Zachary Bartsch

Organization of the Federal Reserve – OR, Why The President is Impotent against the Fed The Federal Reserve System attempts to mimic the balance of powers that is present in our three branches of federal government, and the unique short and long-term interests are analogous to the US …

Obama appointed 5 governors, Trump I appointed 2, Biden 4. It’s hard to say, but that pattern may be luck, or politically timed resignations. Even if Trump appoints a new Chair, that’s 3 of the 7 governors that he’ll have appointed.
economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/08/01/o...

I’m Chair! 😬 Depending on who I tell, I’m given both congratulations and condolences. Generally, at my university there is an expectation that department faculty ‘take turns’ being chair. So, we’re expected to …

I'm now Chair of the Economics Department at Ave Maria University.

economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/07/25/i...

I like FL. But their growth story is ≠ TX
Since 2005, FL vs TX:

ΔEmp/Pop: -1pp vs +1pp

%ΔALP: 22% vs 38%

%RGDP/Pop: 18% vs 40%

You, Parent, Should have a Robot Vacuum It wasn’t top of the line, but I didn’t need that. I just needed my family to be happier and less stressed. That was my wife’s birthday present this year. It was a very good decision.

A worthy use of resources:

economistwritingeveryday.com/2024/07/26/y...

US State Growth Statistics 2005-2024 The OP laments poor policy in Massachusetts. But compared to some other nearby states, MA is doing just fine economically. This is not the same as saying that the OP is wrong about poor policies. R…

Forget Florida. Utah is 43% more populous than 20 years ago. You don’t hear clamoring for their state policies. Idaho and Nevada also beat Florida in terms of percent change. Where are the calls to be like Idaho?
How does your state compare?

economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/06/27/u...

I had never seen the US Baby Boom been visualized in this way. Rather cool visuals. The chart assumes Baby Boomers to be born between 1946 and 1964. Source: buff.ly/ZYIwQiE

Eli Lilly’s Obesity Pill Appears to Work as Well as Injected GLP-1s New data from a Phase 3 trial show that the daily anti-obesity pill may be as safe and effective as drugs like Mounjaro and Ozempic for weight loss and lowering blood sugar.

Soon: "Eli Lilly’s Obesity Pill Appears to Work as Well as Injected GLP-1s" www.wired.com/story/lilly-...

"Of Course We Should Privatize Some Federal Land (but probably won’t)" marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...?
Righteous fury from @ATabarrok: "We should be building entirely new cities–freedom cities!–not whining about fishing and hunting on scraps of scrub." 🤣🔥

Salty SALT in the OBBB Who ends up benefiting from the deduction? The short answer is people who 1) itemize & 2) have heavy state and local tax bills. Who is that? Rich people of course! They have high incomes and lo…

Q: Who benefits from the deduction?
A: Itemizers with heavy state and local tax bills.

So the SALT deduction is a tax cut that primarily benefits rich people who live in high tax districts.
Where’s that?
economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/06/20/s...

Not ‘like’!
Genetically, they *are* brother and sister.

Dude, you gotta index that.

Retiring for $100 per Month If you want to enjoy $500 of real, after-tax monthly income once you hit age 65, then you can start your modest $100 monthly contributions by the time your about 36 years old – assuming you only pl…

economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/06/13/r...

If you want to enjoy $500 of real, after-tax monthly income for ages 65-80, then start your modest $100 monthly contributions by the time your about 36 years old. If you become a centenarian, then you’ll want to start contributing by your late 20s.

Trump supporters will sing the national anthem all day. But not “you’re a grand old flag“… “Never a boast or brag“?… Not really their style.

Data published by the BLS, BEA and Census remains best in class. No data are perfect, and all measures are noisy, but there's no evidence of political bias. These numbers are the least imperfect numbers we have, and ought to be taken seriously.

Per Capita Consumption: 1990 Vs 2024 Even after the pandemic policies have settled down, we are still SO MUCH RICHER – and even richer than we were with all of the pandemic-related stimulus. The worst consumption category since the pa…

"We are SO MUCH RICHER. Eating out is *up* 4.6% since 2020, increasing 31% since 1990. So, while people couldn't enjoy the the low prices of yesteryear, we are still better off than pre-pandemic. In the other categories, everything is awesome."
economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/06/06/p...

