Panache, a sweet new formatter and linter for #quarto and #RStats markdown by @jolars.co

will format automatically on save in Positron/VSCode

With 45% of ballots now counted, the opposition (Tisza) is leading 52% to 39%, and is projected based on current results to win a supermajority of 2/3rds that’d allow them to amend the constitution.

Oil Price Shock Drives 140% Surge in China's EV Exports to Record High | OilPrice.com China's EV exports hit a record 349,000 units in March, up 140%, as $100 oil sparked a global rush toward electric vehicles.

BYD has named Donald Trump "Salesman of the Decade." oilprice.com/Latest-Energ...

A negroni in a glass with ice, outside

apparently it is summer

Oh I haven't tried this one but will look for it. I do find many of the NA beers to be too sweet

OK folks, what are the tastiest NA/0-ish ABV beers you've had? I'm always on the lookout but often disappointed

my favorites have been a Bitburger pilsner and also the Deschutes Black Butte

OOOF, all of the wage growth over the last year erased in one month

PSA to myself and everyone who endured my children's inexplicably unhinged behavior tonight: @jamellebouie.net's parental advice remains undefeated. They needed to poop.

Unfortunately my statement is correct. The figure is showing year over year wage growth every month. The real wage level rose modestly over the last year and then fell suddenly in March.

In March 2026 average hourly earnings was $32.07. In March 2025 after adjusting for inflation it was $32.04.

A can of Alewerks Pickled beer: blonde ale brewed with dill pickle juice, colored with turmeric

I can't tell if I like this or if it is disgusting

It did erase previous gains. As you can see from the figure real annual wage growth is close to zero. In March 2026, average hourly earnings was $32.07. In March 2025, after adjusting for inflation, it was $32.04.

OOOF, all of the wage growth over the last year erased in one month

plenty we can do to reduce prices like universal health care and of course not starting a war... but @arindube.bsky.social is right: the affordability crisis is really a pay crisis. suppressed wages funded soaring inequality and took tens of thousands of $ in annual income away from the middle class

The next administration must take the lesson of this one; every single immigration judge hired under Trump 2.0 must be fired on day one.

The Trump administration is sabotaging the US economy

Slowing nominal wage gains and rising prices mean negative real wage growth is now in the cards for most workers in 2026

this is very encouraging to see but while there are of course real risks in finance and IT systems, what makes me nervous are more municipal-level operations like water, power, etc. given how underfunded their security is

Cops Arrested a Black Pastor Watering His Neighbor’s Flowers. The Alabama Supreme Court Is Fine With That The opinion in Jennings v. Smith transforms the state’s stop-and-identify law into a show-me-your-papers regime.

Somehow, the bodycam footage of Alabama police arresting a Black pastor watering his vacationing neighbor's flowers makes the story even more surreal than the headline suggests. They keep threatening to cuff a man who is *actively spraying planter boxes the entire time*.

chart showing percent change in birth rates by women's age.

Updating my birthrate fan chart.

Since 1989, birth rates for US women age 15-17 have fallen 87%. For those age 40-44 birth rates have increased 146%. The total (not shown) has fallen 23%.

A bowl of marinated chickpeas, kimchi, cilantro, and cheese

chickpea salad

Figure 6 from The Effects of Gender Integration on Men: Evidence from the U.S. Military by Kyle Greenberg, Melanie Wasserman, E. Anna Weber, Feburary 2026 A. Perceived workplace Quality Indices Workplace Quality Index Organizational Effectiveness Index Equal Opportunity Index Sex assault Prevention and Response Index

In the US military, gender integration had essentially no effect on men's actual performance or retention, but men's perception of workplace quality changed: perceived quality rose in units with newly integrated female enlisted soldiers, but it fell when female officers held supervisory roles

These Republican-leaning States Went Big on Minimum Wages. Here’s What Happened to their Restaurant and Retail Jobs.

New Substack Post.

These Republican-leaving States Went Big on Minimum Wages.

Here's What Happened to their Restaurant and Retail Jobs.

The Wage Standard: What’s Wrong in the Labor Market and How to Fix It (with Arin Dube) YouTube video by Pitchfork Economics Podcast

Great explanations from @arindube.bsky.social about "why people get paid what they do and how we can give more people a raise"

Really worth a listen

And she has since been deported.

Link here:

www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

New business applications declined in March. Notably, business applications with planned wages (that might be more predictive of employment) are down -18% YOY and are at their lowest level since May 2020

Source: Census Bureau, www.census.gov/econ/bfs/cur...

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I think this podcast is my best exposition to date of what we need to do to re-build The Wage Standard.

"Bully pulpit aside, America lacks the sort of institutions, above all unions, that could have communicated to workers that rapidly rising wages and a superabundance of jobs were contingent situations created by policy."

msgvault Offline email archive with full-text search, interactive TUI, and multi-account support. Import from Gmail, MBOX, and Apple Mail.

have you seen

Unemployment has increased for U.S.-born workers in the face of mass deportations: Trump’s draconian immigration enforcement is harming all workers During the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance promised that mass deportations and a crackdown on immigration would open up jobs for unemployed U.S. citizens. The theory was simple: remove immi...

Contrary to Trump and Vance's promises to help unemployed US-born workers through mass deportations, *the unemployment rate has steadily increased* for U.S.-born workers under Trump during the mass deportation era. Analysis with the latest data from @benzipperer.org and me for @epi.org: