The Abundance agenda has spotlighted supply-side barriers—housing, energy, tech. But one crucial ingredient remains under-discussed: workers. Without a dynamic, mobile labor force, efforts to build more, innovate faster, and deploy clean energy will run into a human bottleneck🧵

Increasing reliance on government transfer programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is shaping the politics of both parties. #SocialSecurity #Medicare #Medicaid #Politics #Economy #news

Yes. Nothing says “Kaldor–Hicks efficiency” like eating away at social surplus with tariffs, then using the nonexistent gains to bail out the people you just hurt. Link in the next post.

Thanks @benglasner.bsky.social & Adam Ozimek for making a compelling case for well-designed wage subsidies. "In our version of a wage subsidy, the government sends money directly to low-wage workers in every single paycheck, raising their hourly wage." #EconSky

The challenge: 21 million workers earn less than $16/hr, two-thirds are women, and in states like WV & LA, 1 in 5 prime-age men don’t have jobs. Too many Americans face low pay or no pay. So, let’s talk about what a wage subsidy can do.

The Trump Proclamation ignores what Americans actually want. ✅ 71% of Trump voters ✅ 78% of Americans overall …support more high-skilled immigration. Why double down on fear and scarcity when we could build a system rooted in growth and opportunity?

The Trump admin just “proclaimed” a massive new set of hurdles for H-1B workers to “protect American jobs.” Let’s be clear: this isn’t reform, it’s self-sabotage. High-skilled immigration raises wages, fuels innovation, and strengthens the economy we all share. The data is clear.

It is only de jure political censorship when it originates directly from the seat of power. Everything else is just sparkling de facto regulation of speech.

Roughly 90 percent of counties that are significantly reliant on government transfer programs — meaning that more than 25 percent of their total income came from transfers — went to Trump in 2024. What other trends do we find when we scrutinize the data? [1/9] 🧵

America’s housing crisis isn’t just about building more — it’s about building in the right places. Proximity to jobs, transit, and opportunity matters. #Housing #Innovation #HousingCosts #EconomicInnovationGroup #Economics #Construction #EconSky

Roughly 90 percent of counties that are significantly reliant on government transfer programs — meaning that more than 25 percent of their total income came from transfers — went to Trump in 2024. What other trends do we find when we scrutinize the data? [1/9] 🧵

From @benglasner.bsky.social: The new Distressed Communities Index from EIG helps us see how Orange County glam sits among nearby distress. Check your ZIP to see how close your neighborhood is to Bravo prosperity. youtube.com/shorts/N01mU...

The Real Housewives of Orange County are just a short drive away from struggling neighborhoods. The new Distressed Communities Index from the Economic Innovation Group helps us see how OC glam sits among nearby distress.

Reshoring high-tech manufacturing by taxing the very parts our factories rely on will not work. Great new analysis from Connor O'Brien and @jasonhehehe.bsky.social

Unemployment among Black Americans is creeping into a recession territory:

Currently at #Abundance2025, so let’s rehash something: We’re in a housing shortage, and OZs caused real, significant, increases in housing supply on the order of hundreds of thousands of new addresses.

The link to the Brookings Metro piece is here: www.brookings.edu/articles/the...

"American workers said the United States should pursue free trade with other nations by a decisive 51-point margin." Happy Labor Day! Fresh results from the new national survey by the Economic Innovation Group and Echelon Insights, written up by John Lettieri.

The president and his top officials have promised not only that tariffs will bring jobs back to the country, but that they will bring back specific kinds of jobs for specific kinds of workers in specific kinds of places. Looking like they are finding that promise hard to fulfill…

Where you live can determine how long you live. The less prosperous your neighborhood, the lower your life expectancy at birth. The relationship couldn’t be more clear. Check out this and other new insights from the Distressed Communities Index of the Economic Innovation Group.

By now you've heard that native-born employment is up by millions, according to the jobs report, right? Not true. Not conceivably true. That analysis is a multiple-count data felony -- as Census and BLS warn. I took a long romp through the details. jedkolko.substack.com/p/no-native-...

There’s no visible effect of AI on unemployment at this point. Workers most exposed to AI tend to have lower unemployment rates than average. While unemployment is rising for workers who are highly exposed to AI, it’s also rising for those who aren’t.

We don’t need misleading charts to show that housing is in crisis. The truth is absolutely enough. Use real wages, mortgage data, and a time-constant metric of work: Hours. Clean code, real data, honest storytelling. That is how messaging needs to be done.

