Why? How does this help anyone?

Forthcoming in AEJ: Applied Economics: "Land Concentration and Long-Run Development in the Frontier United States" by Cory Smith. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Peacemaker Season 2, out now

Nobody cares about the victims in the Dallas ICE shooting apparently. The first I've heard about one of them was on CNN today. He's fighting for his life in the hospital --- he was brought to the US when he was 13. He's 33 now. No criminal record. I just don't know what to say anymore.

A short 🧵 so everyone can learn that political violence is nothing new in America. Of the 1,331 Black officials who served during Reconstruction, 158 (10.4%) were subjected to political violence. 1/7

It's frustrating to see data quality undermined by this administration. This week's annual revision to the national accounts hit, too. www.bea.gov/information-.... That data have been important in the past.

Critical part of the President's new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Administration can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion. Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.

How does the new H1B executive order affect universities, which had a non-capped limit on H1Bs under the prior system (vs a lottery for for-profit corporations)?

I am not a lawyer, but it should not be legal to suddenly upend someone’s visa status with 48 hours of warning

i don’t think people on bluesky understand the severity of this situation. i woke up to literally hundreds of texts from friends and family thinking about either moving back home to india or applying to other countries for jobs. this includes me.

As someone who has not followed this closely, is there any conclusion except that student outlets (The Crimson) were far more accurate than national news leaders (NYT, WSJ) which predicted imminent $500m settlements?

This @beijingpalmer.bsky.social post reminded me I have been meaning to update @pewresearch.org's estimate of total newspaper newsroom jobs - which was 30,820 as of 2020 Using BLS OEWS data (w/ same methodology as Pew) the 2024 number is 29,260 - down another 5% www.pewresearch.org/chart/sotnm-...

I signed and you should, too. This is about dictatorial control of the Fed, nothing more and nothing less

The letter is ready, thanks to all those who helped out! Starting to gather signature now, please consider signing (link at top of letter) & spread the word. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

There's really no need for any consistent policy direction at all, I guess

I am very glad Lisa Cook was prepped and ready for Trump's purported "firing." This is a pretty fast action and turnaround www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

Just received this statement from Lisa Cook: "President Trump purported to fire me 'for cause' when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022."

I think it's a mistake to think of the firing of Lisa Cook primarily in terms of Central Bank Independence, and its impact on the inflation rate. The most significant issue is also more basic: it's the rule of law.

Starting with the graduate students?

Giant YTD drops in Chicago for basically all crimes. Huge 4-reductions in Chicago for all violence. Murders are down FIFTY PERCENT. Property crimes are dropping, tho still higher than before. But MRAPs don’t stop theft. This is all pretext. Yet the WaPo subhed frames it as a “crime” issue.

Stand with Dr Cook

Taken literally, this would suggest at least 10,000 murders in DC (of 700k people) vs the actual ~100 Or perhaps 100,000 for 3 orders of magnitude

Data revisions are a normal, necessary part of trying to measure a $30 trillion economy in real time. They can also be jarring, especially for people who don't obsessively scrutinize every jobs report. So I dug into the how and why of revisions. A few big takeaways: #EconSky

This is just wack. We’re not a first-class airport lounge or whatever

Unquestionably the most dangerous and corrupt attack on the independence of US economic data in American history. Trump is firing the head of the BLS, a longtime civil servant confirmed 86-8 by the Senate, simply because the job numbers came in below his expectations today

Every word of this article is atrocious. “At one point, the detainees used sharp iron pipes to cut themselves and write messages in their blood on white sheets as an act of protest, Suárez said. “We are not terrorists,” the messages read. “We are migrants.”

When I got tenure, I decided to use it start a new research agenda, studying US science in the 20th century, how it became dominant, what held it back, and what we can do better. Here's the first pub (with Scott Kim).

Among other things, if genes were largely responsible for wealth (I don't believe this), it would still make sense to do taxes/transfers on income/wealth quite heavily. People can't change their genes!

Seemed inevitable but shouldn't obscure the near-term damage this will do to US national security and the diplomatic function, and the long-term damage it will do to recruitment and retention of high-quality folks. People were already taking effective pay cuts to serve and this is their thanks.

Spot on. This is the clearest explanation I’ve seen. It ‘s relatable, and humanizes the issue in a way everyone can understand.

Here is NYC % Foreign-Born, by Year Sources 1870-2000: www2.census.gov/library/work... 2020: This is ACS for 2019-2023 www.census.gov/quickfacts/f... [can't quickly find 2010 online, point me to it]

Sen. Padilla calles out Noem on the Senate floor for saying that the Trump administration plans to "liberate" California from their elected officials

Just want to post a bit of a bland corrective on polling commentary that I'm seeing on my timeline. Since Trump ordered the National Guard to CA, his numbers have declined -- but not by as much as the most viral polls suggest (= most extreme)

Hi everyone I was denied entry, detained, and deported from the USA over the last 48 hours because of my reporting on the Columbia student protests I arrived back in Melbourne hours ago and had my phone handed back to me upon landing

I don't think the US military or its events should have corporate sponsors www.mediaite.com/media/tv/tru...

Take some time to read this really powerful portrait from @gabrielleemanuel.bsky.social on the difference PEPFAR has made in one little girl's life, and how it's unraveled after the Trump administration's cuts to foreign aid, which the House voted to codify yesterday. www.npr.org/sections/goa...

This is a good post -- democracy is not best conceived of as being on a continuum. This dovetails with a paper I'm writing that I'm hoping to describe here sometime (though it's hard with what's going on nationally & globally)

I couldn't agree more, and have been saying this for a couple of months at least. We are under an authoritarian regime right now, the question is whether it manages to consolidate its power or is beaten back by the democratic forces that are stilling operation.

Betting markets think there is a ~40% chance that Khamenei is out this year, up from ~25% a few days ago. And note that Khamenei could be out without broader regime change So, by this metric, it seems unlikely but not impossible over the next 6 months polymarket.com/event/khamen...

there was one vote, it was for trump, and he is king of america now and you will obey

We've become numb to this rhetoric, but is there any way to take Noem saying they will "liberate this city from burdensome leadership" other than that they will use law enforcement and the military to remove opposition politicians from power?

Really important story - army officials asked soldiers to identify themselves if they don't agree with Trump's politics that way he'd get only supportive soldiers in uniform during his political rally on base. Heavier soldiers were also barred from participating.

OK, I know more about the CA case and we have more information on the deployments coming out, so a few thoughts. 1. This is a massive overreach of POTUS authority. Using Section 12406 to federalize/deploy military forces w/out also invoking the Insurrection Act is literally unprecedented. 1/

Their reward for serving their country is being punished for being punished for who they are by people who have never spent a day in public service, even if they are now in the government bsky.app/profile/eric...

EXTREMELY BAD NEWS for economic research, per former BLS Commissioner @ericagroshen.bsky.social on LinkedIn. BLS is suspending access to its restricted data "for the forseeable future." Applies to projects through the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers & onsite projects with BLS. #EconSky

The feud is definitely engaging and could be politically good, depending on your politics But implicitly we're accepting that billions in government contracts are contingent on supporting the president. If it works this way for Musk, why not Harvard? That's bad for democracy

I personally feel that Trump should be more sympathetic about Biden’s robot clone’s cancer diagnosis since it’s not responsible for original Biden being “vicious”