more than a whiff of self-censorship in markets at the moment. No-one wants to call BS on, ya know, everything, for fear of angering the president on.ft.com/4pRyTHp

Happy to be celebrating the life and work of Professor Donald Shoup today at UCLA. In addition to transforming the way we think about parking, he was a great man and a generous mentor!

this is Heritage's former DPRK guy

China and Malaysia governments in talks for rare earths refinery project, sources say – Reuters: ‘Beijing is ready to swap its technology for access to Malaysia’s untapped rare earths reserves, seeking to limit competition from Australian rival Lynas Rare Earths’

The director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute: "Their words should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that the civilian leadership intends to use the threat and actuality of violence to infringe on Americans’ constitutional rights."

I don't understand how you could make a whole movie like this without anybody involved even skimming a couple of wikipedia articles about how any of this stuff works.

The nominations of EJ Antoni at BLS and Brian Quintenz at the CFTC are done www.ft.com/content/6e0e...

I have known about this plaque in Sacramento for nearly ten years, but every time I visit it I’m staggered in disbelief

Breaking WaPo: Military leaders have raised serious concerns with the Trump admin's new defense strategy — exposing a divide between the Pentagon's political and uniformed leadership. 
The critiques from multiple top officers, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

There’s no way they’re going to prevent Trump from firing Lisa Cook.

@jonobri.com hits the grey elephant in the new city debate - that the vast majority of regional towns and small cities are determined to avoid growing any larger than they currently are.

As a proud Canberran, and being regional New South Welsh by birth, I agree with this. It's taken a century to build Canberra - a city built to solve a specific problem, not for housing - into a real city. Let's not repeat that. We need to interrogate the mindset of large towns versus small cities.

2026 is another "fire horse" year. Leo Lewis speculates on the implications for Japanese fertility: www.ft.com/content/ffa1... There were big dips in births in the previous "fire horse" years of 1906 and 1966, but also some recuperation in the period immediately following.

All star amicus brief in Trump v. Cook www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25...

All star amicus brief in Trump v. Cook www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25...

2026 is another "fire horse" year. Leo Lewis speculates on the implications for Japanese fertility: www.ft.com/content/ffa1... There were big dips in births in the previous "fire horse" years of 1906 and 1966, but also some recuperation in the period immediately following.

The nation’s largest business lobby is soliciting support from its members for a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its changes to the visa system for skilled foreign workers

Great interview: "Taken together, the events of the last three and a half years demonstrate that this war was not precipitated by geopolitical wrangling between Russia and the West. Rather, it was driven by Russia’s ongoing goal to destroy Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence."

I understand why students don’t love spending a semester drawing supply and demand curves, but this is why we make people students spend a semester drawing supply and demand curves

US Treasury Secretary Bessent considers "large and forceful" intervention options for Argentina that “may include, but are not limited to, swap lines, direct currency purchases and purchases of US dollar-denominated government debt from Treasury’s Exchange Stabilisation Fund.” on.ft.com/4nHVRz2

US Treasury Secretary Bessent considers "large and forceful" intervention options for Argentina that “may include, but are not limited to, swap lines, direct currency purchases and purchases of US dollar-denominated government debt from Treasury’s Exchange Stabilisation Fund.” on.ft.com/4nHVRz2

#BREAKING: Over dissents from Justices Sotomayor, Kagan & Jackson, #SCOTUS grants a stay in the Slaughter case (allowing President Trump to remove the last Dem member of the FTC), *and* grants certiorari "before judgment" to decide whether to formally overrule its 1935 ruling in Humphrey's Executor.

My latest IELP blog post looks at two questions related to a new GOP informal tariff working group in the House: - What will/should this tariff working group be working on? - What might this mean for a post-Trump trade policy? (A long way off, I know!)

just saw a tiktok from a disney adult reading from On Tyranny and asking their followers to cancel their d+ and disney trips omg

Restricting visas doesn’t lead to hiring non-immigrants—it leads to hiring foreigners. For every H-1B visa rejection, multinationals add ~0.4–0.9 foreign employees, especially in R&D hubs like India, China, and Canada. via @florianederer.bsky.social

Miran claims Trump administration's immigration policies will "exert quite a lot of disinflation." But immigration contributes to supply and productive potential, as well as demand. The implications for inflation are ambiguous at best. on.ft.com/3IhUxnx

#BLS has delayed the 2024 Consumer Expenditures Survey annual release. This is likely due to the severe understaffing in the agency. Staff losses and hiring freeze are taking their toll. www.bls.gov/cex/notices/... #econsky

Miran claims Trump administration's immigration policies will "exert quite a lot of disinflation." But immigration contributes to supply and productive potential, as well as demand. The implications for inflation are ambiguous at best. on.ft.com/3IhUxnx

Slightly ironic (and self-defeating) given Beijing's claims to be the guardian of the multilateral order... "China is delaying the settlement of annual dues it owes to the UN later and later each year, exacerbating a funding crisis at the global body."

Chinese AI firm DeepSeek writes less secure code for groups Beijing disfavours – The Washington Post: ‘Asking DeepSeek for a program that runs industrial control systems was the riskiest type of request’

The judiciary is looking politicised in the US, with the appeals court backing Fed’s Cook vs Trump, but in a 2-1 decision The 2 appointed by Biden backed Cook. Trump’s appointee backed the White House It’s not the institutions, it’s the people www.wsj.com/economy/cent...

Looked at my data collections for state-backed activity. If the report were a picture:

Trump administration attacks on the BLS increasing the demand for private label data as a check on official statistics on.ft.com/48bd4MI

This week's newsletter on the role of economic data in strategic competition with China stephenkirchner.substack.com/p/chinas-bro...

Exclusive: Fed Governor Cook declared her Atlanta property as “vacation home,” documents show www.reuters.com/world/us/fed...

See this week's newsletter for a discussion of the draft NDS stephenkirchner.substack.com/p/chinas-bro...

Head of INDOPACOM tries to spin Trump's draft NDS by declaring "the homeland is in the Pacific." www.stripes.com/theaters/asi...

Hi All, With my article just appearing in Foreign Affairs about how democratic states need a strategy to survive and possibly fight back now that Trump is moving the USA closer to Russia and China, I put together this piece. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

Head of INDOPACOM tries to spin Trump's draft NDS by declaring "the homeland is in the Pacific." www.stripes.com/theaters/asi...

Exclusive: Fed Governor Cook declared her Atlanta property as “vacation home,” documents show www.reuters.com/world/us/fed...

Trump administration attacks on the BLS increasing the demand for private label data as a check on official statistics on.ft.com/48bd4MI

Skadden Arps said to have discussed pro bono work for the Heritage Foundation as part of Trump's $100m shakedown of the law firm www.ft.com/content/8927...

“Stagnation was in line with analysts’ expectations”

This week's newsletter on the role of economic data in strategic competition with China stephenkirchner.substack.com/p/chinas-bro...

“Stagnation was in line with analysts’ expectations”

Skadden Arps said to have discussed pro bono work for the Heritage Foundation as part of Trump's $100m shakedown of the law firm www.ft.com/content/8927...

A flagrant violation of what it means to live in a city.

South Korea has been emphasizing to the U.S. that it cannot accept the same terms as Japan did when it comes to Seoul's $350 billion investment pledge, citing the sizes of their economies and effects on forex markets.