Tariffs as a % of GDP are at the highest level in more than 100 years amidst Trump's trade war—even though tariff rates are still lower than in the 1930s, they have a much higher impact because trade volumes are much larger than in the past

A case where the quote is even worse in context than out of context. JD is scaremongering about “Islamists” winning elections in the UK/France and then somehow militarily threatening the US. Saying we should hold Europeans and Africans to different moral standards but anti-wokely.

Miller:

Merry Christmas from my friends’ sheep

With US GDP released today (4.3% annualized), we now have Q3 growth data for every G7 country Here's each country's cumulative increase in real GDP, since just before the pandemic: 🇺🇸 +15.3% 🇨🇦 +11.3% 🇮🇹 +6.3% 🇬🇧 +5.3% 🇫🇷 +5.2% 🇯🇵 +1.0% 🇩🇪 -0.2%

Official data is in today, and US solar continues to grow rapidly, with generation up 21% compared to last year!

Real fixed investment in US factories inched down further in data released today as CHIPS ACT projects complete & tariffs weigh on the manufacturing industry. Construction activity is now down more than 8% from the mid-2024 record highs

Real fixed investment in wind, solar, & other "alternative" electricity sources inched up to another record high in GDP data released today, but growth has slowed down significantly over the last year

Yep, the AI boom is massive, but if you think all recent US economic growth is downstream of data centers, think again—total investment in computers & software contributed roughly 0.3% to the 4.3% GDP growth in Q3

Canadian GDP fell 0.3% in October data just released this morning, losing all gains from the prior 3 months Overall economic output is now roughly at the same place it was at the beginning of this year

US investment in computers continues to skyrocket to record highs amidst the AI boom—imports of computers also rose to new record highs as they remain almost entirely exempt from tariffs Real fixed investment in computers now is nearly $270B annualized

NEW: US Real GDP came in at a 4.3% annualized growth rate in Q3 2025. Consumption & government output increased, investment declined slightly (mostly due to inventory drawdowns), & the trade deficit shrank Nominal GDP growth (unadjusted for inflation) came in at 8.2% annualized

Addison highlights these types of comments from American conservatives, and I’ve seen this all the time and always think it’s especially deranged. America has the lowest density, most “single-family” housing stock of basically any modern nation and it’s still not enough for these people!

it is 2022. I am watching people yell about the economic data & the vibecession discourse it is 2023. I am watching people yell about the economic data & the vibecession discourse it is 2024. I am watching people yell about the economic data & the vibecession discourse it is 2025. I am watching...

most well thought out republican healthcare plan

Just finished Talia Lakshmi Kolluri's "What We Fed to the Manticore," an exceptional short story collection from the perspectives of animals as they interact with the horror & beauty of the human world. I picked this one up years ago and am so glad I finally read it www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

I actually think the internet would be better if you could send a small electric shock to 1 commenter per day. Here’s a guy commenting **on my article showing California is losing tech jobs** that maybe it’s not actually losing tech jobs **BECAUSE HE DID NOT EVEN LOOK AT THE 2ND,4TH OR 5TH CHART”

it is genuinely hilarious when you look at the consumer sentiment questions about media coverage, where the median answer to "have you heard news about the government's economic policies?" is now "yes, and I want to punch everyone responsible"

surely another 50% tariff on Brazil will fix this

Christmas book haul: I contain multitudes edition

Just finished two Japanese novels—first was Seichō Matsumoto's Tokyo Express, a great little detective novel told almost entirely as a puzzle surrounding various Japanese train & ferry timetables. I felt like the perfect target audience for this one lol www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

US coffee bean prices continue to hit new highs in inflation data released today, up 19% over the last year and 47% since pre-COVID

US electricity prices continue to rise in inflation data released today, up 41% since 2020 and 7% since this time last year

NEW: CPI inflation fell to 2.7% year-on-year, increasing 0.2% over the last two months Core CPI inflation fell to 2.6% year-on-year, increasing 0.2% over the last two months

funniest part of the Vivek op-ed in NYT today is him just randomly advocating for super baby bonds. plz get this Andrew Yang ahh policy proposal out of here. People will do anything but give low-income people money to spend at the time they most need it (when young children)

