
@joffemd
Marc Joffe
3 months
@nettermike The $2 billion will be paid by taxpayers. Those responsible for the unnecessary school closures--politicians, unions, school officials, and those in the media who spread panic--aren't facing any specific financial penalty.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
15 days
Amazing how California gas station owners are so much greedier than those in other states! Or might there be some other explanation, Governor?
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
29 days
Man dies of drug overdose on BART train @ Walnut Creek. This news makes me less likely to use BART because I wouldn't want to see that happen on my trip and I don't want to worry about being delayed by "police action" or "medical emergencies" on trains further up the line. To…
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
San Francisco lost a tech company to Las Vegas after one employee was struck in the face and another was groped near the office. Employers are becoming less willing to pay the premium price of operating in San Francisco when it is accompanied by insecurity.…
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
29 days
@semafor @maxwelltani Interesting piece, but this sentence is misleading: "Greenwald quit in fury to make quixotic allies on the right." You can find the reason for Greenwald's departure in an Intercept article: he wanted full editorial control over his content.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
@nettermike So, with climate change, we get years of drought, above-normal precipitation, and average precipitation: sort of like we got before climate change.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
3 months
@popLOCKEdropit Taylor calling Lana a "legacy" artist didn't help.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
6 months
I-10 fire looks like another case of government failure: Caltrans owned the property under the freeway and didn't adequately monitor the lessee. Now we have no reopening date for this crucial stretch of freeway.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 month
@RnaudBertrand @davidfickling If we're truly in a climate emergency, the US should be willing to take as much clean tech as it can from wherever it can get it. So which is it: (1) there really is no emergency, or (2) are we in the US fiddling while Rome burns?
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
@thomashawk @SFPD And in other news, my wife had to change cars on BART yesterday evening because a nearby passenger was muttering about killing people. If we can't feel safe in public areas, we're going to avoid them more and more.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
8 months
@Wendy03855110 @KevinKileyCA There is a range of opinion among well-informed medical experts making "misinformation" hard to define. For example, Danish public health authorities generally DON'T recommend boosters.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 month
@MattHaneySF This will mean higher rents and/or more poorly maintained housing for tenants with and without pets. Not everything needs to be subject to legislation.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
6 months
@TRHLofficial Please don't let yourselves down, Argentinians! After a century of bad economic policies that have transformed your country from rich to poor, you finally have an opportunity to turn it around. Don't pass it up.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
20 days
Under the California High-Speed Rail Authority's delusional operating plan, four HSR trains will barrel through this grade crossing at 110mph each hour. What could possibly go wrong?
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
@RnaudBertrand That works out to only about 17k passengers per day and is less than half the ridership of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. On the other hand, it's new, so ridership can grow over time.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
@RnaudBertrand A columnist in California says that the Indonesian line does not reach either city's downtown and the trains are empty. Is that true?
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 year
@DeanPreston Thanks for the link. It clearly states that eligible individuals should get $5 million each. If 20,000 people are eligible, the total cost would be $100 billion, which is 7 times SF's annual budget. It is not an excellent piece of work.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
Huge new tax measure coming to Bay Area ballots in 2026 to bail out local transit agencies. Options include sales tax, parcel tax, or a regional payroll tax (as if employing people around here isn't costly enough already).
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
11 months
@Austen It's even worse. The additional $100B+ is just for the first 520 miles linking SF to LA and Anaheim. Extensions to Sacramento and San Diego will cost extra (if ever attempted).
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
3 months
@RnaudBertrand Does this affect the plan to seize Russian assets?
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
11 months
@the_transit_guy In California, we "demanded" high-speed rail 15 years ago and are still waiting. First leg of the system now scheduled for 2030-2033, but that is almost certain to be postponed further due to recent floods.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
7 months
@aaronjmate 48 hours ago, no one in the West even knew that the Hamas attack was being planned. How could we learn these details so quickly?
