My friend Anne found out she has an aggressive form of breast cancer on the same afternoon that DOGE fired her from the CFPB. As she started chemo, she got rehired. Then fired again. Then rehired again... www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Hell yeah, @nickbaumann.bsky.social rules www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2025/05/0...

Nothing to see here, just the Middle East envoy's son traveling the world, hat in hand, accepting "investments" in a crypto project directly benefiting President Trump.

🚨Just published 🚨 The Atlantic’s latest cover story, by @ashleyrparker.bsky.social and @michaelscherer.bsky.social, is the deeply reported story of Donald Trump, how he returned to power, and what he is going to do next www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Budget Lab on the new tariff rates. $4,400 per household.

punching ourselves in the face more softly, returning to the issue of how hard we should punch ourselves in the face in 90 days www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...

cowards enabling a tyrant www.politico.com/live-updates...

Liberation Day is risking a market panic, a financial crisis, a stagflationary recession, who knows what else. It's up to Congress to rein in the White House, if Trump won't change course. I'm not optimistic. www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...

just checkin' in on my hedges

Cars from Mexico and Canada are being hit with tariffs *now*, even if they are compliant with the USMCA. US officials saying don't worry, trust us, we'll refund you the amount associated with any US content when we all work out how to calculate it. Trust us... on.ft.com/4cvyVPi

If the tariffs stay in place, it's not just that stuff is going to get more expensive. Some things won't be available; the variety of consumer goods we're used to is going to collapse. Cars feel like the obvious item in the first category; clothing and textiles the second.

the line is going up, do not worry bsky.app/profile/cwar...

Minor thing I keep thinking about: Free trade agreements are notoriously excruciating to negotiate. Hundreds of unions and special-interest groups go to the mattresses over a thousand finicky provisions in a dozen+ rounds of negotiations. Takes years! Trump unilaterally torched 14 FTAs last week.

From Bellingham to Calais, American border towns are already in a downturn thanks to tariffs + reduced visits from our Canadian neighbors. A look at what might be coming for many other communities across the country: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Border towns with Canada are already in a downturn thanks to tariffs + reduced visits from our neighbors to the North. A look at what might be coming for many other communities across the United States:https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/04/recession-tariffs-canada-trump/682297/

American war planning usually takes place in highly secure facilities. But the Trump administration planned its strikes on the Houthis using a group chat—and accidentally included The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. theatln.tc/IuULQFiY

TN bill would make it a crime to hide or harbor undocumented immigrants is making its way through the state legislature in Tennessee. This could endanger mixed-status families as well as churches/non-profits that traditionally help people no matter their status tennesseelookout.com/2025/03/20/t...

New — I wrote about the armed break-in at the US Institute of Peace and the subsequent court hearing that showed Trump and DOGE's threats of violence may be influencing legal decisions.

I don’t know if Facebook trying to legally stop an ex-employee from promoting her tell-all book about the company will end up as a true Streisand Effect situation but it did just make me order a copy immediately in case they manage to get it pulled from stores too lol

Bit of a fine needle to thread, but anyone know someone who just had a baby or is about to have a baby in Maine? (I have some questions about the birth registration / Social Security process!)

To be clear: These are cuts. If you make programs hard or impossible to access, that is a cut. And these cuts fall hardest on people with health problems, disabilities, literacy challenges, connectivity challenges, rural folks. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Recessions kill people. They cause foreclosures, bankruptcies, homelessness. They lower *lifetime* earnings trajectories. They make it harder for young, old, and disabled workers to find jobs, as well as people with criminal records. They reduce entrepreneurship. www.cbsnews.com/news/lutnick...

Are we on the verge of an actual, literal vibecession? If consumers act like we're in a downturn, we'll end up in one. And the White House isn't helping. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Just last week, RFK Jr. said falsely that “if you are healthy, it’s almost impossible for you to be killed by an infectious disease in modern times.” This is the story of the 6-year-old girl who died from measles in Texas: www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

The detention of Mahmoud Khalil puts all Americans fundamental rights at risk. And if you can’t see that because you oppose his politics, well that’s exactly the reaction Trump and his cronies are counting on. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

ME, BUT BETTER comes out tomorrow! Last day to preorder 😜 bookshop.org/p/books/me-b...

DOGE just suspended enumeration at birth in Maine, so you were correct. www.pressherald.com/2025/03/06/s....

