Excited to see the new Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics (Volume 6), edited jointly with Dave Donaldson come out: www.sciencedirect.com/handbook/han.... Fantastic set of chapters on recent advances and pointing the way to exciting further research @treballen.bsky.social @siepr.bsky.social

Using regulatory pressure and threats to silence critics is straight out of the authoritarian playbook

The military takeover of Washington is not a “distraction” from Epstein. It’s a military takeover of Washington, which is an even bigger deal, and those of us who kill brain cells reporting on this stuff knows it’s been an explicit goal since before the election.

Erika McEntarfer, fired as BLS head by Trump …got her PhD in 2002 …has 47 publications …which have 1327 citations

Statement from the largest economics association about the BLS firing As context: AEA approximately never makes such public statements This is a big deal

1/Kevin Hassett had long ago discredited himself as a scholar by parroting claims about the economy he knew to be false. Even so, parroting the lie about rigged statistics, is a new low. The academy should ostracize him the same way a fabricator of research should be ostracized.

Columbia is currently on step 1 of failing the Lando test. Ask the law firms about steps 2-4.

"this deal is unlikely to end the attacks. The federal government, and this administration, is simply too powerful and too arbitrary to be credibly bargained with." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/o...

3 days with an amazing line-up of instructors and poster sessions by junior researchers at the end of each day are over! It's been great hosting 3rd Summer School in International Economics by @jintlecon.bsky.social. Thanks to @rationalitycrc.bsky.social for supporting this event!

Call for Papers for NBER Economics of Transportation in the 21st Century Virtual Conference, October 24, 2024, organized with Ed Glaeser and Jim Poterba: stephenredding.github.io/Call_for_Pap.... Submission Deadline Weds Sept 3, 11.59 ET. @nber.org @siepr.bsky.social @treballen.bsky.social

There's no declaration of war, and no AUMF that covers this. Entering this war is wrong on the merits; we had a perfectly peaceful way to address Iran's nuclear program. It's also unlawful. A democratic republic should not be able to enter a war of choice on one man's say-so.

📢 Join us for the next Kiel-CEPR research seminar: @treballen.bsky.social (Dartmouth) will present his research on the economic structure of US slavery on the eve of the Civil War, which quantifies the welfare gains from emancipation. Register here 👉 ifw-kiel.de/institute/ev... @cepr.org

America cannot long remain free, nor first among nations, if it becomes the kind of place where universities are dismantled because they don't align politically with the current head of the government.

The Globalization Cluster at Dartmouth is hiring a pre-doctoral fellow for a two year position starting this summer or fall. International candidates welcome. Take courses. Great placement record. Friendly group! Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/167442 @dartmouthartsci.bsky.social

Call for papers for NBER-Sloan conference on Transport Networks and the Spatial Distribution of Economic Activity: www.princeton.edu/~reddings/Ca... Deadline: June 30, 2025. Organized with Myrto Kalouptsidi. @nber.org @treballen.bsky.social @jintlecon.bsky.social @indorgsociety.bsky.social

"I'm going to govern in econometrics" is a winning campaign slogan for the ages.

University leaders need to understand: they are holding INCREDIBLY good cards. It is so rare in today's polarized era to have the support of 70+ percent of the public against the Trump admiministration on anything. Universities have that—AND winning legal arguments.

1/n From the archive: is Econ graduate education at risk of training "savants idiots", 1990 edition Fears that econ graduate training has become too technicized has led, once again, to educational debates, so the AEA launched a huuuuuge survey of grad education, under the leadership of Ann Krueger

This is archetypally impeachable. Trump’s innovation is to just announce it publicly, so it gets framed as a controversial political choice instead of what it is: a crime against the Constitution.

Straight out of the authoritarian playbook and incredibly dangerous

As you assess the DEAL we're striking with Korea, remember: We ALREADY have an active free trade agreement with Korea that provides tariff free trade in nearly everything. Expect this new agreement to... Provide for tariff free trade in nearly everything. Just like 6 weeks ago.

30 years after arriving in the US, I just resigned from Northwestern and we sold our house. We are an American family, I became a citizen in 2014, and until recently did not expect to ever leave. But now, this no longer feels like the right place to raise a family and pursue a research career.

We can't let the blatant, explicit weaponization of the executive branch against political opponents become normalized. We can't. Down that road leads death.