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
29 days
@BriannaWu The peace movement should be about non-violence and empathy rather than just rooting for the other side.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
8 months
@garrytan @SequoiaHD @DocAaron The Sequoia Healthcare District just takes a share of local property taxes and awards it as grants to preferred organizations. Concerned citizens could ask San Mateo County's LAFCo to dissolve this district.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
17 days
@byJoshuaDavis @SFBART Seems like a good idea. Now we just need $40 billion and fifteen years to build the tunnel.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
8 months
@Scott_Wiener @Caltrain Caltrain electrification is costing $2.44 billion and is expected to shave just four minutes off the trip between SF and SJ.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 year
@cafreiman The wall also allowed the unimpeded operation of a secret police force that disappeared people turned in by their friends and neighbors.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
9 months
@realEstateTrent We were also very reliant on physical files, so there were lots of filing cabinets around, and I also remember "inter-office mail." Amazing how much things have changed in 40 years!
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 month
@thomashawk But # #SFBART still needs to spend ~ $50 billion on a second tunnel under the Bay to accommodate all the commuters clamoring to get into San Francisco.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
3 months
@ggreschler Newsom is right that the felony threshold was raised to $950 before he became governor. But CA became soft on crime largely because of state and local political leadership, and he is a huge part of that. Prison population is down 28% over 8 years.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
9 months
Handling of the Maui fire is an example of government failure. Maui County has a $1.07 billion budget for just 164,000 residents yet was unable to provide emergency warning, sufficient firefighting capacity, or water.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
Is this why BART will be asking voters to approve higher taxes in 2026?
@sfstandard
The San Francisco Standard
2 months
A time theft scheme uncovered by the BART Inspector General followed a familiar pattern of clocking in and skipping work. One flagrant example is now being charged by the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 month
@AxiomAmerican Defund NPR. Plenty of places to get this type of content without taxpayer subsidies.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
In Northern California, we have high gas prices and high electricity prices, so its expensive to get around in all types of vehicles. And if you think more transit is the solution, rail extensions here cost > $2 billion per mile.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
Looks like California Proposition 1 is squeaking by. That'll add another $350 million to our general fund deficit while not solving homelessness.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
@the_transit_guy In 1969, one daily train covered this route in 78 minutes.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
29 days
@pbreit Can you share stats supporting that assertion? Willing to be convinced.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
@kaitlancollins So, he wants to spend $60 billion (plus interest) for signaling and not to fundamentally change the outcome of the war. And each year, his successors will come back for another $60 billion.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
3 months
@sfstandard One possible silver lining in the story is that Macy's allegedly committed to remaining open until they find a buyer for the property. But my wife visited the other day and said the store looked sad, sort of like Nordstrom in its final months.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 year
@Scott_Wiener @SFBART Yesterday, I had two pleasant rides on BART. Clean, new trains, and no drama. But it's going to be hard to get riders back since the negative experiences people have had are widely publicized and long remembered.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
4 months
@tparsi Let's follow the example of Reagan. After Iran-backed terrorists killed 241 American soldiers in Beirut in 1983, the Administration's response was deliberate and measured. We also pulled out of Lebanon depriving the terrorists an American target.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
4 months
@nettermike California government is very good at extracting revenue from the tax base, but it is particularly bad at using this revenue to provide services.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 month
@nettermike There are a lot of fixed costs like retiree pensions for the shrinking rate base to cover.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
10 months
@Scott_Wiener Failure of SB 532 need not doom BART. All the board would have to do is cancel Link21 (the second unneeded subway tunnel) and flex the capital funds offered by the state to subsidize operations. This is a true non-emergency.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
8 months
@sfchronicle Phillips says: "Chabot, located in the affluent Rockridge neighborhood, is predominantly white." State data says the school is 22.6% white. Facts matter.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
@lhfang @LechatRick One complex aspect is that a person who converts to Judaism MAY be able to get citizenship as well. So the discrimination is based on a mixture of ethnicity and religion.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
5 months
At a Bay Area Project Roomkey motel, a 38-year-old resident died of a drug overdose but was not discovered until a neighboring resident complained about the odor. Non-profits charge $3000 per month to "service" each Homekey unit.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 year
At a CA state legislative hearing today, we learned that LA Metro is facing $1 billion annual operating deficits and that it is hard to recruit operators because they are afraid of being attacked by passengers. California transit is in deep trouble.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
8 months
@Wendy03855110 @KevinKileyCA I think we have to take individual cases with a grain of salt. I got COVID-19 for the first time just one month after receiving the bivalent booster, which was my 4th shot. Maybe my symptoms were milder than if I was unvaccinated, but there is no way to know.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
6 months
A US streetcar system is transporting an average of two passengers per hour at an operational cost of over $150 each. Is there any point at which basic economics can affect transit policy in this country?
