Thursday Night Links

• The proposal I have outlined is – for now – a carefully estimated thought experiment drawn from existing data, not an empirical report on costs from the front lines of a hundred-gigatonne-a-year sequestration megaproject. It is not unreasonable for readers to regard some of my numbers as a little rough around the edges. But even if energy costs are off by a factor of two, the conclusion seems inescapable: one promising, comparably cheap, and relatively easy pathway to reversing global warming and returning to the cooler, more stable world of the second millennium is by deploying Earth’s natural sequestration process at industrial scale, using technology we already have, at a cost that might feasibly clock in at less than one percent of the world’s GDP. [Works in Progress] 
• Their political hero’s trade adviser kept attacking what the county’s business guru called their “golden goose,” and no one knew how to quell the clash between two of the most beloved brands in Spartanburg. Around here, it’s like watching Santa Claus kick the Easter Bunny. Or Uncle Sam stomp an apple pie, nay, strudel. “This is Trump country,” said Eddie Tallon, a retired Republican lawmaker in South Carolina’s conservative Upstate, “but we love BMW.” In the days since White House aide Peter Navarro publicly bashed the German carmaker credited with resuscitating the local economy, GOP leaders here have faced an awkward dilemma: How do they defend the foreign firms propelling South Carolina’s growth against a ruthlessly America First president? [The Washington Post]
• Republican Sen. Rand Paul left a lunch meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer this week feeling thoroughly unimpressed — not only with the administration’s strategy, but also with his own colleagues. “Most of it was Republican senators congratulating him, wishing him well as the industrial czar and pleading for exemptions to the tariffs for their people,” Paul told NOTUS afterward. “It reminded me of a meeting on industrial policy in the Soviet Union, where you have to be nice to the czar because if you’re nice to the czar, they’ll bequeath upon you exceptions to the iron fist,” he said. [NOTUS]
• "We are pleased to report the best quarter in ICE’s history, highlighted by record revenues, record operating income and earnings per share growth. Amidst a backdrop of continued geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty, our first quarter performance reflects the quality of our all-weather business model and the value of our markets, technology and data services. Looking to the balance of the year and beyond, ICE's diverse platform is well positioned to serve our customers, generate growth and create value for our stockholders." [Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.]
• I live in Washington and have friends who are heavily involved in the horse world in Middleburg and Upperville, as well as in Baltimore County, and I agree you see plenty of Subarus amongst the truly old old money wasp folks, and Volkwagon station wagons. I also spend a lot of time in Thomasville, Georgia, the quail hunting capital of the country, and amongst my friends- all boarding school educated old money folks, with historic in town houses, and plantations in the country, almost all have a Subaru Outback. How else can you maneuver the dirt and gravel drives in the country? Anyone who drives a Mercedes or BMW suv is identified as a yuppie, with no place in the country. [Salt Water New England]
• In this paper, I provide a descriptive analysis of religious worship attendance using geodata from smartphones for over 2 million Americans in 2019. I establish several key findings. First, 73% of people step into a religious place of worship at least once during the year on the primary day of worship (e.g. Sundays for most Christian churches). However, only 5% of Americans attend services “weekly”, far fewer than the ~22% who report to do so in surveys. The number of occasional vs. frequent attenders varies substantially by religion. I estimate that approximately 45M Americans attend worship services in a typical week of the year, but with large changes around Holidays (e.g. Easter). [Devin Pope] 
• When considering the effects of bank regulation on community banks, we should ask ourselves why so much financial activity has moved out of the regulated banking system. For example, the shift of mortgage lending to nonbanks has undercut an important line of business for community banks. It is clear this shift out of the banking system is to some degree driven by regulation—and in particular by outdated capital requirements on some exposures that are well in excess of the latest evidence on the actual risk of those exposures. [Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent]