Neil Irwin

A thing about modern life I don't care for is every service provider hectoring you to give them an online review afterward. Constant texts trying to get me to give gold stars to the plumber, the furniture delivery guy, the pediatric urgent care, etc.

THAT'S WHAT THE MONEY IS FOR

Some personal news... I'm leaving Axios at the end of this month! Which means there's now an opening for a markets reporter. Apply here! job-boards.greenhouse.io/axios/jobs/6...

Was just thinking about how to my 5 year-old, Obama will be the equivalent of what Nixon was to me (a purely historical figure) and 9/11 will be like the Kennedy Assassination.

This is exactly what I’m finding. It’s fantastic when you have enough knowledge to follow up or push harder when something seems off. But in areas where you don’t have baseline knowledge. . .

Let's see how the magic computer answers:

This is very good.

I'll try anything once.

a woman wearing glasses and a blue shirt is asking what a week huh ? ALT: a woman wearing glasses and a blue shirt is asking what a week huh ?

Now, more than ever:

Sometimes you just have to let the robot know who's boss.

media1.giphy.com/media/XqpnXa...

Opinion | The weekend that shook the world Seventeen years ago, Bear Stearns collapsed over a weekend — what lessons remain today?

Stroll down (unhappy) memory lane with the great @vermontgmg.bsky.social who is out with an oral history of the Bear Stearns collapse/rescue.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/int...

For whatever it's worth, I have never met a Canadian I didn't like.

If you're just a guy who has covered central banking for the last 20 years and has known Mark Carney and his mindset for a long time, it is disconcerting to watch this.

Oil and gas activity edges higher; uncertainty rising, costs increase Activity in the oil and gas sector increased slightly in first quarter of 2025, according to oil and gas executives responding to the Dallas Fed Energy Survey.

Energy executives do not like what they're getting out of the administration.

"I have never felt more uncertainty about our business in my entire 40-plus-year career."

www.dallasfed.org/research/sur...

Not tactical military details, but on things like the decision of whether or not to pull the trigger they'd be in the room. Same reason the Treasury secretary is, by statute, a member of the National Security Council.

Treasury is the main agency that deals with terrorist finance issues.

And then it was of course smooth sailing in the months and years that followed May 2007.

Maybe time to get Elon focused on this.

Make the global safe asset shortage great again

I like to eat the occasional banana and favor an economic structure that makes this possible.

Consumer sentiment plunges in early March, inflation expectations soar Even among Republicans, sentiment declined by double digits.

It's just the preliminary numbers, for which n=~420, and sentiment hasn't been a good guide to consumer activity in recent years. But this is, um, really bad.

www.axios.com/2025/03/14/c...

Dude how many bay leaves do you buy?

This is maybe the most profound and important take ever for us to all internalize.

Is it, though?

I will never tire of a company with a [checks notes] $1.03 trillion market cap sticking with a the 1997-era-Geocities-style website. At this point it would be disappointing if they were to modernize it.

17 Reasons to Let the Economic Optimism Begin (Published 2021) A reporter who has tracked decades of gloomy trends sees things lining up for roaring growth.

www.nytimes.com/2021/03/13/u...

This chart from the BLS's press release tells the not-so-great story of where we are on inflation.

Hurts gets MVP, yes?

Ontario to remove U.S. alcohol from shelves after Trump's tariffs announcement The Liquor Control Board of Ontario will remove American alcohol from its shelves in response to U.S. President Trump's tariffs on Canada.

Things getting real for Canada-domiciled bourbon enthusiasts.

www.cnbc.com/2025/02/02/o...

I think perceived ubiquity is a factor. Those State Farm ads that air all the damn time . . .