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
5 months
@thomashawk There is a role for civil disobedience, but it shouldn't threaten public safety and the daily lives of regular folks.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
11 months
@richieSF2016 Ridership around 2000 per day according to muni stats I reviewed. Not a lot for a $2 billion project.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 month
Some quick math on California homelessness. In 2015, 1 out of 336 people in California were homeless; in 2023, it was 1 in 215. This despite tens of billions of government spending at all levels.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
9 months
@realEstateTrent I came in just as personal computers were taking over. In a corporate finance department, the legacy world included calculators and physical spreadsheets on which tables of numbers would be handwritten.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
3 months
Apparently, Californians working at fast casual restaurants need to earn a "living wage" only if their restaurant lacks an on-site bakery. Please make it make sense!
@markets
Bloomberg Markets
3 months
California's new $20 minimum wage rule will exempt restaurants that sell bread, handing a lucrative break on wages to the Panera chain and one of Governor Gavin Newsom’s longtime allies
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
3 months
@nettermike Another reason to stop wasting tens of millions of dollars sending out printed ballot guides. Just send out postcards with a QR code so voters can read the ballot guide on their phones. Send printed guides only to those who ask.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
@corvinb4 A wide array of private donors. And, contrary to what some allege, donors do not control my research agenda.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
3 years
@GavinNewsom Unfortunately, you have the authority to close our schools and businesses, but you can't tell us how to vote. Yes on the recall!
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
10 months
New official projections call for California's population to peak at under 40.2 million in 2044 before falling back to near current levels in 2060. This is a huge comedown from previous projections used to justify megaprojects like high-speed rail and the second BART tunnel.…
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
17 days
@TripleNetInvest Holders of Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities will take the loss. It is possible that even the most senior bonds originally rated AAA will be affected. Echoes of 2008.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
@OakSyder The (paywalled) WSJ article I linked to talks about Orlando, Phoenix, and Albuquerque and focuses on longer term trends. I agree that AI is a bright spot for SF.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
If the climate crisis is truly an emergency, then building a costly high-speed rail system that won't be operational until the 2030s isn't the solution. If California government has its way, most of us will be driving electric vehicles by then anyway.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
California finally released its FY 2022 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report revealing a new financial problem: the state added $29 billion in liabilities reflecting the possible need to repay the federal government for fraudulent unemployment payments.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 month
@ArmandDoma Maybe she'll make enough from monetizing this video to stay current on all three vehicles.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 month
@LondonBreed @IKEA @sfoewd Couldn't they pull together more of a crowd for this grand opening? This seems like a nice food hall, but I'm not so excited about walking from Powell Street BART to get to it.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 month
@jeffreyatucker So I guess it wasn't just supply chain issues after all. Team Transitory was wrong.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
4 months
@jeffreyatucker I'll admit to being a masker until about halfway through the pandemic. Today, I am not insulted by those still masking, but I am afraid of them: they are the core constituency for the next round of "public health measures."
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 month
After having to correct the misinformation about California becoming the world's 4th largest economy last year by passing Germany, I see that it may now, in fact, drop to #6 behind India.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
4 months
@jeffreyatucker Remember that Tony Bennett was able to put on a show despite having advanced altzheimers. It seems that dementia victims can hold onto their core competence well into disease progression.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
6 months
@AutismCapital The combined forces of Michael Lewis and 60 Minutes were unable to save him.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
7 months
@reason If you think this is bad, just wait for the public banks coming to multiple cities in California.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
4 months
@DonEford Your pinned tweet says Zero COVID is still possible. In light of the fact that China gave up on its Zero COVID policy, do you still believe this?