The Elon/Trump saga is just the latest example of how "fired" and "quit" are not well-defined categories, and should not be the basis for determining UI eligibility.

It’s reasonable to believe two things at the same time: 1) This building is ugly 2) This building type is sorely needed and we should reduce all obstacles to its construction [ALSO … #1 could have been vastly improved (by the Developer) without compromising #2]

It’s reasonable to believe two things at the same time:

1) This building is ugly
2) This building type is sorely needed and we should reduce all obstacles to its construction

[ALSO … #1 could have been vastly improved (by the Developer) without compromising #2]

We’re All Magical ut sometimes the field-to-general language translation doesn’t work because readers don’t have an adequate grasp of either language. It isn’t necessarily that readers are generally illiterate. It m…

"Math books translate English-Math. Broadly, all textbooks translate. They define terms and ideas with a base-language. We can get extreme and say that all books are translators, communicating the content of one person’s head to another."

economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/05/30/w...

Trust the science on rent control.

Not a Ranked-Choice Failure They were at an impasse. The department award winner is usually no contest. The person who excels in one area tends to also excel in the others. This year, the decision was so unclear and the facul…

"I could see where this was going. They would sum the points, be upset, and then decry ranked choice voting as a bad system. And that is exactly what happened. They summed the points, didn’t like the outcome, disregarded it, and then continued to argue."

economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/05/23/n...

Manufacturing Jobs of the Past The only good news in the income growth chart is for illiterate individuals. Those individuals had faster income growth when they were operatives, but it was still 0.5pp slower than the baseline po…

"The myth is: Manufacturing jobs had low barriers to entry so anyone could join. Once there, the job paid well and provided opportunities for fostering skills and a path toward long-term economic success."

economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/05/16/m...

What is truth? The Bayesian Dawid-Skene Method The beauty is that people who are smarter than me have shown that this process is convergent. That is, we’ll get a distribution of posterior image probabilities for each smoothing parameter.

A good one for the historians:
" The beauty is that people who are smarter than me have shown that this process is convergent. That is, we’ll get a distribution of posterior image probabilities for each smoothing parameter."

economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/05/09/w...

An Egg-cellent Consumer Surplus Calculation? They couldn’t really ask the coworkers what their WTP is. People are social creatures and have many reasons to lie, mislead, signal, and to simply not know. Since someone’s WTP reflects…

When you willingness to pay is the same as the market price,
economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/05/02/a...

Old Fashioned Function Keys Desktop computers display the entire menu of Fn keys as if to invite you to ask ChatGPT about them. Laptops, however, make us just a tiny bit stupider by default. The function keys share space with…

Desktops show the menu of Fn keys, inviting you to ask ChatGPT about them. Laptops make us just a bit stupider by default. The function keys share space with toggles for brightness, volume, etc and most laptops default to these rather than the Fn keys.
economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/04/11/o...

ChatGPT just answered my question by referencing my own published work. Thanks, I guess?

Now published: Human capital of the US deaf Population, 1850-1910 Myself and a student coauthor worked hard on our article that is now published in Social Science History. It’s the first modern statistical analysis of the historical deaf population. We bring an e…

Now Published at Social Science History:
Human Capital of the US deaf population, 1850-1910:

economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/04/04/n...

In class I auctioned off an $8 gift card. I was just trying to illustrate a standard demand curve. When I got a bid for $7.99, I assumed we were done. Then a boy in the back held up a $10. I asked him why he wanted to spend $10 for $8 and he answered right away, “I want to win.”

Keeping Receipts Online shopping is convenient and even the norm for many items. Going to the store sounds like a time-consuming labor or an exceptional outing. My family, for example, lives in a suburban location …

Did you used to keep your receipts?
Have you ever heard of a mail-in rebate?
It's all digital now. And we're all better off.

economistwritingeveryday.com/2025/01/10/n...

Reshape in Stata without looking at the help file

Tariffs: Bad for Revenue Economists are pretty united against tariffs. There are lots of complicated arguments. Keeping things simple, one reason is that they are bad for welfare. President-elect Trump seems to imply that …

There is basic math against tariffs - especially as a source of tax revenue. The bottom line is that the represent a carve-out, a very small portion of the taxable base.
Here's the math:👇

economistwritingeveryday.com/2024/12/27/t...