Steve Kerr: "I believe in academic freedom. I think it's crucial for all of our institutions to be able to handle their own business the way they want to. And they should not be shaken down and told what to teach, what to say, by our government. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

He’s threatening media companies who are critical of him. He’s talking about sending Americans to foreign prisons. He’s signing executive orders to investigate former staff members who spoke out against him. He’s defying the Supreme Court. Don’t you see what’s happening here?

Happening right in front of us

It's important for people to understand that we're on a trajectory that eventually leads to political prisoners (first non-citizens, then citizens) being sent to these camps.

If the U.S. government is going to take the position that, once removed from the United States, folks can’t be brought back, then it sure seems to me that federal courts should be reflexively and categorically barring *all* removals until they’re 100 percent certain that the removals are lawful.

I had been doubtful that we were going to have a "this is the crisis moment" with Trump, as opposed to "everything about this is a destructive catastrophe." But the Abrego Garcia case is the crisis moment. 1/

We’re in a full-blown crisis. The Supreme Court couched its language but was fairly clear that the Administration had to at least engage in a good faith effort to bring this guy back. These people are openly decrying the court and admitting they have taken no steps to try to do so.

Tomorrow’s going to be a good stress test of the press. El Salvadoran President Bukele will visit the White House. At the press availability, every Q ought to be about Abrego Garcia: where is he now? Did US ask you to return him? etc. WH will hate, maybe try to prevent, so all should band together.

NEW: The govt has filed it's daily status report on Abrego Garcia. ICE official Evan Katz declares Abrego Garcia was removed illegally, but that's okay now because the government has declared he's a member of MS13, and they have no further updates. WOW. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The lesson of the "China shock" isn't actually about trade. It's about how hard it is for workers and communities to adapt to rapid economic changes. Now Trump is trying to reshape the global economy overnight, with potentially devastating consequences. #EconSky www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/b...

This seems right, and all of this is WRONG.

Research and innovation in the United States depend crucially on our hard-won ability to attract many of the best and brightest to our universities. The US regime is exploding a bomb underneath this foundation of our future competitiveness and prosperity.

An innocent man, picked up by “mistake,” must not be allowed to rot in an El Salvadorian jail. Mr. President. Obey the courts. Obey our Constitution. Bring him home immediately.

In case you were wondering why we're leveling up. Well, we are fast approaching 1000 students and faculty targeted by the current administration. We have cases of visa revocations, detentions, deportations and many unknowns. Time to double down.

If my kids throw my keys on the top of the fridge and the they tell me that it's beyond their power to retrieve them, maybe I, as the adult in the room, should tell them they're not allowed to throw anything else up there?

HAPPENING NOW: Following the Supreme Court's decision requiring the government to "facilitate" the release of Abrego Garcia, a hearing before Judge Paula Xinis is about to begin. I'm in Greenbelt, Maryland for @lawfare.bsky.social Follow along for updates

Starting to think that we should sort out a general agreement on trade and tariffs, perhaps housed under some sort of world trade organization. Let's keep the region strong with some kind of of north american free trade agreement. Perhaps a trans pacific partnership could soften China's influence.

Nothing has prepared you to live under Trump 2 as much as growing up in 1980s/90s Latin America. It was exactly like that! The sudden announcements changing everything, the overwhelming uncertainty, the sheer vertigo and whiplash. Plus, the sense that democracy is fragile and could collapse...

Georgetown scholar Dr. Khan Suri, who was abducted by ICE, was refused food/water to break Ramadan fast, housed in a room without a bed, and issued *used* underwear. His child cried for days after he was taken and has since stopped speaking. ccrjustice.org/home/press-c...

Brilliant economic analysis by Marcus Hutchins @malwaretech.com

Tariffs xkcd.com/3073

I'm seeing a huge spike in interest in tariffs from people who normally don't work in the economics of international trade. Here are a few useful things to know about them. (1/14)

So the reason Norfolk Island copped a dramatically higher tariff than the rest of Australia is two shipments of Timbaland boots from the Bahamas and some aquarium supplies from the UK that had their point of origin mislabeled or misrecorded. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

For no particular reason, it might be a good time to repost my Starter pack of academic economists who study international trade go.bsky.app/G3dqAYg

With tariffs, Trump said, “we can be so much wealthier than any country, it’s not even believable.” He got that last bit right. www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

Those trying to understand the tariffs as economic policy are dangerously naive. No, the tariffs are a tool to collapse our democracy. A means to compel loyalty from every business that will need to petition Trump for relief. 1/ A 🧵 to explain his plan and how we fight back.