Ed Dolan

Vast supplies of U.S. aid remain stranded, despite State Department promises More than 60,000 metric tons of food have languished in warehouses in the United States and around the world — with expiration dates nearing on some items.

I, for one, am all for cutting government waste. Why, then, is the government becoming a major perpetrator of waste? www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

Grasping at (Paper) Straws You can have government efficiency or wage the culture war, but not both at once

You can't fight the culture wars and make government more efficient at the same time. The see-saw battle over paper vs. plastic straws is a case in point, says @gabemenchaca.bsky.social of @niskanencenter.bsky.social www.eatingpolicy.com/p/grasping-a...

White House touts deal with Columbia as critics decry ‘chilling’ precedent Education lawyers and advocates said Columbia’s deal with the White House was a potentially dangerous government intrusion into higher education.

Can someone explain why this is different from a cybercriminal who steals your data and then promises to give it back in return for a payment? www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

Dressing the part In wartime Russia, political elites are literally wearing their patriotism on their sleeves — Meduza Since launching its full-scale war against Ukraine, the Kremlin has demanded total loyalty from government officials. In response, many in the country’s political elite have remade their public image ...

@meduza.io reports a bizarre trend among Russian elites toward beards, long hair for men, and traditional "patriotic" dress meduza.io/en/feature/2...

Why a war on the trade deficit won’t reindustrialize America - Niskanen Center President Donald Trump and his team are out to reindustrialize America. Our steelworkers and auto workers, the president says, have “watched in anguish” as “foreign cheaters have ransacked our factori...

2/2 Here is a full explanation of the math behind Krugman's comment: www.niskanencenter.org/why-a-war-on...

1/2 @pkrugman.bsky.social explains here why Trump's Japan trade deal, if fully implemented, will increase rather than decrease the US trade deficit. The key is the simple equation US Trade Deficit = Net Foreign Investment to US. ... open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Confused About Inflation? Check Your Dashboard!

2/2 Here is why www.milkenreview.org/articles/con...

1/2 To follow the rise of inflation, watch the annualized monthly rate, not the %change from a year ago.

Opinion | The Economic Drain of Mass Deportation A Dallas Fed study shows how much it could sap economic growth.

The only slim hope that Trump's Big Bad Bill will NOT trigger a major fiscal crisis is for GDP growth to increase. Already not very realistic, that hope is further dashed by a new study from the Atlanta Fed showing that mass deportation will send growth down, not up. www.wsj.com/opinion/dona...

Trump Threatens 50% Brazil Tariff, Citing Bolsonaro Trial That is the highest levy announced so far in Trump’s letters to world leaders this week, and comes after he wrote a lengthy message supporting the former Brazilian leader.

Trump's tariff policy is bad enough on economic grounds alone, but this is something else altogether. www.wsj.com/world/americ...

Housing policy and poverty: The case of California - Niskanen Center Policy strategies that increase housing supply and reduce housing costs should be viewed analogously to anti-poverty strategies that redistribute cash income.

"It's the housing, stupid!" Well, this new report from @niskanencenter.bsky.social does not go so far as to call anyone "stupid," but it does show that the high cost of housing is the leading reason for California's sky-high SPM poverty rate. www.niskanencenter.org/housing-poli...

"The Use of Knowledge in Society" - Econlib Snippet: What is the problem we wish to solve when we try to construct a rational economic order? On certain familiar assumptions the answer is simple enough. If we possess all the relevant informatio...

2/2 What happened to Hayek's view of prices as a mechanism for transmitting information? Not in healthcare! www.econlib.org/library/Essa...

Opinion | Surprise, the No Surprises Act hasn’t stopped shock medical bills Americans who thought they knew what a trip to the doctor was going to cost them still don’t.

1/2 Economists who study our healthcare system are frustrated by one thing above all: Not only are prices high, they are unknowable. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Greg Ip, @wsj.com: "If governments could borrow as much as they wished and set interest rates by fiat, why don’t more do it? Because there is no free lunch. If interest rates are persistently too low, something bad will happen, usually inflation." www.wsj.com/economy/cent...

