Platformonomics TGIF is a weekly roll-up of links, comments on those links, and perhaps a little too much tugging on my favorite threads.
Get Platformonomics Updates By Email
Service will be spotty to non-existent in the next month.
News
Actual Data about Data Centers
The best argument the New York Times can muster against data centers is “too much tax revenue” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Political realignment is not yet complete. I don’t see how private and public sector unions can remain under the same tent.
Previous:
This is Your Community with a Data Center, Data about the actual impact of data centers, Wherever Will We Put Data Centers?, You Can’t Blame Data Centers in Seattle for Our Skyrocketing Electricity Prices, Release the (Electrical) Scapegoat!, The Pain in Maine Stems Mainly from the Insane, The Pain in New England Stems Mainly from the Insane, The Pain in Maine Compounds, Cloud Power Up
Attract People
My grand unified theory for urban success is simple: you’re either attracting people or you’re losing. A warning sign for Seattle:
Young workers are going elsewhere. Seattle’s 20-something population fell between 2019 and 2024, even as its share of 30 somethings grew to the highest of any market in the report. The region is drawing mid-career but not entry-level talent, which risks creating a thinner pipeline over time.
Global Trade is Global
After a decade, tariff man’s tariff man (Petey “Rasputin” Navarro) has discovered that trade balances globally. And he’s not happy about it. I must conclude he is not a reader of this blog.
Previous:
Mercantilists Seek Expanded Trade with Other Mercantilists, The Art of the Deal? Keep Them Guessing?, The Art of the Deal? What is the Deal?, The Road Not Taken, The Road Not Taken Redux, Smoot-Hawley-Trump, “It’s Just a Negotiating Tactic”, The Real Trade Solution: Make Chinese Consumers Prosperous
Amusing Yourself at Work: Too Big to Fail Edition
We used to play a similar game back in the day at Microsoft when the industry trade press published once a week. We’d pick a word and see who could land it in print (look it up kids!) that week. “Nascent” became very popular one week.
Software Migration Alerts: Paypal, Weave Communications
When private equity comes around, it is time to bound!
Previous:
Seattle City Light: “Run to Failure”
Is reliable and affordable electricity really too much to ask from a municipally owned and managed utility?
Some of City Light’s pressures are shared by utilities across the country, but Seattle is also unique. Since the early 2000s, the department has prioritized low rates over maintenance, what the industry calls a “run to failure” model whose debt is starting to come due.
“I’d never seen a utility do that as a policy until I got to Seattle,” said former City Light CEO Dawn Lindell, who was fired earlier this year by Mayor Katie Wilson. “Seattle’s reliability is the worst I’ve ever seen.”
“Run to failure” would be a great motto for the City of Seattle these days.
Quick(er) Hits
OpenAI’s two week “pause” is indistinguishable from summer vacation (or Burning Man).
Good to see a company (Hypercubic) singularly focused on mainframe migration. But sure IBM, Q2 was just a one-off…
“Tough One Tonight” compiles explanations for the Seattle Mariner’s (underachieving) mean reversion this season. But realistically being in third place only four games out is a better than average season for the team. “Tough One Tonight” could also be in the running for that new City of Seattle motto.