Nathan Converse

RIP hanging out at the video rental spot

Head of the U.S. Military’s Southern Command Is Stepping Down, Officials Say

"It was unclear why Adm. Holsey is leaving now, less than a year into his tenure....But one of the U.S. officials...said that Admiral Holsey had raised concerns about the mission and the attacks on the alleged drug boats."
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/u...

Belatedly realizing the Jornal of International Economics is in here!

Members of Steel Pulse, The Clash and Sex Pistols demonstrating outside National Front Leader Martin Webster’s house in 1977

Photo by Caroline Coon

#punk #punks #punkrock #PunksAgainstRacism #steelepulse #TheClash #sexpistols #NaziPunksFuckOff #punkrockhistory

Absolutely love this aesthetic. RIP

✊

(1) banger
(2) i wish non-economists would realise just how much time each economics paper takes to write (because of our norms about how thorough each paper has to be)

Kim Jong Un in giant pants.

Oscar Issac looking at some kind of electronic tablet.

Oscar Isaac in giant pants.

The greatest thing I own or will ever own is this old retail standee where Dracula casually reveals a coffin full of Doritos and Pepsi.

The NSF GSF was the best and most important fellowship an aspiring PhD could hope to get when I was in grad school. It allowed people at the not-fancy schools (I was at UCSC) to potentially have support that the people at places like where I currently work (Stanford) take for granted.

British politics was doomed from the day that Gordon Brown was forced by the media to apologize for calling a bigoted woman a bigot *in private*.

‘Completely shattered.’ Changes to NSF’s graduate student fellowship spur outcry The announcement comes months later than usual, leaving many would-be applicants stranded

NSF today released instructions for the next round of applicants to its Graduate Research Fellowship Program. A key group—second-year Ph.D. students—is no longer eligible, and students who are still able to apply will face an unusually narrow timeframe. https://scim.ag/3KlQkQk

when someone's peeling an apple before eating it i wanna tell em, hey put the knife away, you're thinking of oranges

“Decepticons team up with Mum-Ra”

A good resolution after the summer: get back into writing blog posts for the Banque de France.

To start with: "𝗜𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲-𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺?"

www.banque-france.fr/en/governors...

Interesting: One of the biggest users of H1-B visas in D.C. is @dcpublicschools.bsky.social, which got 183 in 2024 and 2025 so far. (DCPS appears in two separate categories below; I combined them.) If $100,000 fee for new visa applications goes into effect, I bet DCPS will use far fewer.

Argentina is in crisis. A US rescue may invite new problems. Despite the economic "shock therapy" imposed by libertarian President Javier Milei, Argentina is once again in crisis. The stock market is plummeting, dollars are fleeing, and the government is interv...

If the US supports formal dollarization in Argentina, it would weaken the IMF's hand, could create conditions for regional confrontation with China, & would be a one-way street—once a country adopts a currency other than its own, it's difficult going back.
By @mdebolle.com:

Serious scholars have examined what happens when we change the number of H1-B visas issued.

Cities that get more H1-B immigrants subsequently see the wages of natives *rise* substantially.

Skilled immigrants bring new ideas, fill labor shortages and make us all more productive.

Just FYI Oren Cass is *not* a real economist

Opinion | ‘No One Should Be Very Confident’: Four Economists Dissect Trump and the Economy The rate cut was the least of it.

My thoughts on the Fed, macroeconomy, tariffs and more in conversation (and debate) with Larry Summers, Oren Cass and Rebecca Patterson. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/o...

It’s a very slow hurtle

Happy to share the programme for the 9th edition of the "Political Economy: Theory meets Empirics" workshop, taking place over the next 2 days in Bremen, Germany. #EconSky

A Sunny Day is Coming to YouTube: YouTube’s Expanded Partnership with Sesame Street - Sesame Workshop Today, more families than ever before gather around the TV screen to watch YouTube. That’s why Youtube is excited to announce an expanded partnership with

Early next year, Sesame Street is making hundreds of full episodes available on YouTube. [sesameworkshop.org]

Why Mining Is the Dirty Underbelly of the Clean Energy Transition Thea Riofrancos, a professor of political science at Providence College, discusses her new book, Extraction, and the global consequences of our growing need for lithium.

I learned a lot reading @triofrancos.bsky.social new book on lithium mining, both a great intro to the economics and history as well as a frank reckoning with the contradictions of an energy transition reliant on mining. heatmap.news/energy/thea-...

YouTube video by The LuPone Dolls Patti LuPone Singing "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" | Grammy Living Legends Award 1989 (HD)

*ARGENTINA'S PESO WEAKENS BEYOND ITS TRADING BAND FOR FIRST TIME

youtu.be/7aqst6B8h5A?...

and don't come at me about Madonna. Patti is the one and only. End of discussion.

For your calendar: Woodley Park Day is Saturday from 2-6pm (Sept 20). Food, music, a dunk tank. Lots of fun.

10yr govt bond yields asset swapped to USD to enable like-for-like comparison.

Post no one asked for on how to compare bond yields across currencies (more) properly. on.ft.com/48fJTIf

Man I think about this like once a week

I don't regret much but I very much regret not seeing John Carpenter live when he came to DC in 2015 to perform his music and soundtracks. Every single day, bruh

STATISTICIAN The Bureau of Economics seeks candidates for the position of Statistician. Statisticians work directly with BE staff economists to (1) provide economic analysis in support of antitrust and consumer pr...

The FTC is hiring Statisticians in the Bureau of Economics!

This is a great opportunity for seniors or recent grads interested in antitrust and consumer protection economics, and applied microeconomics research.

Come work with me! Happy to answer any questions.

www.usajobs.gov/job/845835200