September metro job data is in, & 10 major metros have lost jobs since 2024 as growth slows Fastest Growth: Charlotte (2.9%), San Antonio (1.8%), Richmond (1.8%), Raleigh (1.7%), Columbus (1.5%) Slowest: Milwaukee (-.6%), Portland (-.6%), VA Beach (-.6%), SF (-.5%), STL (-.5%)

getting more and more clear that the WH has nothing left to offer on econ policy except zero sum lebensraum posting

slight edit to this chart, the axis in the top right chart cut off the -108k job losses for October

Unsurprisingly, Trump's immigration crackdown is not delivering labor market improvements for the US-born Over the last year, native-born unemployment is up from 3.9% to 4.3% while native-born employment has decreased by a similar amount

The unemployment rate for Black Americans rose to 8.3% in November, the highest level since 2021 and a 2.1 percentage point increase from the start of this year

Look at broader measures of unemployment—including people who want a job but aren't in the labor force or who are working part-time but want a full-time job—and the labor market is in the worst place since the pandemic

The US tech sector continues losing jobs—overall, employment decreased by 400 last month and is down 6k over the last year That's not as bad as the worst of the 2024 tech-cession, but extremely bad compared to the 2022 boom or even pre-2020 norms

Federal government employment is down more than 270k since the start of the year amidst DOGE cuts—that's nearly 9% of the Fed workforce The large drops in recent months are caused by many workers who've been on deferred resignation becoming officially unemployed

The US is losing blue-collar jobs for the first time since the pandemic—year-on-year job losses have hit 65k as manufacturing, transportation, & mining industries lose jobs at a rapid pace while growth in construction has nearly zeroed out

The US continues to lose manufacturing jobs—payrolls are down 81k over the last year, & another 5k jobs were lost in November Transportation (especially auto manufacturing), wood & electronics/electrical manufacturing are the biggest losers, but few subsectors are doing well

NEW US JOBS DATA: Non-farm Payrolls: +64k Unemployment Rate: 4.6% (+0.2%) Prime Age (25-54) Employment-Population Ratio: 80.6% (-0.1%) Average Hourly Earnings: +0.1%

Why should other countries sign deals with the United States when this president is breaking **his own deals** after less than 6 months? www.reuters.com/world/europe...

I genuinely affirmatively think that it is now a democratic imperative to spend as much time as you can offline. Read more offline. Socialise more offline. Discuss media you consume with other people offline. Out there is a real world full of people looking for real human connection - seize it

A friend got me & the bunny a bunny book. Talk about the perfect gift. Now if only I can get honeybun interested in reading…

EU industrial production rose 0.3% month-on-month in data released today, with Eurozone production up 0.8% Compared to this time last year, output is up 1.9% in the EU & 2% in the Eurozone Latvia, Ireland, & Greece were fastest growing while Bulgaria, Slovakia. & Hungary were the slowest

My karmic reward for this tweet is that someone was moving out of her apartment today and giving away books on her way out

Reading a bunch of books this year has really solidified for me how awful the internet is in comparison nowadays. Obviously in terms of general hostility but more generally in terms of lack of depth, insight, reading comprehension, base of knowledge, etc

DC Metro merch acquired 🫡

Trying to do some synthesis on the perpetually ongoing EU-US growth discourse here: 1) Undeniable at this point that the US economy is growing faster than the EU— ~5% more on a per-capita basis since pre-COVID. But importantly, this is mostly a recent phenomenon; pre-COVID growth was basically even

Parody of America to have the president live-tweeting misinformation about a mass shooting

Canadian housing permits jumped 14% in data released today, hitting the 4th-highest level in modern history as multifamily permits hit the 3rd-highest ever Canada is now on track to allow roughly 300k housing units this year

European employment rates held near record highs in data released today, with EU prime-age employment stable at 82.7% & Eurozone employment falling to 82% Malta (90.6%), Slovenia (90.1%), Czechia (88.6%) had the highest while Italy (74.5%), Romania (77.5%), & Greece (78.8%) had the lowest

There's always a local angle

Really great video on the trams in Rio, something I know basically nothing about before watching lol. Looking at how good the pedestrianized streets are makes me extremely jealous www.youtube.com/watch?v=knJr...