I agree with Coates' opening thesis: that our life's work situates within a long tradition of justice extending in time. But there is also a repeated dodge by Coates of the realpolitik outlined by @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social; that undercuts that work and self-congratulates inward-facing-ness.

One of the profound failures on the left of DEI-era policies was the lazy conflation of Black and black. There’s a real distinction in outcomes between Black Americans, that descend from chattel slavery, and recent immigrants from Africa —often higher income.

Almost daily I have to explain to progressives that most Americans are not as “moderate” as they are “random”, most are pretty persuadable but you have to meet them where they are. Hyper-online folks have just become pretty inward-facing and somewhat allergic to the basic demands of politics.

Ex-Fed chiefs urge Supreme Court to deny Trump’s bid to remove Cook on.ft.com/4nlVuKF

I love the performance/design of a good lecture. Sadly, this semester a lot of students have turned in PhD-level AI junk, so I informed the class that I'm recalibrating exams to match submissions. And after the midterm we’ll discuss the stand-off we find ourselves in. #EconSky

Inflation surged over the period 2021 to 2023 from a classic fiscal shock. Higher interest rates cannot lower a future inflation without coordinated fiscal policy, from John H. Cochrane https://www.nber.org/papers/w34257

Here's a picture of the polling in the Virginia governor's race, from our new tracker: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Do you have a personal memory of a Green Book hotel, restaurant, pharmacy, or gas station? What do you remember about it? Share your memories using our Community Map. Contribute here: greenbookproject.org.ohio-state.edu #GreenBookProject #CommunityMap #EconSky

“.. The data is signaling that there’s some restructuring going on. .. People are losing jobs and can’t find jobs in high-skilled occupations.” 👀 @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/b...

The BLS is NOT postponing the monthly inflation report, the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Rather, the delay is for the annual Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX). CEX provides the "weights" for the CPI and other inflation measures.

Excited to get my copy of Inherited Inequality, such an important new book by the brilliant Dr. Christina Cross @christinajcross.bsky.social! I look forward to reading it and teaching it! 😊 #Sociology #Policy #Families #Inequality

#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

Don't look now, but I expect calls for tax justice to grow louder here in America too.

To add a bit more to this with research I've been working on. If you take @claudia-sahm.bsky.social style recession indicator methods and apply it to unemployment rates of black women, you find @itsafronomics.bsky.social #DoubleTax like conclusions, whereby black women experience recessions first.

This is one of my favorite pieces from the marketing campaign for the Green Book Project. I love the intimate moments of family and joy juxtaposed with fairly heavy research of Jim Crow era segregation. I feel like it highlights the humanity in the history and the people in the numbers.

What’s behind rising unemployment for Black women? EPI's Valerie Wilson says the likely culprits are job losses in the employment services, manufacturing, and federal government industries. Read her analysis: www.epi.org/blog/whats-b...

Found the very last copy! #TheDoubleTax #EconSky

My thoughts on the Fed, macroeconomy, tariffs and more in conversation (and debate) with Larry Summers, Oren Cass and Rebecca Patterson. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/o...

I read @itsafronomics.bsky.social new book “The Double Tax” this afternoon. It’s engaging and one of the best popular ways to bring social science to the public and policy that I’ve read in a long while. Black women are uniquely disadvantaged in our economy. 😍 she gave Janelle James her flowers!

Following the murder of #CharlieKirk, I looked at data on deaths from political violence and the asymmetry is stark. 96% of deaths are linked to conservative perpetrators. #EconSky

Appeals Court Says Lisa Cook Can Remain on Fed Board www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...

"Work is not just a central economic institution. It's not just how we pay the bills. It's a central social institution."

Our veterans have disproportionately high rates of homelessness. Many of the programs they’re talking about are geared to our veterans, for good reason. It never takes much to scratch the surface under their paper thin patriotism to reveal a deep disregard and dehumanization of our veterans.

A sneering midwit with inherited wealth got the facts wrong, and accused an honest public servant—Lisa Cook—of fraud. His meddling created a crisis well beyond his portfolio, undermining the Fed. Bill Pulte can do the right thing and resign. If merit still matters, he should be fired.

Data shows political violence has risen in recent years. With the perpetrators disproportionately conservatives and victims skewing liberals. The data is imperfect, slow and noisy, making exact political affiliation hard to attribute or interpret, but this broad theme mostly holds. #EconSky

Despite progress, Americans continue to live in racially homogeneous neighborhoods. We spoke with Trevon Logan of Ohio State and John Parman of @wm.edu about why residential segregation persists, and why it matters. #econsky www.aeaweb.org/research/rac...

