Justin Lahart

Health Insurance Is Now More Expensive Than the Mortgage for These Americans Monthly health-insurance bills are rocketing higher for middle-income earners who rely on Obamacare

Millions of Americans are starting to see their monthly health-insurance bills rise, a new pressure point for a nation still frustrated with the high cost of living.

What We Know So Far About Alex Pretti The 37-year-old ICU nurse fatally shot by a border patrol officer was recording the actions of federal agents in Minneapolis.

Alex Pretti, the man fatally shot by a Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis, was described by the Trump administration as a “domestic terrorist,” but friends and family rejected that label.

Videos Contradict U.S. Account of Minneapolis Shooting by Federal Agents See how immigration officers escalated a fatal confrontation on Saturday.

Videos Contradict U.S. Account of Minneapolis Shooting by Federal Agents

www.wsj.com/us-news/vide...

YouTube video by The Pogues - Topic Greenland Whale Fisheries

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz9I...

Economists Are Studying the Slowing Job Market—and Feeling It Themselves Newly minted Ph.D.s tend to work for universities, government agencies and big white-collar companies. It’s not a great hiring time for any of them.

Economists will tell you that it is a tough time for people entering the job market. They can relate: It is the worst market young economists have faced in memory.

The Wage Compression that Persisted A few of years back, my coauthors David Autor and Annie McGrew discovered something out of character for the modern U.S.

New Substack post: The wage compression that persisted.

arindube.substack.com/p/the-wage-c...

Here's an even longer version of that chart

Slowest Labor Market in Years Leaves Job Seekers Stuck Job hunts are getting desperate for Americans who find themselves locked out of stable, full-time work in a stagnant job market.

America’s unemployment rate is low. But so is its job growth. That means many Americans are locked out of stable, full-time jobs, and many are struggling.

“We just want work,” said Glenn Jones, who is on a waiting list for to drive for DoorDash. “Any work.”

www.wsj.com/economy/jobs...

What do you suppose Reynolds and McElhenney's ROI looks like compared to, say, Boehly's?

Lunch break at a Paris work site in the 1930s. In 1934, French wine consumption exceeded 160 liters per capita (it’s about 40 liters today).

Story idea: Find a worker building data centers named Claude. Estimate how much Claude is boosting U.S. productivity.

The endowment effect on this one is off the charts #ASSA2026

If anyone wants to spot a reporter going to #ASSA2026, I’ll be the one on the train from NY reading a novel

You will be visited by three spirits

What Christmas Tree Sales Tell Us About Holiday Spending The needles are pointing to a more cautious consumer this year.

Christmas-tree sales go K-shaped

www.wsj.com/business/ret...

bing bing bing

NFIB small businesses sentiment

The shaded areas in this chart run through Nov. 2016, and Dec. 2020 through Nov. 2024. What is it?

Correcting earlier chart - hires minus separations

sorry, is chart of hires minus separations mislabeled. will repost

And conversely, a large portion of the ~2.5 million people who work in temp services are doing manufacturing work research.upjohn.org/cgi/viewcont...

Real curious what holiday-season retail sales are looking like in Detroit vs. Windsor areas this year.

Goldman on claims: "In previous Thanksgiving weeks with a similar calendar configuration to this year’s, non-seasonally-adjusted (NSA) initial claims have fallen by about 45k. This year, initial claims fell by 49k on a NSA basis, but the seasonal factor only expected a 22k decline."

I can only assume Meta is going to rename itself Generative

For context, employment in "semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing" was 368 thousand in September, according to BLS.

Harvard’s Big Wager on Bitcoin Came Right Before the Bust The school reported nearly a half-billion in crypto holdings in its last quarterly report.

The average price Harvard paid couldn’t be learned but if the school still holds some or all of the 4.9 million shares it bought last quarter, the best-case scenario would be a 14% loss on those holdings. www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Top Economics Group Bans Larry Summers for Life The American Economics Association rebuked the former Treasury secretary amid scrutiny over his correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein.

Lawrence Summers has been banned for life by the American Economics Association, in a further blow to the former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University president stemming from recent revelations about his ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein.

wow

I've got a lotta problems with you people!