health economics | sports | third thing economics professor in RI. thoughts are my own and not my employer’s (what a funny sentence)
All signs indicate that BEA is operating as normal; the big change is that methodological changes are under much more scrutiny than before. Worth remembering that BEA generates the PCE deflator for PCE. They are just trying to get real PCE right; what the Fed chooses to do is outside their lane.
More evidence that Ivy League athletics contribute to intergenerational class reproduction Not only is it a way to get your kid into an Ivy--it's also a way to get them their first job
James S. MurphyLets hear it for the meritocracy! If you think this is bad, don't forget that athletics is one of the three big reasons that the 1% is so overrepresented at elite institutions.
And here’s the entirely foreseeable result of a law that imposes massive penalties if states give families the wrong amount of SNAP benefits, but no penalties if they make it virtually impossible for eligible families to get benefits in the first place.
Nebraska ExaminerICYMI: May through June marked the sharpest single-month participation drop — nearly 6,000 — since at least 2014, says watchdog group Nebraska Appleseed. From Cindy Gonzalez
I'm pretty sure this was a seasonal adjustment misfire - there's a big NSA plunge that happens every year around this time, but the seasonal adjustment factors were expecting it next week.
Guy BergerClaims: 1/ Huge plunge in initial claims to their lowest level of the year. (Actually, their lowest level since 1969.) I'm skeptical this is anything other than noise, we'll see next week. More likely reality: layoffs are very low, not falling further.
Last week's terminations at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) total at least 150 grants worth $230M. That is over half of the agency's portfolio. It's the latest assault on healthcare, health equity, and the rule of law. grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0... #AHRQ 🧪
Termination of AHRQ grants is the latest assault on health equity and the rule of law. – Grant WitnessThe agency charged with finding ways to make American health care more effective has been gutted. Last week’s terminations are just the latest blow.grant-witness.us