In August, nominal wage growth ticked down to 3.7% while #inflation continued to rise up 0.6 percentage points since April and hitting 2.9% last month. Taken together, real wage growth has continued to fall. Real wage growth is now at 0.7% over the year, cut in half over the last 3 months. #EconSky

Statistically, gun violence has become pretty normal, ~132 a day, 1.65 in mass shootings, ~90% male, disproportionately Black, 60% suicides, most female deaths are intimate partner violence, etc. These issues don't make the news often primarily because America is not as sympathetic to those victims.

Breaking news! Federal Judge blocks the Trump administration’s attempt to remove Governor Cook from Federal Reserve Board. www.wsj.com/economy/cent...

Breaking: Lisa Cook can remain on the Fed's board for now, a judge ruled, blocking Trump from firing her.

I'll be teaching my student's how to: 1. Remotely get data with an API 2. How to make this visualization with code Aesthetics is a major tool in research communication, and I stress to my students the importance of having results that are legible and accessible.

Tomorrow I'm teaching my students how to use an API key to request data from @stlouisfed.bsky.social, in R and Python, and to visualize a Phillips Curve. But honestly, making slides with video overlays is underrated.

Each of the 12 Federal Reserve banks is overseen by a nine-member independent board of directors. Who are they? What is their role? Our Blog has the answers: bit.ly/46tAkEh #EconSky #FederalReserveSystem

This is objectively a good looking graph. This is great research communication work by the CBO. Simple colorway, nice intro-graph legend, no needless grid lines. Very legible conclusion.

The latest data out from #Census today show median earnings and median household incomes kept pace with inflation in 2024. Men's earnings rose 3.7% increasing the gender wage gap back to 2019 levels. Income grew at the top, but not the middle or bottom, reversing recent trends. #EconSky #NumbersDay

Are you a new or soon-to-be PhD? Do you work on socio-economic inequality, poverty, and/or mobility? Do you study income, wealth, or earnings? Are you passionate about research as well as policy analyses? If so, we may be the perfect home for you, starting in fall 2026? Take a look! 🍎 #postdoc 👇👇👇

I asked my stats students to evaluate the data revisions to comment on whether or #ErikaMcEntarfer should’ve been let go from BLS in an UpShot-style Op Ed, and it’s some of the clearest editorial writing on the topic and the importance of the data.

Don't miss a three-part blog post by Branko Milanovic on multiple facets of the "New Capitalism in America". 👇👇👇 @brankomilan.bsky.social @stone-lis.bsky.social @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social link here: stonecenter.gc.cuny.edu/category/new...

I can't explain how much joy I get from making lecture slides.

I'm not sure why we put "Views are my own" in our bios when we could write "Forward all complaints to my enemies." None of this is legally binding, and it's implied that this is all personal.

Day one of metrics I gave my students an op-ed assignment, where they had to pretend to be a writer for the UpShot and argue whether or not the revisions data justified #ErikaMcEntarfer being fired. "The Jobs Report Wasn't Rigged. Revisions Are the Point" is an absolute BANGER headline. #EconSky

Using nationwide Indeed data, we estimate the impact of state salary disclosure laws on job postings. The effect? A modest 1–6% decline in job posts, statistically insignificant. With Zoga Duka & Bryan S. Weber: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

How did Black families travel during Jim Crow? Learn the history, explore the data and read the research. The contribute your story— use your hometown and add your story, or your family’s story, to the Community Map. greenbookproject.org.ohio-state.edu #GreenBookProject #CommunityMap #EconSky

When you look at the data, politicians only introduce bills like #PathwayToCitizenship when there is a big uptick in social interest; the problem is people only care about the issue when it’s topical. This broad theme is roughly true of a lot of areas of social justice activism. #EconSky

Data from 1965 to present shows #immigration keeps rising, but support is slipping. Even though a #PathwayToCitizenship bill polls very well, Democrats only introduce bills when out of power—or when reacting to conservative pushes for more #deportations. #EconSky

Motivated-reasoning led economists to conclude academic success resulted from genius; but research shows it’s mostly correlated to family socioeconomics. Some are offended by that, but it’s troubling that the discipline of distribution is so stacked with those from wealthy backgrounds. #EconSky

Also, forward guidance is a soft policy, and having a “preference” for “different” forward guidance while on an advisory panel for a nonvoting bank, is so far removed it’s silly. Not to mention, there’s been no formal charge of mortgage fraud.

When you compare the #SahmRule by @claudia-sahm.bsky.social, the #MichezRule by P. Michaillat and E. Saez, and the U6 Modified Sahm Rule, it shows that recessionary calls are premature but that the labor market has weakness particularly on the intensive margin. #JobsReport #EconSky