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1. Ok, so I'm going to call out @DKThomp for journalistic malpractice and unethical behavior. He wrote a piece that was supposedly 'debunking' something that antitrust lawyer @musharbash_b put together on how Wall Street limits housing supply.

2. @musharbash_b's argument was that deregulation in the 1980s killed financing for small builders, which led to consolidation in homebuilding and ultimately fewer houses than we need. He used this chart from housing analyst @NewsLambert showing the gap.

3. @DKThomp attacked the piece. Here's what he said on Bluesky: "I did something really simple. I called up their sources. Everyone I spoke to told me the same thing: Their claims are bullshit." Wow that sounds bad! So I picked up the phone.

4. I called @NewsLambert, a terrific housing analyst I've known for years cited by Basel. Lance sends me housing info, including some that got into the piece. He likes that we use his work and likes the antitrust lens, though he doesn't always agree w/it. He's fair and careful.

5. He talked w/Derek a few weeks ago. Derek implies he asked Lance about Basel's piece, and "the antitrust folks." Lance told me it's been a few weeks, but that he doesn't remember Derek mentioning the piece or sending it to him. It was a broad-ranging talk about housing. Hmmm.

6. Lance said he doesn't remember his exact words, but what he meant is also narrower than what Derek conveyed. He believes that while there is a lot of consolidation, big builders, as they became a bigger part of the market, are not intentionally refusing to build.

7. That is, at best, a very slight disagreement on a narrow part of the argument. Intent isn't always important in market structure questions, consolidation itself is enough to restrain supply. Regardless, Lance did certainly did not say the underlying claims are "bullshit."

9. Housing is quite complicated, and these points may seem pedantic. But that's sort of the point. @DKThomp took a nuanced story, flattened and misrepresented it, and unfairly put an excellent neutral analyst in the middle of a twitter fight, just to score points. As an aside, @NewsLambert gave me an interesting quick history on big builders vs small builders during the financial crisis, that syncs up with what @musharbash_b wrote. "During the depth of the financial crisis, single family entry level homebuilding had a particularly big housing bust. Many of the small private builders in America disappeared. And as the housing market started to come back, it took years for single family homebuilding, in particular entry level single family homebuilding, to get going again. And even as the market recovered, many of those smaller private builders didn't come back and the bigger builders took a bigger part of the market."

10. In housing, there's a lot to debate. Zoning. Financing. Consolidation. Mortgages. Land. But that's not what @DKThomp is doing. He engaged in misrepresentations of @musharbash_b's arguments, and then unethical cherry-picking or deception in quoting at least one source.

11. I have learned a lot from some of the good faith people in the Abundance world. I am excited about some of the work from @SenWarren and @DKThomp to loosen housing supply rules. I will still keep learning.

12. But I had assumed @DKThomp was engaged in good faith. I will no longer do that. If you get a call from him, you should be careful or not talk to him at all. He may be using you or may not represent you fairly. Unfortunately, you just can't believe anything he says or writes.

@DKThomp @musharbash_b 11. I have learned a lot from some of the good faith people in the Abundance world. I am excited about some of the work from @SenWarren and @RubenGallego to loosen housing supply rules. I will still keep learning.

@DKThomp @musharbash_b @SenWarren @RubenGallego 12. But I had assumed @DKThomp was engaged in good faith. I will no longer do that. If you get a call from him, you should be careful or not talk to him at all. He may be using you or may not represent you fairly. Unfortunately, you just can't believe anything he says or writes.

13. Ok, two more things. First, @DKThomp continues to lie about what he wrote, and had another conversation with @NewsLambert. I'm guessing he's misrepresenting that one too. Why do I say that? Well...