Luca Rigotti

The letter is ready, thanks to all those who helped out! Starting to gather signature now, please consider signing (link at top of letter) & spread the word.

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Dirò una cosa assai poco originale: se i mercati, in particolare in questo momento quello obbligazionario, non gli si rivoltano contro di fronte all'assalto alla Fed, Trump andrà fino in fondo. Gli unici checks and balances per lui verranno (ove mai) dal mercato.

Seasonally, I would imagine

If you'll be on the #EconJobMarket this coming year, you may want to join this webinar by @aereorg.bsky.social, titled, "Navigating Uncertain Waters: Advice for the Current Job Market," with Min Gong & @adrienneohler.bsky.social. 29 Sept 2025 @ 11am ET.

What's my room number?

Commiserations

Need to add acid bath concrete pilon to the list of weapons

OpenAI claims new GPT-5 model boosts ChatGPT to ‘PhD level’ GPT-5's release comes as tech firms continue to compete in an effort to claim the world's most advanced AI.

As if Ph.D. level is a good thing
bbc.com/news/article...

Join us in congratulating Steven Berry (@steveberry.bsky.social), who was recently appointed the Sterling Professor of Economics—the highest academic honor a Yale professor can receive.

Berry joined Yale in 1988 and is the inaugural director of the
Yale Tobin Center: news.yale.edu/2025/07/22/b...

Archdukes died for much smaller offenses

Reminded me of my own ceremony, a few years back

Even the most hardened haters will have to admit that yesterday was awesome at the CWC (Messi + PSG loss). Again establishing the ancestral truth: Fifa sucks, but football is awesome, and always triumphs.

Pitt Junior faculty rock!

But then you point out to them that you live in Turin...

Air Italy had one

With more than one airline (a small airline called Neos is the other)

Werner Von Braun would like a word.

Also, do the Manhattan Project.

Von Neumann, Fermi, Szilard, Wigner - and Einstein, whose letter got the ball rolling. To name just a few.

Or American mathematics: Courant, Kac, Lax, Wald...

Chapeau

In somewhat stylized terms, what may be happening with the Trump regime goes as follows. There is a Leader (Duce, Führer, Vozdh) who demands absolute loyalty from his subordinates. The subordinates know that they will be rewarded for implementing the will of the Leader. They compete for his attention. Lines demarcating their authority do not matter: the head of HHS Department tries to catch Leader's attention by doing something that formally can be done only by DoE Department and if the Leader notices and likes this action, the head of the HHS jumps in his approval above the head of DoE. Sometimes the subordinates go farther than the Leader would want; sometimes they do something the Leader does not approve. Such mistakes, however, are not due to a lack of expertise, but only the uncertainty inherent in the impossibility of the Leader to fully articulate his will. Sometimes the Leader has to step in to adjudicate conflicts. Some of his underlings may be pushing tariffs while others may want free trade; some may be concerned about deficits while others believe that they will pay for themselves. Moreover, envy and jealousy cannot be avoided when the underlings compete for the Leader's favor. Mussolini claimed that resolving such conflicts took most of his time. Yet, whenever loyalty is the only criterion of performance, chaos must ensue. The only purpose of the subordinates is to please the Leader. Formal authority, consideration of material consequences, or compassion have no place in their competition.

The description below, from this week's @adamprz.bsky.social Diary, strikes me as very plausible.

Italy: the country with the most colorful elections

che giorno triste

Be a theorist. At worst, your theorem is wrong and everyone thinks you're a moron... Still better than everyone discovering you're a fraudster and a cheat.

Be a theorist. At worst, your theorem is wrong and everyone thinks you're a moron... Still better than everyone discovering you're a fraudster and a cheat.

Ying and Yang?

Steven Berry Elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Join us in congratulating Steven Berry on his election to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors bestowed on a U.S. scientist or engineer!

Read the announcement here: tobin.yale.edu/news/250503/...

#REStud_Tour 2025 started today in the University of Padova @dsea-unipd.bsky.social .

Check out the excellent JMPs of this year's tourists!

economia.unipd.it/en/restud-to...

Oral exam have the drawback that some students may freak out and "freeze". Not fatal, but something to be aware of. When I was a PhD student, the department figured out the only students who failed the oral exam were foreigners who froze, so the exam structure was changed to minimize that.

One has to worry about the formatting a lot :)
I do not use blue books, just stapled pages, and no question takes longer than one page. This, I imagine, can be a serious limit. I have not tried, but maybe it's possible to have questions run on multiple pages.

For larger classes I and my colleagues use Gradescope. You scan the written exams to a website, and then TA grade them using a preset rubric with comments. Grading can go fast. For many, but not all, classes this can work quite well.