I’m back in Australia and, please, can we have a Shinkansen from Newcastle to Sydney to Sydney Airport to Wollongong? Or at the very least, 5G around Helensburgh or train WiFi?!

An old lady just asked me to open her bottle of water and my god I feel like a superhero

Journals need to catch up. It shouldn’t be that they ask reviewers not to use LLMs. They (we) do, but not in the “I uploaded the manuscript and asked it to write a review” way (at least, that’s not what I do—yet), but rather, “Here’s a bunch of stuff I noticed. Write it up as a referee report.”

Has anyone estimated the impact of Starbucks on academic performance? Because what do you mean *everyone* is doing some kind of homework in the one I’m in right now?!

Why do people who wear a turtleneck always look like they have an evil plot to rule the world?

Impressive how Japan Airlines (JAL) pilots and cabin crew bow as a group toward the passengers before going through the boarding gate. Japan Ichiban! 🗾

Meanwhile, there are weirdos out there still saying that wanting clean public transportation is fascist. “Oh, you’re bothered by someone taking a dump in the train?! NAZI!!!”

So, when did ChatGPT get so bad? Claude and Gemini shit all over it these days.

I regret to inform you, but matcha is still delicious. ✅

The speed at which UQ scrubbed Zizzo’s name from most of its website is rather impressive.

The fateful V-Day is approaching once again, please be careful out there, folks! www.huffpost.com/entry/valent...

Tremendous performances from both players. Alcaraz deservedly goes through. 👏🏽

This Alcaraz v Zverev match is phenomenal. 🎾

Royal Commission into the incompetence of strata managers, please.

I have no idea how the most basic thing—unmasking these people with guns on the streets of American cities—seems to be so difficult to do. Can someone explain this to me? Who—if anyone—is leading the case to stop these people from wearing masks?

We are excited to host this workshop together with @ckronenberg.bsky.social in Paris this year! Please apply to enjoy French hospitality, pleasant views of Paris (Eiffel tower included) and of course some fantastic research!

📣 Come join a top-5 strategy department in Europe and work with me on an exciting topic at the intersection of causal AI and strategy 🤖📈 I'm recruiting a PhD student as part of my Sapere Aude Research Leader Grant from the Independent Research Fund Denmark. (1/3)

🎗️

#econsky et al. I am happy to announce the #call_for_papers for the 2026 Economics of Mental Health Workshop! The workshop is hosted by @peibich.bsky.social at Paris Dauphine and takes place from June 22-23. They keynotes are @jcmecon.bsky.social & Marco Bertoni. 1/n

Editorial Manager asking for an “overall manuscript rating (1–100)” is so dumb. Does anyone actually put a number in there?!

I’m not sure what Libor is saying here, but I’m reposting it for the solid photo. 👏🏽

🚨🚨 Job alert 🚨🚨 Postdoc in Economic History at Tilburg University Come work with me as a postdoc in the beautiful Netherlands. The position is for 3 years, with very low teaching, and you'll have plenty of time to develop your own research agenda. econjobmarket.org/positions/12...

He does so many crazy things that literally kidnapping the head of government of another country *less than a month ago* is not on the front page of every newspaper.

A WP by Maximilian Longmuir @smaexie.bsky.social provides new evidence on the relationship between household investment decisions and wealth inequality, and examines the role of policies that support broader risky financial market engagement. stonecenter.gc.cuny.edu/publications...

NEW PAPER! We know that lead exposure is bad, but where is it all coming from? We show that used lead-acid battery recycling is likely much more important than previously thought - perhaps 1/3 of exposure in LMICs. LINK: www.cgdev.org/publication/... w/ @theomitchell1.bsky.social & James Hu

Hello from the Antipodes. 🇦🇺

It has been one year since the January 2025 suspension of USAID. In our new paper (with Annabelle Tan and @ashani.bsky.social), we treat this suspension as a natural experiment and examine how foreign aid withdrawal affects conflict dynamics. A thread: [1/7] papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

This is perhaps a career-defining (if not era-defining) speech from Carney. 👏🏽

Econ PhD Chess is happening this Thursday Jan 22 at 10pm ET! 1 hour of 3+2 blitz against fellow econ enthusiasts, all skill levels welcome! If you're not in the lichess group, fill our Google Form to get invited: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F.... More details in 🧵

I’m fairly certain this was literally the lunch price when I was still a student in Essen, which was nearly 20 years ago. “Inflation? I’ve never heard of her.”

We live in the Golden Age of Special Issues: thousands of guest editors & the largest delegation of editorial power, ever. 🧪 How is this power being used? Sometimes, to Publish In Support of Self in complacent journals. Paper: bit.ly/4sIY5Br Explore the data! bit.ly/4sNPLjV%3C Article in Science👇

If you'd like to embed a Bluesky feed on your website, check out this neat and simple widget: github.com/Vincenius/bs...

🚨new pub!🚨 link.springer.com/article/10.1... W/ S. Baert, L. Halewyck, E. Moens, A. Vandromme We show that small differences in age at school entry can meaningfully shape early career outcomes. A short overview 👇

I’ve stopped calling it “presbyopia” and started calling it “font size optimization.” Rebranding my way out of this one.

Yes, yes—suspended disbelief and all that, but Season 2 of Red Eye is genuinely crazy. One rogue man in the US Embassy in London is killing people left and right, including the ambassador—and, still, he manages to escape the building. C’mon.

1/ Lots going on these days, but I'm nonetheless happy to share a paper out today in Science Advances together with Simone Pieralli (European Commission Joint Research Centre) titled "Unpacking the growth of global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions". news.cornell.edu/stories/2026...

Now out in @globalpolicy.bsky.social ! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

And then there’s Apple Music. You ask Siri to play a song, and in many cases, it gives you a remixed version or a version from another artist, not the original. Like, what? Shouldn’t the original be the default instead of some unheard-of remix? It’s just all so stupid with Siri. 🤦🏽‍♂️

Is this the start of Siri being functional? No more “Hmm—something went wrong,” or “There was a problem with the connection”? There must be a case study on how Apple dropped the ball on Siri/AI out there. www.theverge.com/news/860521/...

Why settle for one when you could have two lighthouses?

The heat is genuinely oppressive out here right now, and it’s only going to get hotter as the day progresses. Cool yourselves, people! And watch out for the wildlife. 🥵

Die notwendige Kurskorrektur zur Wiederherstellung des Vertrauens in die von den USA geführte Weltordnung rückt immer weiter in die Ferne.

Good evening from Wollongong. 😎

After government agents kill you, you become and enemy of the state.

We are so back. youtube.com/watch?v=VhxI...

My JMP is forthcoming at AEJ:EconPolicy! Grateful to my diss. cmttee and many who read drafts—@imbernomics.bsky.social @erzoluttmer.bsky.social @joshua-goodman.com @erickaweathers.bsky.social @asheassa.bsky.social @kirabojackson.bsky.social @stephenlross.bsky.social Excited for upcoming projects!

This zinger! 👏🏽

So, now that I’m po(a)sting again (occasionally) on Bluesky, can someone please tell me how to change the date format from the nonsensical MM/DD/YYYY to the more elegant DD/MM//YYYY?

Two minor updates, friends: - As of 1 January 2026, I'm an Associate Professor. - As of today, the first paper I started writing on palm oil, about a decade ago, is in print in the Journal of International Economics. Read, share, cite. Open access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Oh, BTW, Jan is now an Associate Professor—an unsurprising promotion that warms my heart! 🥰 Congratulations! 🎊