Louis Johnston
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ldjeconomics.bsky.social
Louis Johnston
@ldjeconomics.bsky.social

William E. and Virginia Clemens Professor of Economics and the Liberal Arts at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University. Telling the stories of Minnesota's economy, past and present. https://www.csbsju.edu/economics/person/louis-johnston/ .. more

Economics 68%
Political science 20%
Pinned

Well yes, I am going to be on @mprnews.org tomorrow at 9 am. Thanks for asking 😉

Layoffs surge as voters demand affordability: What’s really driving the economy? www.mprnews.org/episode/2025...
Layoffs surge as voters demand affordability: What’s really driving the economy?
Coming up at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, MPR News guest host Catharine Richert takes a closer look at what is driving job cuts, why affordability continues to strike a chord with voters and what these trends c...
www.mprnews.org

Reposted by Louis D Johnston

It's true that Reagan negotiated limits on imported goods to protect domestic producers of cars & steel from foreign competition. But he would not have embraced Trump’s protectionist trade wars.
By @douglasirwin.bsky.social
Opinion | The Canadians Are Right About Reagan and Free Trade
www.nytimes.com

Why not steam locomotives to promote the coal industry?
A level of micromanaging that reminds me of Jimmy Carter personally overseeing the schedule of the White House tennis court.

Bottom line: Tariffs don't help steelworkers and hurt employment in industries that use steel. That's not good for mining either.

Abstract:

Reposted by Louis D Johnston

A level of micromanaging that reminds me of Jimmy Carter personally overseeing the schedule of the White House tennis court.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...
Want to understand Reagan's trade policies? You have to understand the three P's: principles, pragmatism, and politics....
Opinion | The Canadians Are Right About Reagan and Free Trade
www.nytimes.com
"The Closing of the American Economy", presentation at www.csbsju.edu/economics/mea/ annual conference
@aaronsojourner.org Abigail Wozniak, Angelina Trâm Nguyễn, @ldjeconomics.bsky.social, Kristin West #EconSky
econbrowser.com/archives/202...

If you're interested in previous White House renovations, this is the best book I know of on the topic:

a.co/d/c5FOiNJ

Not naive - it's a memoir/travelogue/nonfiction book about Minnesota.

Join us on Thursday at 7 pm at Saint John's University. Dr. Hicks will read from his chapter on Saint John's along with other selections. You can also visit the @saintjohnsbible.bsky.social gallery before and after the reading.
A powerful personal testament from Tom Bowman of NPR about the Pentagon attempt to exert complete control over all information. Protecting classified is of course fine. But when neither Fox News nor NY Times sign up to your policy, you should ask yourself if you are getting something very wrong.
Opinion: Why I'm handing in my Pentagon press pass
Tom Bowman has held his Pentagon press pass for 28 years. He says the Pentagon's new media policy makes it impossible to be a journalist, which means finding out what's really going on behind the scen...
www.npr.org

I'll second Menzie on this. It's pure cronyism: $20 billion line of credit for a personal political and business ally, no collateral, no conditions. This is corruption, pure and simple, and Republicans in Congress are not lifting a finger to stop it.
If you didn't like ESF use for Mexico 1994, you should really, really, really object to ESF use for Argentina 2025 #EconSky
econbrowser.com/archives/202...

Reposted by Louis D Johnston

If you didn't like ESF use for Mexico 1994, you should really, really, really object to ESF use for Argentina 2025 #EconSky
econbrowser.com/archives/202...

Reposted by Louis D Johnston

"There's a reason we speak of technological progress but institutional change. There is no way that we can show [institutions] get better over time. (...) They will come down again and it seems there's some evidence to show that is what is happening today."
"Bob Fogel said to me once: For economics to work without economic history is like an evolutionary biologist without paleontology. You just miss 99.5% of all the species that ever walked on this earth." Joel Mokyr www.youtube.com/live/__0sGvj...
LIVE: Nobel Prize in economics winner Joel Mokyr speaks
YouTube video by Reuters
www.youtube.com

My favorite is A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy.

Very accessible. Joel writes very well.

Thirty years ago, Joel invited me to give a talk at Northwestern. He (and Alan Taylor) were kind throughout the visit, and asked questions about my work that improved it. I’ll always be grateful to him.

Throughout the weekend, Joel paid as much attention to grad students as famous professors. He listened to good arguments without regard to a person’s position or title.

It was a formative experience for me as a scholar and teacher. Joel spent the entire weekend with us, listening to critiques of the draft, responding, and engaging in spirited and sometimes heated discussions.