BIG news from @bloomberg.com, which confirms that ICE has gone ahead and *purchased* multiple commercial warehouses with the aim of converting them into mass detention camps. This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — literal warehousing of people. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

That’s some alignment

We’re simply in the zone where we continually watch people get executed on video

Cost of living looks dismal

Increased deportations led to more crimes against Hispanics but fewer reports to the police New research on how immigration enforcement undermines public safety and increases vulnerability, from Gonçalves Jácome Weisburst

New QJE for the minimum wage literature uses IRS data to study effects on small and medium size businesses. The effects seem…very good academic.oup.com/qje/article/...

Crooked Timber needs assistance. Surely we can get this done for one of the great OG academic blogs.

im sorry what

SCOOP: Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activities on the ground. Inside the app called ELITE—what ICE uses to find neighborhoods to raid.

This week, 404 Media obtained material that explains how Tangles and Webloc, two surveillance systems ICE recently purchased, work. Webloc can track phones without a warrant and follow their owners home or to their employer. Watch now:

Perennial reminder of this excellent paper about how secret police forces are swamped with underachievers “We don’t want clever people. We want mediocrities.” (Ungated summary here ajps.org/2019/10/08/w...)

Great piece exploring how HS2 ended up being the most expensive railway track per kilometre in the world www.ft.com/content/3f73...

The gold market did not get the memo - gold prices post DoJ, post-Tillis #EconSky econbrowser.com/archives/202...

By kow-towing to Trump on trade the EU convinced him, and others no doubt, that it was weak, which just encourages more bullying. If as a result the US takes Greenland by force, the EU will have to do much more forceful things than imposing a 35% tariff or whatever. Weakness makes us all less safe.

HAPPENING NOW: In federal court in MN, DOJ is struggling to articulate why a person following an ICE vehicle — so long as they are obeying traffic laws — can be stopped for "reasonable suspicion" of a crime. Judge Menendez sharply questioning that contention.

“I characterize science as a bunch of 5-year-olds playing soccer… They all go where the ball is, running around the field in a herd.” Great quote in this piece (via @histoftech.bsky.social) which is perhaps more about fashions in research funding (see: AI) www.wired.com/story/scient...

Every once in a while, someone discovers that nuclear is low-carbon and tries to stick it to renewables as a result. Yes, the German nuclear phaseout was a mistake. Of course. Meanwhile, Électricité de France has been fully nationalized to keep its reactors running. A model for the US?

Dug this one up as it seems relevant again

The cost of sequencing a human genome has fallen over 100,000 fold in nominal terms since 2001. In a new visualization, I've added some of the key advances in sequencing during that timeline:

new vox dev piece on our recent RCT to counter misinformation in classrooms in india:

2025 made clear that political elites are often not bound by institutions/rules. This spring I’ll teach Political Leadership, a seminar focused squarely on elites (no regional focus). I’d love suggestions in the comments: articles, books, or syllabi (including your own)

Pathetic stuff

👍

Im thankful my family is no longer in Caracas. I despise everything about this administration.

This devastating piece describes what it’s like to die of blood cancer. It also describes what it feels like to do so while your cousin is Secretary of Health & Human Services & a ghoul. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

this is the central use case, as I go for here: the struggle to defeat fossil capital is the pivotal political task of our generation. and yes, we are going to win www.bostonreview.net/forum/climat...

Just to add that I love how this guy is wearing a hard hat... in case a ham falls on him and breaks his skull. Maybe you think that's very unlikely... but the more time you spend in a cave full of hung hams, the more that probability approaches absolute certainty.

Peter Navarro’s aggressive sycophancy in Donald Trump’s first term foretold how everyone around the President would behave in the second, Ian Parker writes. Navarro is the template for the Administration’s obsequious officials. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

DOGE was A LOT less likely to cancel contracts from companies that donated money to Republicans than companies that donated to Democrats.

Shockingly sensible from huang www.ft.com/content/11a0...

Characterizing how technology shocks affect wages and job assignment when workers have multiple skills, separating earnings pass-through from reallocation, from Job Boerma, Andrea Ottolini, and Aleh Tsyvinski www.nber.org/papers/w34591

"Even after accounting for the upfront costs and delayed benefits, enrolling marginal applicants to public universities generates substantial net returns for society, the marginal students themselves, and the government budget." Public Universities FTW!

🎥 Nathan Lane’s keynote at the 1st #IndustrialPolicyLab Annual Conference is now online! Europe’s rearmament, Germany’s record defense investments, and EU defense policy – all in one talk 👇 youtu.be/jt81nPbh98U?... @nathanlane.bsky.social @zew.de @delorsberlin.bsky.social @vfsecon.bsky.social

PFAS are REALLY bad for babies. Being exposed to PFAS-contaminated water increases: -infant mortality 191% -births before 28 wks 168% -low birth weight 180% "Contamination imposes annual social costs of ≈$8B." "These costs are larger than the cost of removing PFAS from the public water supply."

When the Manchester Guardian calls, the people of the North heed the call. And if those people are me, we inject Manchester Liberalism, even from across the Pennines, right back in to the paper of Northern record. Get your fill. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.

DeLuca, Moskowitz, & Schneer paper (with state & year FE design) finds that 1) governor/Senate position doesn't affect downballot races & 2) US House moderation effects are much stronger in the pre-2010 period than 2010-2022 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... via @aaronstrauss.bsky.social

“This results in the somewhat unintuitive combination of a technology that can be very useful and impressive, while simultaneously being fundamentally unsatisfying and disappointing - somewhat akin to how one's awe at an amazingly clever magic trick can dissipate”

Interesting: a subsidiary of Volkswagen is voicing support for local content rules in Europe www.ft.com/content/1601...

End of year reflections on EU climate policy: it’s really not looking good for the Green Deal. @jannikjansen.bsky.social and I wrote a short piece on why we're far from "staying the course" - and why that's a strategic mistake for Europe (1/12) tinyurl.com/jdc-green-deal

India excels at solar power. But in coal towns like Dhanbad, life still revolves around the dirtiest fuel as informal markets, political ties and generations of dependence keep coal entrenched.

In SF for this blackout. Watching these Waymos absolutely baffled.

I’m old enough to remember when one of you all said “I think we’ve learned all that we can from audit studies” a few years ago.

This sounds like a more likely empirical reality

Here's a quilt of Volume 4 of the Epstein document dump. Gives you a 10,000 foot view of the redactions. that's 2,704 docs.

Why did that happen, what does it tell us, and what can we do next? That’s what my forthcoming book, The Wage Standard, is about: how rules, norms, and power in the labor market shape who shares in growth. Coming out March 31. Pre-order here: www.thewagestandard.com