James Feigenbaum

Kind of like the opposite of Leo Lionni's Frederick? Frederick lazes around collecting culture while the good field mice collect food for winter

Prof. Elizabeth Wrigley-Field Discusses Excess Deaths Because the US death rate has exceeded that of 21 other high income countries for over four decades, an estimated 14.7 million US lives have been lost since1980.

New podcast episode where I talk about what's going on with mortality in the US

A wide-ranging discussion of what happened before the pandemic & what's happened since then; racial disparities and how to get our heads around their scope; why things might be going so badly for Millennials & Gen Zers

I mean that's fine too but if we're building anyway, might as well make a dent in the housing shortage and get the schools for free by creating market rate units out of thin air

Pay for the schools (and the teachers and so much more) by putting another 50 stories of housing on top?

"Nice convenient train you take to Boston from Newtonville, wouldn't it be great if we don't let anyone else move here near transit?"

Bold choice for the NIMBYest candidate running for Ward 4 at large in Newton to send a canvasser this morning to the commuter rail station #mapoli

I guess actually I should randomize which half I outsource. Test my advising against the machine. Feels like something irb will love

Going to outsource my phd student advising to some wrapper for chatgpt or Claude. What could go wrong?

It is scandalous that speed cameras are currently illegal in Massachusetts. Thankfully, the 2026 budget tries to change this
budget.digital.mass.gov/govbudget/fy...

Me, presenting my research to peers and senior colleagues

Pig butcher scammers out here increasing prosocial volunteering and dumpling consumption. Win-win-win

When Argentina, Greece, and Turkey pop up as the donors in your synthetic control design. Yikes

The right of the people to keep and bear large single-family houses near transit and jobs but not multifamily buildings full of transient types, shall not be infringed?

Brattle St mansions for NIMBYs

This is depressingly full circle in a way, because we know that some parents were heating milk at home in the early 1900s before widespread pasteurization (although historically we think it was the well-informed parents who were doing that...)

Any health reporters want to do a deep dive on MAHA influencers recommending people heat their raw milk at home? @lhoehnvelasco.bsky.social and I have a paper about early 20th century pasteurization mandates, and we want to highlight continued relevance, but I don't think we can cite instagram

Maybe economists and political scientists aren't so different after all?

Kid at kindergarten drop-off this morning with monogrammed backpack with initials “WMD.” Tell me your political consciousness wasn’t formed in 2003 without telling me

Growing list of Democratic Harvard alumni are calling on university to hold out on deal with Trump - The Boston Globe Representative Jim Himes, a Harvard alum, publicized a letter he wrote to the university's president, Alan Garber, and said he feels compelled to speak out.

Oh thank god, finally a way for people to tell everyone that they went to Harvard www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/09/m...

And before that, I'll have very interrupted sleep thinking about that bit of work

Do journal editors get an alert when I finish a referee report for another journal so that they can immediately assign me something else?

Shout out to the Wu electioneer near the BU polling place who made my day by asking if I was a Boston voter. I guess my teaching clothes mask my usual suburban lameness?

Far too low. Should compound daily

Personal financial liability for the OMB Director has me feeling tingly

Hope he remembers to kick back some to the boss. Would be a shame if anything were to jeopardize his newfound freedom

Wtaf?

The second half is my personal nightmare. But good for science

I teach my undergrads how to read econ papers and evaluate identification strategies. Why? As important as econ history obviously is, I also want to make them informed consumers of empirical research. Because Sophie isn't going to be available to crush every dumb nutrition study they encounter

Clearly we aren't in a recession yet. Look at this very real and obviously not a scam "online remote evaluator" job text I just got. I wonder if these are in JOLTS?

I also like the behavioral econ infused "reply immediately" part

John, you are selling yourself short. I'm sure your unlicensed lawyering would be significantly less ignorant and stupid than his economisting