Understandably the literal murder is getting the most focus in terms of potential state prosecution, but murder is not the only crime. States have laws against assault and battery, and a much larger pool of justifiable cases to pursue.

When the left says you can't put a dollar figure on the value of a statistical life, the right nods in vigorous agreement. * The headline is incorrect. They'll count the lives (we'll see how), but refuse to monetize the reduced mortality in cost-benefit analysis. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...

🚨 Call for Papers: 🚨 The 5th NBER Regulation Conference will be in Cambridge on April 24, 2026. This is a great opportunity to talk to people in different fields about shared regulatory issues! Submissions are due Feb 10. conference.nber.org/confsubmit/b...

The administration's survival demands an ever-escalating series of scandals to prevent accountability itself from becoming the story. Does anyone think this is going to level off or settle down for the next 3 years? There's just no way this lasts until 2029.

This @insideclimatenews.org piece by @dangearino.bsky.social formed a good basis for discussing the much overlooked topic of utility regulation, and was a nice complement to @stevecicala.bsky.social's excellent (and very readable) recent article in AEA Papers & Proceedings tinyurl.com/y85brdn6

Finished teaching a new course on energy markets and the clean energy transition last month. Was a blast and have lots of thoughts for next year. One takeaway is the value of going beyond academic journals/textbooks and incorporating media articles, podcasts, and video. Here's a few we covered... 🧵

It's been 6 months. Who's to say the stove is still hot?

What can history teach us about what happens when a populist strongman with an idiosyncratic taste for low interest rates undermines central bank independence?

Doc Rivers, Steve Kerr, the T-Wolf fans, Sportsguy Nick Wright. More please. Let’s go sports world. You want to see brave? Be an immigrant walking to work in Minneapolis. That’s brave. You just have to say “state murder is bad.” It’s not fucking hard and it’s needed from all corners.

Given the ICE signing bonuses and the state of American media, how can journalists afford to not pursue this?

For those interested in energy and environmental econ, here’s a good place to start if you’re looking for people to follow

This is the consequence of not declaring a red line and sticking to it. All these people saying “Well *I* don’t follow those accounts…” My friend, you would never associate yourself with 4chan. You’re not a 4chan person. And yet X is worse and you’re unreflective about it.

Funniest part of The Naked Gun reboot imo:

The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.

It's a mug's game to take the administration's claims at face value and attempt to negotiate on those terms in good faith. It embodies weakness. This has nothing to do with cost-sharing (or security for that matter), and everything to do with ego-stroking by planting flags on maps.

It’s never a bad time to remind the public that the price of oil is determined by total global supply and demand. Reshuffling who buys from whom will yield zero benefit to US consumers. www.npr.org/2026/01/07/n...

This is the correct read of the situation. He needs to be managed like the spoiled, petulant toddler that he is.

It's Their Time

The 90s did not deserve OK Computer. This list is about as appealing as a Guy Fieri menu.

Incredible that they’ll have collected reliable poll results by then.

Anyone have a sense of why Trump isn’t so outraged that Putin would invade Ukraine? Look out, Taiwan.

Rest in peace, Kate Ho.

Just as he wants all the Warsaw Pact countries to succeed.

Please help the man out. 👇🏻

Actual 2025 tariff rates are, to date, far less than statutory rates, but the costs of the tariffs are mostly borne by the US – estimated tariff pass-through to US prices in 2025 is 94%. Tariffs on imports act like a 1 to 2pp tax on US manufacturing. brentneiman.com/research/GN2...

This is a very good piece on the moral hazard created when the fed steps in to back up insolvent banks under the pretext of providing liquidity.

Striking nativist editorializing by the federal judge who just upheld the $100,000 tax on high-skill immigrants. She opines that it’s “troubling” that universities hire talent from abroad at all, instead of only native grads. Then admits (!) that opinion is irrelevant (So why write it? Venting?)

In seriousness X is really bad and a lunatic controls the algorithm and people’s social temperature there. I do not understand why people keep using it.

LOL at Cory Booker putting the 60 Minutes story up on his YouTube channel. Paramount won't dare take it down youtu.be/jiehEMlNiCI?...

If you can’t say, “That’s not a credible counterfactual” for analysis of policies you support, you’re just an advocate. This analysis is on much firmer footing: www.nber.org/papers/w33584

Bari Weiss has “a curiously narrow definition of free speech”—one in which free speech means whatever conservatives want to say, Adam Serwer argues.

This is not even remotely acceptable, and it is time that EU leaders stop pretending that the US is an ally. Or that kow-towing to it on trade or other issues will produce results. www.ft.com/content/8c0e...

It’s just mind boggling that the US is letting the Russians pick its negotiating team and requiring they go unaided. And the US response is, “Sure, you’ve done psych profiles and know who would do your bidding. Here you go!” I can’t even think of a comparison to parody it.

Journal article: “the data are available on request” The data:

Sounds like someone leaked the IEEPA decision to the White House.

🔵Coming up this Thursday! Join us on December 18 at the 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗦𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿 with @stevecicala.bsky.social (@tufts.edu), who will present “Adverse Selection as a Policy Instrument: Unraveling Climate Change” 🔗 www.stevecicala.com 📄 www.stevecicala.com/papers/unrav... #EconSky

The US is bullying Europe around on climate and data protection because it thinks it can. I’m hoping they stiffen their spines and insist on their sovereignty. It will only get worse otherwise. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/c...

This long-term thread will collect stories about Germany's absurd, over-lawyered and court-heavy bureaucracy following my Free Exchange column this week. www.economist.com/finance-and-...

You can’t “fix” X, The Everything App by going back and posting there because the owner has this thumb on the scale of the algorithm to promote the worst ideas and people. It’s not a viable solution, you have to let it go.

More of a kneecapping than a shot in the arm. The US and EU must look nostalgically at Havana's streets as they're doing their best to imitate them.

Democrats should commit now to not recognizing any pardons issued in advance of charges. Tell Trump administration officials that preemptive pardons will not be honored by a future Democratic administration and that criminals will be arrested.

In terms of US politics, Bush v. Gore is the defining event of the century. It set the template: a ruthless right that instinctively seeks power & doesn't give a shit about rule of law...and a bunch of hapless, feckless octogenarian Dems worried about the good opinion of centrist opinion columnists.

It's important to keep benchmarking these G7 announcements about "major" investments in research funding. The amounts of money going into supposedly poaching 🇺🇸 scholars/replacing 🇺🇸 research $ are <tiny> & totally on the margin of what real initiatives would look like. bsky.app/profile/mcop...

And the US National Security Strategy should be countered with the EU declaring the imperative to separate New York and California from the Union.

A loss to us all and to the progress of Economics.

We are having the wrong debate, says Zack Cooper of @yalesph.bsky.social We need to talk about not *just* subsidies, but more importantly WHY & HOW American healthcare is so expensive. And he has a list of things we could do today … Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/o...

Very interesting project by @bruegel.org here. Remarkable differences still in market value across Europe.

Inside every prestigious jurist of a certain age lies a septuagenarian radicalized by Facebook memes shared by the MAGAEaglePatriot1776 account.

And the FIFA Prize in Medicine goes to…