Did you see the chart about 30-year-old homeowner and marriage rates collapsing? It’s smuggling in declining marriage rates but telling a housing story. Yes, homeownership is down, but not by nearly that much. Here’s the breakdown and the figure you should be using:

You can guess why I am re-upping this today...

For six months, I've said that threats to economic data have been more collateral damage than intentional harm. No longer. Firing the head of the BLS is five-alarm intentional harm to the integrity of US economic data and the entire statistical system.

In a new letter to Congress penned by EIG, a bipartisan group of more than 80 economists have called for proper funding and modernization of the U.S. statistical agencies.

In the latest from EIG’s American Worker Project, Pavel Brendler and Moritz Kuhn model how the Retirement Savings for Americans Act (RSAA) can help bring retirement security to millions of workers. Read more: eig.org/wp-content/u...

New research! The top 10% of income earners hold nearly 5x their income in total wealth on average. Folks in the bottom 10% have barely got less than 1x their (much lower) annual income in core wealth.

Let’s try something new. Economics through media narrative. Today’s, #Bachelor in Paradise.

Absolutely fantastic to see!

The Growth Incidence Curve (2000-2023) highlights that the bottom of the income distribution experienced faster rates of real personal income growth than those in the top of the income distribution, all except for the very top that is. Lifting the bottom and the top, but leaving the middle behind.

Just re-emphasizing this visual on the geographic distribution of reliance on government transfers. The transfer share of personal income runs highest in parts that are rural, old, and poor: Appalachia, the tribal Southwest, the rural South, and the northern Great Lakes. The budget will hit hard

Come work with us! 💼 EIG is seeking a Manager of Housing Policy. Learn more and apply here: eig.org/about-us/car...

Going to be a long reading list for the #BigBeautifulBill. Government transfer payments constitute a larger share of local area income than ever before. The Great Transfer-mation is a key window into the geographic, economic, and political realities we face as this thing keeps moving forward.

From @benglasner.bsky.social: New homes = locals can enjoy a rejuvenated neighborhood. Without more supply, rents spike and commuters/land owners cash in. OZs flipped that script by boosting housing growth. Is this uncommon? youtube.com/shorts/enjyn...

From @benglasner.bsky.social: Results time: +350 k new addresses in OZs—about double the housing growth of similar areas and at a bargain public cost. 🏘️🔥 Next reel asks why housing supply is so important. youtube.com/shorts/VFaAY...

🧵1/4 🚨 We have finalized our DID textbook! You’ve run out of excuses for sketchy pre-trends and mysterious TWFE coefficients. 📘 Credible Answers to Hard Questions: Differences-in-Differences for Natural Experiments By Chaisemartin & D’Haultfœuille. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Part 2 / 5 – Where Are OZs & Who Do They Target? Map check 🗺️: Governors picked 8,764 tracts with an average poverty rate of 29%. Translation: OZ dollars are aimed at some of the poorest places in the country. Stick around for Part 3 to see what those dollars did. #Econsky

Every. Time. It’s a bad jobs problem, not labor scarcity. “Many Americans aren’t interested in factory jobs because they often do not pay enough to lure workers away from service jobs that may have more flexible schedules or more comfortable working environments.” www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/b...

EXPLAINER | Part 1 of 5 — Opportunity Zones: The Basics Opportunity Zones turn capital-gains cash into long-term community investment. Keep your eyes open for Part 2: Where Are OZs & Who Do They Target?

NEW from EIG’s @jessrem.bsky.social: “Not Just Suburban Sprawl — Dense Places Can Still Build” open.substack.com/pub/agglomer...

Do you care about and work on housing policy??? We are hiring!

Opportunity Zones have had a massive impact on the housing market in recent years. “Since 2019, more than 350,000 new units have been added above and beyond what would have happened without the incentive,” write John Lettieri, Adam Ozimek, and @benglasner.bsky.social. eig.org/eig-responds...

The benefit of a tight labor market is obvious. Setting $0 wages for non-workers in the labor force, or all prime-age adults, makes the impact of a high demand for labor clear. Reintegrating sidelined workers is an essential policy goal, and it requires more DEMAND for work, not just supply.

Sen. Hawley says, "For decades, working Americans have seen their wages flatline." Median wages aren’t everything, but they’re not nothing either. In fact, even when we dig into the shortcomings, one story remains consistently true: The return to work is at a record high.