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
4 months
@UrbanizeLA @SoFiStadium @thekiaforum @IntuitDome Construction time is also a huge problem. As others have said, this won't be ready for the 2028 Olympics. Simpler transportation solutions are needed.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
10 months
What do BART, SF City College, and many other California local agencies have in common? Rather than downsize to accommodate reduced demand, they go to the state legislature and the ballot for more tax dollars.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 month
Based on an analysis of 2022 state audited financial statements, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois (in that order) are the least solvent states. New York, California, and Texas don't look that great either, but Florida does well.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 month
The OC Streetcar in Santa Ana is going to cost at least $579 million for 4.15 miles of track and its 211-capacity vehicles are likely to be mostly empty when service finally starts in 2025 or later. New from me in the Orange County Register.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
10 months
@Scott_Wiener If the intention is to put a transit revenue measure on the 2026 ballot, why is this temporary toll needed through 2028?
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
9 months
@davelu If at all possible, I take transit into the city rather than drive. Seems like the odds of a car break-in are much higher than being robbed on BART or Caltrain.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
7 days
San Francisco Supervisor candidate identifies a new human right: the right TO mobility. Like all positive rights, this right can only be provided by taking resources from others. That is why negative rights, i.e. the freedom FROM x, are the only legit rights.
@JackieFielder_
Jackie Fielder
7 days
Today I'm excited to share my public transportation platform for mobility justice ⚖️🚎☀️ Mobility is a fundamental right that should be guaranteed by the city to all. Safe streets, increasing MUNI ridership, and community-led planning ftw 🏆 Read more 👇
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
11 months
@stephmui Years after graduating, I had nightmares about finals week approaching without me having cracked open the textbook or attending a single class session. Perhaps the innate fear of failure evidenced by these dreams drove us to succeed.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
11 months
@sfstandard Making driving in SF more miserable might get some drivers to switch to transit,but it could also encourage them to avoid SF altogether. Not good for a struggling downtown.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 year
My rebuttal to Ro Khanna on High-Speed Rail in The Mercury News today. His case rests on outdated assumptions about population growth in California. In fact, there is no capacity crisis for LA/SF travel.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
9 months
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 year
@noahsloss Read the story after seeing this thread. I just feel sorry for a young girl who, after being forced out of her country by war, has to deal with middle school bullying here. Very sad.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 year
More bad news coming from California High-Speed Rail when it reports to the State Legislature on 3/1: more cost overruns, additional construction delays, and lower projected ridership. Preview attached
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 month
City of Santa Clara has annual revenue of $1.3 billion or about $10,000 per resident, but that's not enough to maintain basic infrastructure, so they'll be going to the ballot with a new $624 million bond measure.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
10 months
@BarbaraLeeForCA With a $32 trillion national debt, the US can afford none of these. The time for fiscal sustainability is long overdue.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
2 months
@EddieTrunk Great artist. Had top ten hits in both the 1970s and 1980s. Needed SiriusXM decades channels to realize the breadth of his work. RIP.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
5 months
@cjs_tampa @FiveTimesAugust It's a little scary because I know those folks are the main constituency for the next lockdown.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
10 months
@mattyglesias The other aspect is cost. The US has not demonstrated an ability to construct high-speed rail affordably. CA HSR is at $200 million per mile and counting. We won't know the final total until trains start running.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
6 months
@martyrmade How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake, as John Kerry said in 1971. Why has this generation of leaders forgotten that wisdom? Or can they justify putting men through the meat grinder because they aren't Americans.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
3 months
@RnaudBertrand It's also self-defeating. If Western governments start seizing assets in Western banks from non-Western countries, those countries are going to be reluctant to use our banks. Ultimately, it could undermine the Bretton Woods system and cause a crisis in the US.
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@joffemd
Marc Joffe
1 month
@nettermike Ever since that 2019 speech when he called for scaling back high-speed rail (a position he was forced to walk back the next day), I don't think he's liked this annual ritual.
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