Who’s eating the tariffs? You, mostly. @cnbc.com www.cnbc.com/2025/10/16/t...

Trump's CEA is circulating its estimate of the economic cost of the government shutdown. But, BREAKING: It's wrong. It makes a simple arithmetic error. And it's dishonest. Surprising, I know. 🧵

Hey, so I'm doing this thing next week, and it's a pilot for what I'm hoping will be a regular thing, and I'm really excited about it, and I do hope you'll join us. Signup here: myumi.ch/G2dZ7

Think of an economy as like baking a cake. H1-B visas exist so that if you're out of a specific ingredient, you can Instacart it and keep baking. Add a $100k delivery charge and you'll choose to: 1. Quit baking; or 2. Use an inferior recipe; or 3. Import cake instead of making it

Fed statement makes it official: Stagflation is in the room. "Job gains have slowed, and the unemployment rate has edged up... Inflation has moved up and remains somewhat elevated. "

The labor market continues to soften, according to the latest #JobsReport out this morning from the BLS. Payroll employment grew only 22,000 in August and revisions now show employment losses for June (-13,000). Over the last three months, job growth has slowed to just 29,000 on average. #EconSky

mood

So excited I got to meet @justinwolfers.bsky.social at the AP reading last night after he gave a very interesting presentation on the economics of AI. He was extremely generous with his time and stayed late to answer questions. Thank you Dr. Wolfers!

Lemme explain what bilateral trade deficits are, so that you can better understand -- and perhaps be infuriated by -- the intellectual error that's transforming our economy. #TeachEcon

Good news: April CPI came out slightly better than expected. Overall CPI rose 0.2% last month, and is up 2.3% over the year. Core CPI also rose 0.2%, but is up 2.8% over the year. So far, inflation remains on a reasonable trajectory, although we know there are shocks in store.

The 90-day pause on China tariffs is the largest reduction in tariffs since Trump took office, by far, but it still leaves tariffs significantly higher than they were on April 2nd and eight times as high as before he took office

Day one of Econ 101: Opportunity cost matters. Alcatraz brings in $60M/year from tourism. Trump wants to shut it down to house 300 inmates—that’s a hidden cost of $200K per prisoner. That’s not tough on crime; it's failing the midterm. #TeachEcon

Here are my best guess answers for this year's AP micro FRQs. Good luck to your students on Macro! 😄 Set 1: youtu.be/OvJEPCXj5xo Set 2: youtu.be/kn2DLa5_0Tc

Phew. Payrolls grew a relatively uninteresting (and positive!) +177k in April, and unemployment was unchanged at 4.2%. This economy is still humming along. NOTE: This is a reading largely from the pre-tariff period. Still very foggy about what lies ahead.

Hop-portunity costs, tariffs, and bunny suit economics.

Interesting example regarding the downside of tariffs. If you've got Mr. Beast fans in your class, you might get extra buy in. finance.yahoo.com/news/ironica...

Economics might seem -- from the outside -- like it's about competition. But really it's about creating the miracle of cooperation, where folks from all around the world enrich your day in a million tiny ways. It's that beauty that I'm worried about losing.

Not doing a full-blown CPI thread today (because so much news), but a few quick ones. First: Consumer prices fell 0.1 percent in March, the first monthly decline since 2024 (unrounded) or 2020 (rounded). #NumbersDay

I've been getting a lotta (positive!) feedback on this interview with PBS News Hour. It was sort of weird: Each question was of the form: "okay, but what about this argument for the Trump tariffs"? I just tried to use it as a teaching opportunity.

This is what I look like when I'm angry.

I pitched my NYT editor that folks really need to understand that the deadweight loss of tariffs rises in the square of the tariff rate. Despite the wonkiness of it all, they said yes--as long as you can explain that intuitively. Lemme know how I did:

My 12 y/o son was willfully ignorant of politics until he calculated the potential cost of a Switch 2 with tariffs. Now he is radicalized.

Finished adding explanation videos for the newer #APMacro FRQs. Hopefully they can help kids understand the logic behind the rubrics. Good luck prepping your kids for this year's exam! www.reviewecon.com/macro-frq

Just updated and extended the #APmicro graphs shading game it's now 96 questions (was just 29)! It's divided by unit to make it more manageable. The old version is still linked for those that want it. www.reviewecon.com/games-activi...

Every once in a while I get asked what other resources I recommend for AP econ exam prep. If you need something more extensive than a review booklet, 5 steps does a great job.

Economists know it, but politicians rarely say it—globalization massively reduced global inequality. 🧪 #EconSky

It's an interesting bit of MacroEconomic irony that, while Trump's threatened tariffs will not close the US/Canada trade deficit, the DOGE cuts might.

What Wendy said…👇

I need people to play attention to this 👇 and to what I said on Thursday www.marketplace.org/2025/02/13/t... The destruction of politics is coming for the economy

Turns out bird flu impacts chicken product markets differently. 🤯 www.newsnationnow.com/business/you...

This chart from the BLS's press release tells the not-so-great story of where we are on inflation.

CPI top lines

The 2018 steel tariffs just called to remind you that steel is produced by a tiny sliver of the economy, but used as an input by a much broader swathe of manufacturers. https://buff.ly/42ReSrr

When @benstiller.redhour.com responds to your reply, even a bad ending will make MB>MC for watching Severance. 😅 #APmicro

This is an astonishing (and beautiful) fact, and we really ought to celebrate it. The labor market is in very good shape, and continuing to improve. If the economy continues its momentum (a big if, to be sure), the unemployment rate isn't far from returning to its fifty year low.

This is what happens when you ask me to help sanewash the Trump tariffs.

The U.S. economy ended 2024 with • solid underlying growth (+3.2% real final sales to private domestic purchasers) • an unemployment rate at 4.1% • core PCE inflation rising 2.5% on a Q/Q annualized rate

I do love FRED! ❤️🥰😍 www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/b...

What are tariffs? Why do they matter? What do they actually do? New video explaining: 1. Their history 2. Why Trump likes them 3. Why the market doesn't seem to care 4. The economic impact 5. aha what's next though

🤔 www.reviewecon.com/trade-tariffs

ReviewEcon is excited to be on Bluesky! If you are looking to review and practice Microeconomics and Macroeconomics Principles skills, I've got 77 games and activities with 1770 questions to help you! www.reviewecon.com/games-activi...