Astonished as always by reporting from Keith Bradsher and others on the extent of automation in Chinese factories. They're just light years ahead. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/b...

Wow -- clean energy investment is already falling in the face of policy uncertainty, lingering high interest rates, and now tariffs. www.cleaninvestmentmonitor.org/reports/us-c...

Important, from Andy Duehren: Deep cuts to IRS personnel are hitting the division that investigates large corporations particularly hard.

While big business frets about tariffs, this is what they're also weighing in their heads.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/u...

Contributed a bit to @colbylsmith.bsky.social's story about how the Fed is diplomatically conforming to White House dictates even though it doesn't have to: Staff at 7 U.S. financial regulators withdrew from a Harvard course on climate finance, citing new orders. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/b...

Happy IRS Direct File tax season opening day to all who celebrate (i.e. those with very simple tax situations)

This week in the NBERs: Girls born to mothers exposed to violent conflict in Afghanistan show long-term negative cognitive effects, but not boys. Why the disparity? Authors point to unequal allocation of constrained resources in war-torn environments. nber.org/papers/w33398

University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment today, via Apollo's Torsten Slok: Republicans think inflation will be ZERO in a year, while Democrats see it heading north of 4 percent.

From our straight-talking D.C. climate team -- even if there were an "energy emergency," as Trump has declared, solving it would require exactly the opposite approach from the one he is taking. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/c...

Since Trump has just ordered federal workers back to the office full time, here's some context on how many hours are worked in office by agency, excluding the average of 10% of employees who are fully remote, as of May 2024. Source is an OMB report with a link that just broke.