Trump's crypto reserve fund isn't a pet project or strategic investment. It's crony capitalism, strip-mining public resources for private gain: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

🎙️ON AIR: We're speaking w/ KQED's politics correspondent Marisa Lagos, The Atlantic's @annielowrey.bsky.social and former Middle East negotiator and advisor Aaron David Miller about President Trump's speech last night and the most recent news from his administration . 📻 Listen:

well, stagflation's going to be fun to try to get out of

hey guess what trump's numbers about social security are total horseshit www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

The IRS manages 3,000 returns per employee, and collects $57m per employee. It's a hyper-efficient benefits administrator; its budget is 67 times smaller than the military budget. What are we doing here. (I mean, I know what we are doing here.) apnews.com/article/irs-...

Reminder that the Census determines how federal dollars, and House seats, are allocated. This is, yet another, five alarm fire.

George, the first story is about how cartelization is in part responsible for high egg prices; the second is about why consumers kept spending as prices rose in 2022, and seem to have become less price-sensitive in general. You have to read the articles, my guy. bsky.app/profile/geor...

Since this has somehow risen to the level of death threats (!?)... the article doesn't say eggs should be more expensive! It actually says... a. it took billions in farm, infrastructure, and tech $$ to get them this cheap, given how fragile they are b. prices are *high* due to cartelization

Working on credit card story. Are you struggling with an insane APR? Or are you a card-accumulating, airline-lounge-skipping points-savant? (Both?) I'm [email protected] and annielowrey.25 on Signal.

How eggs went from being something nobody bought to something supplied by an animal-immiserating, price-fixing, price-gouging cartel that crushes small farms and is making the bird-flu crisis worse. (Prices aren't coming down anytime soon, btw.) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Trump (on chickens and eggs): vaccines save lives, PPE and biosecurity measures work, and importing goods lowers prices bsky.app/profile/nyti...

New — I wrote about how the 5 bullets email is nothing but an escalation of Musk and the Trump administration’s psychological war on federal workers. Read here:

Amy Paris was hired to help modernize the nation's donor organ network, which ensures critically-ill people get the organs they need. She was also let go. "We had alignment from Democrats and Republicans on the Hill, we had funding, and they were hiring more of us.”

On the five-bullet-points DOGE homework: Now heard from civil servants in multiple agencies who haven't been *tasked* with doing much. They'd do more if they had directives from the top, but they don't; they're terrified of doing something that would get them fired.

The attacks on DEI are a pretext for a much more radical agenda of reversing the gains of the civil rights movement, an objective the Trump administration is pursuing with zeal. A Great Resegregation. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

New, from me @theatlantic.com: *No, the federal government is not too big *It has real human capital needs *Firings are indiscriminate, weakening state capacity *Creating a toxic and politicized workplace is driving away dedicated employees www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

New from @karenhao.bsky.social: more than a dozen workers in federal agencies outline how the administration is pushing a new ideology and stoking paranoia within the government’s ranks. “People are terrified,” one source said, “not for losing their jobs but for losing democracy.”

A week of conflicting statements makes me wonder whether Trump's staff knows what he really thinks about Medicaid -- or, honestly, whether Trump himself knows But I think the ambiguity tells us a lot --about where this debate is headed, how he'll act and what the program's defenders need to do

An irony of the current moment: Layoffs aren't "efficient" for businesses! They don't improve margins, boost valuations, or lead companies to outperform their peers. They're expensive!! Bad for morale!! Hinder the performance of retained workers!! A sign of mismanagement, not leadership!

On changes to #NIH indirect rates, there is a law in place that prohibits NIH from making such changes without the approval of Congress. See Division D, Title II Section 224 of The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (Public Law No: 118-47) grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Biomedical research is... 1. high-return 2. a minuscule part of the budget 3. an American strength, redounding to firms and to individuals 4. not a major source of graft 5. a source of some bloat, sure, but how does this address it? grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Nonpartisan civil services are more efficient, more productive, more experienced, higher morale, protect taxpayers against graft, and are associated with lower sovereign-debt costs and stronger growth. Supporting them shouldn't be a partisan thing! www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Trump's bringing back the spoils system, and it's not going to make America great again. Fun fact: the quote "to the victor belong the spoils" comes from an Andrew Jackson supporter, not, like, ancient Rome. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...