BLS reports the unemployment rate decreased but the labor force fell by 130k and the employment population ratio was unchanged. On balance, a mixed picture on strength of job market. www.bls.gov/news.release...

You can’t fire your way to a high-performing government - Niskanen Center Instead of tackling the real challenges of performance management in the federal workforce, the Trump Administration is dismantling a century of protections against politically motivated firings.

@gabemenchaca.bsky.social of @niskanencenter.bsky.social argues that the admin's attempts to improve performance and accountability in the civil service are simply "cloaking partisan control over the civil service in the language of “efficiency,” and “fitness." www.niskanencenter.org/you-cant-fir...

How Medicaid Work Requirements Betray Work and Waste Money I Oversaw Work Requirements in Michigan - Here is What I Told Congress

Do work requirements for Medicaid work? No, says Robert Gordon, who has hands-on experience running such a program. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/how-medica...

3/3 Or a little of both? Here's my take: www.milkenreview.org/articles/the...

2/3 Or just learn to live with fewer people, like the Japanese? wapo.st/3Ggi5rO

Immigrants drive population growth in a graying America, census shows Immigration is driving U.S. population growth, partially offsetting a broader demographic shift as baby boomers age, according to Census Bureau data.

1/3 Should we fight population decline with immigration and other tools? wapo.st/44dEoGA

Who is going to bring in the harvest? And MAGA's effects on rural America don't stop there. paulkrugman.substack.com/p/maga-will-...

An Economic Analysis of the Jones Act Repealing the Jones Act in its entirety would provide the greatest economic benefits. However, a more moderate reform with strong economic justification would be to allow foreign-built oceangoing ship...

2/2 ... and here is a good critique of the old one www.mercatus.org/research/res...

Lawmakers give US-flag shipping a cargo boost The House approved legislation requiring that all federal commercial cargo be carried on U.S.-owned ships.

1/2 The Jones Act, the original legislation that gave preference to American Ships, was bad. The new one is worse.

This is the new one ... www.freightwaves.com/news/lawmake...

An economic reality check Officials clash at St. Petersburg forum over the perfect weather metaphors for Russia’s recession risks and the ruble’s strength — Meduza The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is known for the noise it generates in the news media, but SPIEF also hosts some substantive discussions. This year, one of the forum’s most consequenti...

Also this meduza.io/en/feature/2...

‘We really are in a perfect storm’ Russia’s finance minister admits federal budget is facing ‘serious turbulence’ — Meduza At an event on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov made a telling remark. In his words, the country’s federal budget, which has po...

Russia's economy in serious trouble, officials say
meduza.io/en/feature/2...

@paulkrugman discusses the bad job market for recent college grads open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

2/2 Interestingly, Zwolinski's embrace of the Hayekian option stops short of dismissing the label "libertarian" altogether, as Hayek himself did in his famous "Why I Am Not a Conservative." www.cato.org/sites/cato.o...

To Fight Authoritarianism, Libertarians Need to be More Pro-Liberty, Not Just Anti-State Blogger Noah Smith’s praise for libertarianism comes at an odd time but offers an opportunity to clarify the side that has contributed to human freedom and flourishing

1/2 What is the key value of libertarianism? Destruction of the state, or enhancement of liberty itself? @mattzwolinski.bsky.social does a good job of parsing this issue, which is newly important as MAGA captures the remnants of libertarianism. . . . www.theunpopulist.net/p/to-fight-a...

Just the facts, ma'am: New CBO estimates show that Trump's tax bill would take $1,559 from the average family in the lowest income decile and give $12,044 to the average family in the top income decile. www.cbo.gov/system/files...

You can’t fire your way to a high-performing government - Niskanen Center Instead of tackling the real challenges of performance management in the federal workforce, the Trump Administration is dismantling a century of protections against politically motivated firings.

In this piece for @niskanencenter.bsky.social, Gabe Menchaca criticizes the Trump administration's proposals for civil service reforms and offers some suggestions of his own that would more reliably improve state capacity. www.niskanencenter.org/you-cant-fir...