Econ professor at Michigan ● Senior fellow, Brookings ● Intro econ textbook author ● Chief economist & Deputy platypus https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com ● Find me: https://linktr.ee/justinwolfers
Your inbox is overflowing. Your mailbox groans with catalogs. Your phone rings at dinner with robocalls. Blame the spammers, sure. But at a deeper level? It's all economics. 🧵 (newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/a-primer-o...)
A Primer on the Economics of PrivacyYour name is for sale. You ought to decide who to.newsletter.platypuseconomics.comTrade isn't magic and it isn't charity. It's specialization. You make what you're relatively better at, I do the same, and the economy produces more as a result. That's the basic economic argument for trade. https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/the-lawyers-theory-of-trade
The Fed held rates steady today. That's not what caught my attention. The bigger story is Kevin Warsh's approach to running the Fed: less guidance, less explanation, and a lot more uncertainty. Here's what today's decision really taught us: newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/steady-rat...
Steady Rates, Shaky GuidanceWhat today's decision — and the press conference after — taught us about the Warsh Fednewsletter.platypuseconomics.com“If they make more, we must be making less. If they export more, we must be losing.” That’s the zero-sum story in a nutshell. It’s also not how trade works. https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/the-lawyers-theory-of-trade
Trump's top trade official is a lawyer. You can hear it in how he talks about trade. In this week's Diving In, I break down the assumptions behind the administration's tariff agenda—and why economists see trade very differently. newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/the-lawyer...
The Lawyer’s Theory of TradeTrump’s top trade official gave a revealing interview. Here’s how an economist hears it.newsletter.platypuseconomics.comThe point of a tariff is to make firms build factories at home. But if it's on Monday, off Tuesday, back on Wednesday, no one pours concrete. Chaotic tariffs give you all of the cost and almost none of the benefit. https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/global-tariffs-are-back-did-they
Paperwork matters. Courts often give agencies more leeway when they've followed the required process, even if the underlying case is weak. Sometimes procedure ends up doing the heavy lifting. https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/global-tariffs-are-back-did-they
The biggest cost of Trump's tariff policy isn't just higher prices. It's the uncertainty. Businesses can't invest when trade policy changes by the day. I joined The Fourcast to explain why: newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/global-tar...
Global Tariffs Are Back. Did They Ever Really Leave?Trump discovers forced labor. No-one knows where.newsletter.platypuseconomics.comThe mistake is thinking these tariffs mainly hurt Canada. They don't. Much of the cost ends up here at home, in the prices American households and businesses pay. https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/should-canada-answer-trumps-tariffs
A really fun write-up in my hometown newspaper of what I'm trying to do with Platypus Economics, written with that charming Aussie directness I was blessed to inherit. Give it a read! www.smh.com.au/world/north-...
He’s been called Steve Irwin reincarnated as an economist, and he wants to change the worldJustin Wolfers is a mainstay on American cable news networks. Now he is leveraging his brand – and Australian style – into a modern media company of his own.www.smh.com.auTrump ripped up NAFTA, replaced it with USMCA, then ripped that up too. Markets have little reason to trust this president's signature. So Canada should judge any deal by whether it serves their interests now. https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/should-canada-answer-trumps-tariffs
Skip the armchair psychology on Trump's brain. Look at the incentives: the 10% global tariff truce expires this week, a new round is coming, and Canada's just small enough to rough up first as a warning shot. https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/should-canada-answer-trumps-tariffs
The biggest cost of Trump's Canada tariffs isn't dairy. It's trust. Once businesses stop believing trade agreements will last, investment slows—and that's a much bigger economic problem than one tariff. More in this week's The Professor Is In: newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/should-can...
How should Canada respond to Trump's tariffs?Good fences make good neighbors, but arbitrary tariffs aren't good fencesnewsletter.platypuseconomics.comSNAP penalizes states for paying the wrong amount. But they don't penalize states for wrongly denying an eligible family. Once you understand this, it's easier to see why the program has shrunk faster than expected. https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/one-big-beautiful-bill-one-big-
The White House just announced a new round of tariffs on more than 80 countries. The legal strategy changed. The economics didn't. Six weeks ago, I explained why these tariffs were coming—and why they'll still fail American consumers. newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/new-wrappe...
New Wrapper, Same Rotten PolicyThese latest tariffs may pass muster with the courts, but will still fail Americanewsletter.platypuseconomics.comTrump just announced the next phase of the trade war, with 10-12.5 percent tariffs on all of our major trading partners. I've got you covered with a deep dive into the law, economics, and politics of this latest episode of the Trump tariff saga: www.youtube.com/watch?v=896S...
Why Trump's Latest Tariffs Are Even Worse Than BeforeYouTube video by Platypus Economics with Justin Wolferswww.youtube.comI spent years defending prediction markets. A recent conversation with @crampell.bsky.social made me rethink that view. Here's why I'm marking my prediction-market enthusiasm to market. newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/i-champion...
I Championed Prediction Markets. Look What They’ve Become.Marking my prediction-market enthusiasm to market—with Catherine Rampellnewsletter.platypuseconomics.comFewer people on food stamps is only good news if fewer people need help. That’s not what the evidence says. Unemployment was roughly flat, food prices rose, and surveys show families struggling to afford enough to eat. https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com/p/one-big-beautiful-bill-one-big-ugly