@profcew
Economist at UMass Boston and Center for American Progress; focus on racial wealth inequality, retirement savings and economic policy. Center on data driven policy development. Skeets are all my own opinions.
“We’re in a Schrodinger’s tariff right now.” One proclamation says “a 10% tariff on the rest of the world,” the next post says “a 15% tariff literally effective immediately,” then the White House pretends he never said it.
The crack team who brought you the trade war are now in Iran.
Black workers and Black households disproportionately faced employment hardships in 2025 due to changes in the economy, namely a result of the Trump Administration's direct targeting of the federal government, CBPP's @gbenga-ajilore.bsky.social explains. Full video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUsD...
As millions of Americans were losing their SNAP benefits the Pentagon spent:
🔹️$6.9 million worth of lobster tails🦞
🔹️$15.1 million for ribeye steak 🥩
🔹️$2 million for Alaskan king crab 🦀
🔹️ and even $98,329 on a Steinway & Sons grand piano
✏️ by @newrepublic.com
The latest from @ymriofficial.bsky.social : Trump has lost ground among young men, but new message testing shows that if Democrats fail to aggressively refute Trump's misogynist vision of masculinity, Trump stands to win those voters back.
youngmenresearchinitiative.substack.com/p/trump-has-...
I prefer commuting by public transit but @mbta-cr.bsky.social regularly makes it clear it's not a viable option for many. It runs too infrequently and delays are just always there. How can trains run behind when it's sunny and warm and there are few passengers?
Even though I'm an economist, I wish there was more focus on the human suffering from this war and less focus on the economic consequences. Hundreds of little girls are dead, and we're worried about oil prices.
When Massachusetts passed a "millionaires tax" in 2023, conservatives claimed the rich would flee.
But two years later, they haven't — and MA has collected $5.7B for infrastructure and public education.
A reminder that positive change can still happen at the state level.
That clears things up.
Unfortunately, Trump’s version of “crushing healthcare” involves historic gutting of Medicaid and pushing health plans with $31,000 deductibles.
A headline reading “Camel pageant thrown into chaos after 20 competitors disqualified for using hump-plumping injectables”
Yes everything is terrible but let’s not lose sight of the fact that someone has written the Headline to End All Headlines.
as the old saying goes: drugs are cheap, patent monopolies make them expensive
Front-month WTI has traded in a *thirty eight dollar range* today. Markets have no idea how to price what's happening right now.
Apparently some people don't know that trains and telegraphs drove the development and adoption of what we think of as standardized/synchronized clock time, so here you go:
blogs.loc.gov/law/2024/11/...
Years ago I co-authored a piece showing data that high gas price volatility is bad for consumers and businesses b/c they can't plan. We get less inv. & growth. I think it was called Pain in the Gas.
Our first recommendation: Staff the agency at a level that can meet service needs.
Social Security lost over 10% of its staff in 2025. And it was arguably understaffed before that.
For the public sector to serve people, it needs an adequate labor force. That's a basic question of capacity. 20/x
Much higher gss prices coming quickly
FEDWATCH: “.. energy, food, airlines, and transport, and related insurance components in CPI and PPI (.. around 25% to 30% of the entire index) are going to get ‘hit hard’ .. potentially pushing headline CPI above 4 percent by April and May.
.. a serious complication for Fed policy.”
This is horrendous news for disabled people, rural hospitals, among others.
“The US is roughly speaking oil independent… on net, we export petroleum products.”
That’s why this is less an ‘America is poorer’ story than an ‘Americans reshuffle who wins’ story. Drivers lose. Oil industry wins.
There's something deeply obscene and broken about the fact that Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are bombing elementary schools in an illegal war of aggression, and there's still a sense among the opposition that it has to be explained in terms of gas prices in order to get American voters to care.
"Oil prices are up about 50%. You should expect gas prices to rise about 50%... Gas... about $3 a gallon... you should therefore expect gas to be a bit above $4 a gallon...
So if you get an opportunity to stop by the president's gas station when he's seeing it at $2 a gallon... definitely fill up "
there's a lot going on right now but did you know a massive amount of the world's fertilizer flows through the middle east, and did you know that that fertilizer needs to be shipped to the us *right now* for planting season, and uh did you know we are at war with iran
Had to doublecheck the date on this
Funny. Same HS story, but mine was math teacher, Mr. Wagner. This sounds great, though.
I understand that it takes time but the current oil and gas price spikes could be strong incentives to accelerate renewable plans everywhere, even in US.
Job Opening: Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Medicine & Medical Humanities to begin 7/1/2026. For more info & to apply: hopkinshistoryofmedicine.org/2026/03/06/j... Deadline to apply is April 5th.
But, but, if we drill a lot, oil prices will...not change because they are global prices. Would not be surprised to find out that that was their plan.
Disheartening to see anyone taken seriously who says US (or California) oil production protects consumers from Iran war impact. Producers argue world market sets the price. Correct! Oil price reflects value, not proximity, as recent gasoline price jumps show.
www.foxnews.com/video/639043...
Thread. Weak labor market and rising inflation make for an unpleasant mix for working families.
CBPP's @gbenga-ajilore.bsky.social provides insights and analysis on the latest jobs data released today.
