Nancy Birdsall

Who Bears the Burden? Tracking the Global Impact of Recent US Foreign Policy Shifts Since January, the United States has adopted a range of foreign economic policies with negative impacts on the rest of the world, including higher tariffs on exports, taxes on remittances, and reducti...

See what countries are most affected (negatively) by recent US policy changes. Impressive analysis with depressing result -- poorer countries lose out most. www.cgdev.org/blog/who-bea...

World’s oceans fail key health check as acidity crosses critical threshold for marine life Scientists call for renewed global effort to curb fossil fuels as seven of nine planetary boundaries now transgressed

Better go see coral reefs soon. Take photos for your children Oceans are failing. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Catholic Schools in the Congo Ban Pregnant Girls Almost everywhere, girls who get pregnant in school are allowed to finish their education. Only five countries still have explicit bans or restrictions: Afghanistan, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Kuwait, a...

Please Pope Leo: speak to this foolish meanness. Sometimes it's embarrassing (and maddening) to be even a "fallen-away" Catholic: www.cgdev.org/blog/catholi...

Bill McKibben on Trump at the UN manages to be funny, sort of:https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/the-stupidest-speech-in-un-history?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=438146&post_id=174385635&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=jub32&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

I like this representation of headwinds!

Can developing countries expect inequality to fall post-structural transformation, as predicted by the Kuznets Curve?

@nbirdsall.bsky.social highlights unforeseen headwinds—populism, climate damage, and more—that pose new challenges ⬇️
https://bit.ly/45DsCr4

This Admin fears experts. I have think of colleagues/friends, now US citizens with US-born children, who are here thanks to those H1B visas.

WGA WRITERS protest abc & disney : “Writers against fascism — this isn’t just about Kimmel, it’s about our ability to say what we want and not be punished by the state… a chilling effect… you don’t capitulate to bullies…”

(from @moreperfectunion.bsky.social )

A Letter to America’s Discarded Public Servants You all deserved better.

Thank you to Bill Burns for his letter to US public servants in The Atlantic. Compelling on US best interests and full of the understanding and empathy the victims of Trump Admin/DOGE deserve. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

below, so well said: the government's "pitiful response to its own mistakes, which vary from simple ineptitude to willful noncompliance". Thank you to the "handful of federal judges"

Yes you wouldn't know Kirk's extremist views. . . .

America’s competitiveness and innovation capacity is being systematically eviscerated by the US Administration.

This will harm Conservative and Liberal Americans equally.

Good photo too @mclem.org

Statement from the American Economics Association.

Signed by

AEA President & former USDOL Chief Economist @lkatz42.bsky.social

Former BLS Commissioner Abraham

Former Treasury DAS & Chief Economist Dynan, &

Chair of AEA Govt Relations Committee Ken Troske
bsky.app/profile/mart...

Lesotho was one of the biggest successes of AGOA -- which meant 'liberation day' hit particularly hard.

Little early to see this in the trade data, but doesn't look great.

NYT reporting factories shuttered. People going from $7/day factory jobs to $1/day hawking on the street.

President Trump called into question the integrity of the Employment Situation report that the BLS released this morning. He accused BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer of deliberately reporting false numbers to reflect poorly on this administration. This baseless, damaging claim undermines the valuable work and dedication of BLS staff who produce the reports each month. This escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence and integrity of the federal statistical system. The President seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news. The Commissioner does not determine what the numbers are but simply reports on what the data show. The process of obtaining the numbers is decentralized by design to avoid opportunities for interference. The BLS uses the same proven, transparent, reliable process to produce estimates every month. Every month, BLS revises the prior two months’ employment estimates to reflect slower-arriving, more-accurate information. This rationale for firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit and undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families, and policymakers. U.S. official statistics are the gold standard globally. When leaders of other nations have politicized economic data, it has destroyed public trust in all official statistics and in government science. We call on Congress to respond immediately, to investigate the factors that led to Commissioner McEntarfer’s removal, to strongly urge the Commissioner’s continued service, and ensure that the nonpartisan integrity of the position is retained. The statement from the President undermines these tenets and politicizes data which cannot and should not be used for political points.

"...escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence & integrity of the federal statistical system.

"The president seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news.

"...firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit & undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics..."

Trump destroys our source of information about jobs. This is beyond irresponsible. He hates facts. He rejects truth. He doesn't want the public to know what's really happening.

And now the Bur Labor Stats down the Trump data drain:
open.substack.com/pub/robertre... @robertreich.substack.com.web.brid.gy

The Hellscapes of Their Minds ICE says it’s going to “flood” New York. Good luck with that

Paul Krugman on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, NY: a quandary for ICE (!) open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Has Brazil Invented the Future of Money? And will it ever come to America?

Yes! Brazil has invented the future of money....read about Pix: open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

U.S. Quietly Drafts Plan to End Program That Saved Millions From AIDS

Why isn't George W. Bush issuing a statement regretting what his Republican colleague Trump is doing to Pepfar? What has he got to lose? www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/h...

Impressive reporting from Pro Publica. I'm glad @mclem.org is paying attention to the cruelty not just the economic stupidity of the deportations.

This is so good (effective tariff rates of US). In some ways seems random -- makes one wonder if anyone in the White House has a clue about what they are doing to friends vs foes. www.cgdev.org/media/us-tar...

real effective tariffs country by country. (Why is Trump torturing poor Cambodia?!? ) www.cgdev.org/media/us-tar...

"Immigrants are the lifeboat of the (US) economy" (we are losing 1 m workers per year.... mostly due to aging). Listen to @mclem.org on this panel. . .Sigh...what's happening is perverse, and cruel too.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced Tuesday that she signed an executive order seeking greater transparency from federal immigration officials. She said the city will submit regular Freedom of Information Act requests to find out who ICE is detaining and on what grounds.

It is an impossible perversion of federal power to deploy US Marines against American citizens on US soil in peacetime. No civil war exists.

Really good, and really alarming....on what's happening in West Africa....

Newsom's retort to Ala. Senator Tuberville (re the non-riots in LA) : “Alabama has 3X the homicide rate of California. Its murder rate is ranked third in the entire country. Stick to football, bro.”