“the Downzoning was driven less by elite ideas than by the way that the Downzoning served the perceived interests of homeowners.” Fascinating history of low-density urban initiatives and the economic incentives behind their success (and sometimes failure!) worksinprogress.co/issue/the-gr...

🆕 Everything you need to know about a PhD in economics In this blog post, @AbdouNdiayeNYU provides a set of answers to many of the most common questions about economics PhDs: voxdev.org/topic/everyt...

I suspect democratic theorists and policy analysts are getting back to it (source: www.jstor.org/stable/27644...)

Gets it right.

Frankly, I’m done with 2026

we have gone through to a mirror universe where instead of the government not caring about twitter because it isn’t real life, it doesn’t care about real life because it isn’t twitter

It is with deep sadness that the Paris School of Economics community and the academic world have learned of the passing of Roger Guesnerie, its founding president. His intellectual legacy will continue to inspire the academic community.

There’s a point (long gone in the land of the free™️) beyond which “both sides” doesn’t make you look nuanced, smart, or evenhanded. You are just a dumb, coward collaborationist.

“Todo ser humano vive una época en la que anhela el futuro y una época en la que anhela el pasado”. Kallifatides, “Campesinos y señores”

A new paper by George Borjas—who served this past year in the Trump White House designing some of its anti-immigration policies—claims to display evidence of ideological bias among researchers who study immigration. doi.org/10.1126/scia... 🧵 Thread—>

Como adulto, la perspectiva del día de Reyes pierde bastante

BIG NEWS! Utah's chapter of the ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the state for its banning of 22 books from all public school students. This case could have massive implications nationwide. bookriot.com/utah-sued-ov...

BBC journalists have been banned from describing the kidnapped Venezuelan leader as having been kidnapped. The BBC News Editor has sent this to BBC journalists.

I’m increasingly hearing people around me asking AI medical questions, whether something is safe for their babies… Folks: don’t.

My wife took this picture during the Reyes Magos’ parade (my first in 20 years), and there’s a chance I was enjoying it more than my 7 year old….

I have a new paper w Andrea Prat & Jake Spitz. We show that Republican appointed Supreme Court Justices vote in favor of the richer party by over 70% today, as compared to D’s at 30%. In the 1950s and both were at 50%. This strong trend may contribute to rising inequality. www.nber.org/papers/w34643

Network externalities and first-mover advantage are sadly more powerful and resistant to decency concerns than I anticipated…

The leaders of all Nordic countries - Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland - express their strong support for Denmark and Greenland. What a time to live in, where this needs to be said.

5 de enero: los Reyes Magos acaban de encontrar todos los regalos faltantes

"Looking at the share of a justice's decisions that favor the wealthy over the course of our analysis period, we see that the court becomes more and more polarized along partisan lines." www.nber.org/papers/w34643 American democracy is truly in dire straits...

Tragedy and farce. All at once.

More immigrants => better health for Americans. More deportations => worse health.

Complementary bads

What an unhinged way to frame bombing a country, killing 40 people for no reason, and kidnapping a leader of another country.

Spain 'strongly condemns' violation of international law in Venezuela, PM says reut.rs/49CNU9Y

THREAD: I'll fact-check all the viral misinformation about the US military operation in Venezuela in this thread This image, purporting to show the US military arresting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, is AI-generated. According to Google's SynthID detector, it was created using Google AI.

This doesn’t make any sense. The Venezuelan government, even if autocratic, isn’t a single-actor one. Maduro’s ruling coalition suddenly evaporated or agrees with this? (source: NYT)

Impressively clear and comprehensive repudiation of Trump's attack by the NY Times www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/o...

❤️ www.sltrib.com/news/2026/01...

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

This is very wrong, and I feel very sad and angry. Not much else to say.

2026 met expectations fast 😞

ESTO ES IMPORTANTE Si alguien modifica una foto tuya (Photoshop, IA…) para desnudarte o denigrarte: 1. Ve a la web de la ONG stopncii.org 2. Sube la foto original y la modificada. Borrarán la modificada de todas partes en internet. Debes ser mayor de edad y ser foto de ti, no de otros.

This feels like a culmination of several deep pathologies: congressional passivity, executive aggrandizement, national security exceptionalism, politics as theater, war as theater.

The president cannot unilaterally declare war. At least with Iraq, they made a public case for regime change and held a congressional vote.

Lol, DHS is trying to depict the ideal America by stealing a foreign artist's work

“Le problème n’est pas qu’il existe des individus médiocres. Le problème est que des architectures de prestige et de contrôle peuvent sélectionner des profils dont la compétence principale est de naviguer dans l’architecture.” (à propos des universités)

... and b) so far as there's anything more than propagandistic lies it's just pure aesthetic. See how nice and cool that seems, how does it make you feel? That feeling, associate it with fewer dark people: the end.

Wrong question imo, cos fascists don't work like that. It's not even magical thinking. It's a combination of a) lying, they don't even really think ease and prosperity are good if they got their way on this they'd actually just want a new war to fight, but they're trying to draw people in...

What is the theory of the case whereby getting rid of the brown and black people leads to ease and prosperity?

"The era of the business idiot" freakonometrics.hypotheses.org/87139

35 minutes into 2026: no apparent discontinuity

"La mayoría de las desgracias que nos golpean se deben a que intentamos vivir una vida que nuestra alma no aguanta". Theodor Kallifatides, "Madres e hijos"

Wanna see real-life miracles? Fund scientific research. A team of US scientists just cured Alzheimer’s in mice — and there is now hope that the disease can be reversed in humans. futurism.com/health-medic...

“Vaccination reduces cases by 80 percent, the direct effect. This protection spills over to close contacts, producing a ­ household-level indirect effect about ­ three-fourths as large as the direct effect.” www.google.com/url?q=https:...

Saw Bluesky described as where elder millennials go to retire from the internet, and immediately felt the peace that passes all understanding wash over me. None of have to struggle any longer. We completed our time.

Excellent question and it so happens that back in August our editors picked five books each to make a reading list: www.liberalcurrents.com/the-liberal-... Now, at the time, we did that as a post for patrons only. But you know what, let's make it public today. 🍾

Same with revised papers. Santa is in really poor shape.

Very cool online tool that let's you see how your life might have turned out if you had been born in a different place on the planet. The biggest lottery in life is the "lottery of birthplace":

The Inequality in Hollywood is SHAMEFUL.