Open access in QJE!📢 Using newly assembled archival data, we show how the AMA's nationwide campaign against national health insurance, labeling it "socialized medicine" and promoting private insurance, helped steer the U.S. away from universal health care academic.oup.com/qje/article/...

“… the CDC lab that responds to outbreaks of the parasite cyclospora was downsized from 11 people to just 3”

this week i got to talk to @marthagimbel.bsky.social about our shared favorite topic/disease: US government debt www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nQh...

We need more not less investment in federally funded research. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

When families lose SNAP or Medicaid, they may also lose access to other supports for which they are eligible, including free school meals. These ripple effects can reduce children’s access to essential nutrition and increase hardship for families. https://ampr.gs/3SJsqm4

The World’s Superpowers Are Scrambling for an Edge. It Makes All of Us Less Safe. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/o...

Babies who don’t get the vitamin K shot are 81x more likely to develop a type of uncontrollable bleeding than those who do. But no federal or state agencies track refusal rates or subsequent bleeding. Following ProPublica’s report, two lawmakers are demanding CDC action.

U.S. tariff rules are a confusing mess, and even our expert got faced with her own surprise bill. But then she did some digging and realized she didn't actually owe the fee at all. Here’s how she found herself at war with FedEx: nyti.ms/4vQPAp4

Exclusive: The National Science Foundation is trimming this year’s budgets for hundreds of its traditional basic science programs by roughly 20% to 30%, even though its overall budget is down just 3%. https://scim.ag/4xY2KCm

Exposure to frontier knowledge through college courses increases educational attainment and earnings, by keeping students engaged and by building labor-market skills, from Barbara Biasi and Song Ma www.nber.org/papers/w35269

Gallsworthy 1924 “It was all of a piece with the modern state of things…the steady men pushed to the wall.The men to whom a pound was a pound, and not a mess of chance and paper.The men who knew that the good of the country was the strict, straight conduct of their own affairs. They were not wanted”

American doctor from Brown University who survived Ebola in 2014 and has worked extensively in the region: US expertise and resources are needed here to help contain large outbreak, including a new vaccine. www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Azzimonti and Titcomb find nearly full passthrough of tariffs into prices at the border, very little impact as yet on local labor markets from to rising input costs. www.richmondfed.org/publications...

Heartbreaking

Submissions for the #UEA2026 meeting in Chicago are due in one week. You can submit individual papers or propose a complete session. Session proposals get flexibility on timing/format! urbaneconomics.org/meetings/uea...

Using 180 years of US data to show that tariff increases reduce imports, output, and manufacturing, with effects operating through both supply and demand channels, from Tamar den Besten, Regis Barnichon, Diego R. Känzig, and Aayush Singh www.nber.org/papers/w35102

WATCH OUT WORLD Sixteen (16!!) of the globe’s top international lawyers are about to learn HOW TO WIN A TRADE WAR you can too! PRE-ORDER HERE 👉 www.simonandschuster.com/books/How-to...

China has increased its use of export controls, underlining Beijing’s willingness to leverage its power over supply chains as Xi Jinping prepares for talks next month with US President Donald Trump. by Joe Leahy, Cheng Leng and Wenjie Ding

Well argued and important piece by Maury Obstfeld pointing out that despite many wrong arguments to the contrary, the role of the dollar is not the cause of the U.S. current account deficit. Others wanting to hold dollars does not require a trade deficit. It never has.

New @nberpubs: "Tariffs in 2025: Short-Run Impacts on the U.S. Economy" www.nber.org/papers/w35064 "90% of the tariffs are passed through to tariff-inclusive prices paid by U.S. importers"

Journalists know that losing the Wayback Machine would be a nightmare: www.wired.com/story/the-in...

Horrific—certainly the opposite of pro-family or pro-life given the critical importance of human milk and parental care in the health outcomes of preemies. Moms post-c-section often depend on a partner to get to the hospital & help care for preemies remaining in the NICU. www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

About 8 in 10 Americans who re-enrolled in Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage say their health care costs are higher this year, including about half who say their costs are "a lot" higher, according to a survey from the health care research nonprofit KFF. https://to.pbs.org/47HpDOI

Even the doctors? Trump’s Immigration Policy Sidelines Foreign Doctors Amid Shortage www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/u...

A travesty: Forest Service Will Close Research Stations That Study Wildfire Risk www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/c...

Trump Slashed Science Funding. Now the U.S. Could Face a Costly Brain Drain. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/b...

War Will Push U.S. Inflation Above 4% This Year, O.E.C.D. Says www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/b...

Pro-life

Pregnant in ICE Detention: Handcuffs and Pleas for Medical Care www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/u...

Officials say an Afghan immigrant whose family said had worked with U.S. forces in his home country died at a Texas hospital after having been detained by immigration authorities.

Things are not okay.

War in the Middle East Threatens Global Food Production www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/b...

How are exporters in Asia trying to withstand the turmoil caused by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs? Hear from Indonesian palm oil exporters, Malaysian electronics and electrical manufacturers, Vietnam’s seafood and shipping companies, and more. trib.al/FynYjj9

NEW: The Trump administration took steps late Friday to try to delay the legal proceedings on tariff refunds by as much as four months www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/b...

On food assistance, we updated a paper explaining the benefits of SNAP’s broad-based categorical eligibility policy, which allows states to broaden SNAP eligibility and better support millions of people, as the Trump Administration seeks to eliminate it: www.cbpp.org/research/foo...

We’re moving from one phase of illegal, erratic trade policy — to a new phase of illegal, erratic trade policy. @nationalreview.bsky.social #Section122 www.nationalreview.com/corner/trump...

"A Government Tariff Refund Bait and Switch" www.wsj.com/opinion/a-go... This x 10000:

“The historic ruling is critically important beyond its implications for current trade policy,” argues Douglas Irwin, an economics professor, in a guest essay

The US clean energy manufacturing investment bust really is dramatic, and not slowing down. Great investment tracker maintained by @jayturner.bsky.social and students. www.the-big-green-machine.com/post-trump-s...

The Dow was at 43,488 when Trump took office. It just hit 50,000. So if you had invested $43,488 in the US, you would now have $50,000. But if you had invested the same amount in the rest of the world, you would now be worth $60,000. Lemme do a expla-youtube-nation www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYL5...

AOC: "I think we have to recognize that we are in a new day and in a new time. But that does not mean that the majority of Americans are ready to walk away from a rules-based order, and that we're ready to walk away from our commitment to democracy."

The rate of sepsis in Houston surged 63% after Texas banned abortion. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where hospital leaders empowered doctors to intervene before patients’ conditions worsened, it rose 29%. (Published May 2025)

2025 could be year decades of US tobacco control was reversed, say experts - The Lancet Respiratory Medicine www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...