I really hope someone has been building a fundraising platform that will be ready to sub in for ActBlue when needed.

I plan to post this ABC News supercut video of Trump calling Harris and Democrats "fascists" (and "communists"!) everytime I see a Republican on TV whining about Trump being called a "fascist" by the left. Oh, the hypocrisy! Oh, the gaslighting!

We're witnessing the most aggressive, fanatical crackdown on free speech in my lifetime. The speed and breadth of government censorship and private sector and nonprofit capitulation has been astonishing. As has the lack of urgency/silence from people who've long claimed to care about this stuff.

The US taxpayers paid $167,000 to destroy contraceptives rather than sell them to a funder or NGO www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/h...

#econra #econsky

We (development econ faculty at Princeton) are hiring predocs, to start in summer 2026. Please share the application with folks who might be interested: rpde.princeton.edu/rpde-%E2%80%93-predoctoral-fellows-research-specialists-start-summer-2026 We'll review apps starting on 9/15. Thanks!

Me to my bank: Can I pls just get a plastic credit card? Bank: No. But just add it to your mobile wallet and don't carry it around! Me: Why did you switch to metal cards? Bank: They handle wear and tear better. Me: While kept in a drawer?

A metal credit card doesn't make me feel special. It annoys me because it makes my wallet heavier.

JD Vance said he doesn’t care if the US commits war crimes. Did it make the news? Donald Trump said he’s declaring war on Chicago. Did it make the news? Executive agencies keep posting Nazi blood-and-soil propaganda. Did it make the news?

We have a lot of bases in this exact layout too.

THE ICE AGENTS ARE WEARING FUCKING NAZI STAHLHELMS WHAT THE FUCK COME ON, YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP

A while back someone was asking me if my university was telling me to keep quiet amidst the threats to higher education. Far from it!

whaaaat!? that's so cool! literally just: weird_trick = D * X iv_robust(weird_trick ~ D | Z) to get the mean of X among compliers!

Are there systematic diagnostics to decompose how much of the variance of a coeff is due to (unmodeled) heterogeneous effects vs sampling error? Intuitively, seems like there are ways to get at it, e.g., compare variance of outcomes in treat vs control group to gauge heterogeneous effects.

somewhere in iowa, an erstwhile senate challenger is sadly folding up their "IMPORTANCE OF BEATING ERNST" campaign shirts

They're now saying it out loud: The Administration's goal is to undo the political independence that Congress granted the Fed, so that the President can directly set rates.

A 4-year limit on student visa length would upend PhD programs.

Please join me in signing and sharing:

DALL-E has figured out gender dynamics

If one day we remember this time as a brush with American Fascism instead of a full-blown descent into it, it will be thanks to people like Lisa Cook. One could take the “pragmatic” self-preserving approach that we have seen from so many who have bent the knee. Saying “absolutely not” is heroic.

A careful study of every populist episode since 1900 finds catastrophic consequences, which play out slowly. On average, incomes fall behind by nearly 15% over 15 years. For the U.S., this is a cost of about $13k per person per year. Over a lifetime, that's million bucks.

The email drama is so real. 🤣

These data from @adambonica.bsky.social are shocking. Scam PACs and the deluge of fundraising texts are an absolute cancer on the Democratic Party, and it ought to excised with extreme prejudice. data4democracy.substack.com/p/spam-pacs-...

basically every day of this administration is the equivalent of dumping the entire contents of the Smithsonian on the national mall and setting it on fire, if there was a Smithsonian that contained every public good achieved by the people of this country

There should be a clever term for names strategically included in tenure letter comparison lists because they have an underwhelming research record for their fancy position but the university higher-ups don’t know that.

KGB officer flatters narcissist mark

I really fucking hope this is the dumbest headline I read this month.

Campus climate surveys required by the federal government: Isn't the only equilibrium, if students understand the game, that everyone says their demographic group is discriminated against/they feel unwelcome on campus?

Tariffs are taxes on Americans. They are taxes on Americans who buy anything made abroad, which is essentially all of us. Giving us a sliver of the additional money taken from us is not a ‘dividend’. It’s taking bread and giving crumbs. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

As Redfin's Chief Economist, I rely on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for housing forecasts. I support the National Association of Business Economists’ statement condemning the firing of the BLS commissioner. Trustworthy data is crucial for business decisions and should remain apolitical.

We're hiring for a short-term (mid-Sept to mid-Dec) role as a field RA on an RCT about rural healthcare in northern Uganda. Must have fieldwork experience and ideally experience in Uganda/East Africa. Please share with anyone who might be interested.

Holy - and I cannot emphasize this enough - shit. Also, this guy was a senior project 2025 organizer.

I just tried out Refine on a paper of mine and found the comments very helpful.

Coming to the Royal Sonesta for NBER SI never gets old. Even after... three centuries.

Stunning charts show how disproportionately the Roberts Court favors the Trump regime. "This pattern exemplifies what scholars call 'autocratic legalism'—the systematic weaponization of legal institutions to consolidate power while maintaining the appearance of legal process."

Niche question: Academics doing applied metrics trainings as a consulting gig isn't something I recall from 10+ yrs ago. Is this new or my awareness is new? If it's new, are there more rapid advances now? More awareness of advances b/c of social media? Data science in the private sector who can pay?

I am so conflicted. Such a stupid timeline right now: Epstein, Epstein, Epstein But if this breaks the fever, hot damn.

I was explaining to my Ukrainian colleague the phrase ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’. She told me the equivalent in Ukrainian is ‘The only free cheese is in the mousetrap’ - which is so much better

I have a new review article w/ Alessandra Voena on women's power in the household in LMICs (just submitted to JEL). I've written ~6 review articles, and I think this is the best one. We make some useful conceptual points IMO. But you decide! Comments welcome! seemajayachandran.com/womens_power...

The rhetoric around cash transfers seems to conflate two things: 1. The studies powered and designed to detect GE effects have studied cash transfers. They find important positive spillovers. 2. An advantage of cash transfers over other interventions is that they have these positive spillovers.

The official DHS account is now tweeting about “your homeland’s heritage”

Killing MIT seems dumb to me

There are many annoying defaults in Windows, but one of the worst is to open pdfs in Edge.

I know this is beside the point (which is the NYT bias and ethics) but it's also an inane insinuation given that Mamdani was a faculty kid. He tried to fool the Columbia admissions office, who were familiar with his parents, by checking a box on his application??

They want the trappings of power (comfort), not using their power (discomfort)

I have a new review article w/ Alessandra Voena on women's power in the household in LMICs (just submitted to JEL). I've written ~6 review articles, and I think this is the best one. We make some useful conceptual points IMO. But you decide! Comments welcome! seemajayachandran.com/womens_power...

Hypothesis: Bullies get cited more, ceteris paribus

If the GOP reconciliation bill passes, ICE gets through FY2029: - $45 billion for detention, on top of the current annual budget of $3.4 billion - $14.4 billion for transportation and removal, on top of the current annual budget of $750 million - $8 billion for hiring/retention - Billions more.