File this under "Yet more evidence that firm location decisions are based on region-specific advantages, not economic development subsidies"
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Michael D. Farren 
@MichaelDFarren
Economist and engineer.
Senior Research Fellow .
Blog at goo.gl/GPpXbW.
Heinlein fan, TANSTAAFL.
Views expressed are my own, unless they upset you.
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Last fall I nearly got caught by these airline shenanigans as well, but this case is especially egregious.
Getting 47 minutes notice that your flight has been moved up by more than 2 hours is ridiculous.
And moving a flight up by an ~1:15h is nearly as bad.
WTH ?
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Thank you @delta for screwing up my day.
Flight was supposed to leave at 11:30 AM. Late last night it was pushed back to 1:47 PM. When I woke up today I saw the delay and planned accordingly.
At 10:43 AM, it was moved to 11:30 AM. Now it is scheduled for 12:30 PM.
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Every once in a while I come back to this recent NYT exchange with Bono and smile
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Absolutely fascinating thread.
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It is often said that the West is rich due to slavery and colonialism.
But by 1500, long before the Atlantic slave trade and long before England or France have a single colony, Western Europe was far richer than the rest of the world.
This divergence, however, began in 1300 AD. twitter.com/Scientific_Bir…
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Americans back in the “good old days” were poor; their houses were 25% smaller, they mostly didn’t have dishwashers, and they had fewer cars than contemporary Europeans — nostalgia economics is totally wrong.
slowboring.com/p/nostalgia-ec
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My colleagues and explain how a court decision to mandate minimum wage payments for au pairs in Massachusetts significantly reduced the number of au pairs.
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I’ll give a quick personal example of this. When I took the SAT in 2004 in Shelby Co. AL, I went to a mid-level public school. As I walked into the room there was another student there with an Indian Springs sweatshirt on. Indian Springs was a hyper-wealthy boarding school. 1/6
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The utility of a standardized test is that it lets you compare across different schools in a system. twitter.com/anndaraabrams/…
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.@kearney_melissa recently pointed out to me that Social Security Administration's model for long-term health of the trust fund assumes US returns to roughly replacement-level fertility soon. But U.S. has been below replacement-level rates for a while wapo.st/40Jxiq7
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Yeah no. The biggest thing luring people back to Ohio is family - grandparents. Lean into making Ohio a great place to raise a family and then you’ve got yourself a decent economic development plan.
dispatch.com/story/opinion/
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Show me you don't understand economics without saying you don't understand economics.
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People joke about reinventing the wheel, but this is just ridiculous.
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"Those who fail to appreciate history are doomed to repeat its mistakes."
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I always find this kind of history fascinating. The reason for getting rid of streetcars? Operational costs. twitter.com/RichardMorriso…
I always find this kind of history fascinating. The reason for getting rid of streetcars? Operational costs.
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In a story covering the end of the L.A. streetcars in 1963, the L.A. Times cited the MTA's expectation of "substantial operating savings" as the reason they switched to buses:
documents.latimes.com/1948-1963-los-
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Most squirrel bites originate at the front, or “bitey end,” of the squirrel.
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I explore this point in my new study: "Can We Predict the Jobs and Skills Needed for the AI Era?" rstreet.org/research/can-w
There is indeed a very short memory about the many failed 'technological disruption' predictions of past decades. And yet the 'experts' are never held… Show more
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Decade from now AI will have had no detectable net employment impact. But those who predicted more won't admit error, as they will see AI boom still as just about to happen. Why do I see this as plausible? Because this is what happened over the last decade, & also the prior one.
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Let's split the difference and permanently move our clocks by 30 minutes, no more changing
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Definitely not classroom-safe, but definitely saving this one for parties.
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New: Last year, demographers realized that, after US fertility had fallen to all-time lows, Americans were having more babies.
Nobody knew for sure why.
A new report from and finds a surprising factor: Remote work.
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Make it rain Tubs, you cowards.
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Does anyone remember how we were supposed to get a Harriet Tubman $20 bill?
What, uh, what happened to that?
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Exhibit #26 of "Subsidies don't sway business location decisions", regarding the Ohio-Intel deal:
bizjournals.com/columbus/news/
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My convo with , just went live! I'm a big fan of her work. She provides great insights about what she calls the "conflict industrial complex", the features in our society that make us prone to high conflict: binary thinking, conflict entrepreneurs, etc. Check it out!
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@BenKlutsey and @amandaripley discuss how to have healthy, productive arguments in a polarized age. bit.ly/3m5YsrP
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"According to the 1960s cartoon sitcom “The Jetsons,” George Jetson was born last year." says unleash the innovators:
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The Abundance Agenda aims to accelerate the future--and the benefits it brings--by removing our self-imposed roadblocks
Citing research by
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A decent man, maybe one of the most decent in modern history to hold the presidency. Prayers for his family and loved ones
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As well as making people's lives more convenient, the internet is a tool of humanitarian assistance and rising global consciousness.
It makes it easier to raise, remit and donate money.
That's especially important during emergencies.
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Now I'm curious about Acemoglu's previous lives.
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Didn't get into a PhD? Your fault, should have worked harder in your previous life to achieve better karma so that you'd have parents with PhDs in this life
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Didn't get into a PhD? Your fault, should have worked harder in your previous life to achieve better karma so that you'd have parents with PhDs in this life
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Going to start sending my 3-month-old to NBER summer school in case he wants to do an Econ PhD in 25 years.
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You know there's a problem when sarcasm can't be distinguished from good advice.
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I’m sure a lot of people are intimidated by how competitive this profession is becoming and that a pre-doc is no longer sufficient to enter a top PhD program. But there’s a solution. A pre-pre doc that gives underprivileged students access to competitive predoc opportunities.
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How do we get millions of fresh flowers delivered on a very specific day in the middle of winter? explains
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The Smithsonian Air Museum features a neat little tribute to Alfred Khan and airline deregulation
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The govt has a choice:
A. Repair 20 bridges, employing 2,000 Americans
B. Repair 10 bridges, employing 4,000 Americans
Which do you pick?
Does it matter to you if the source of the difference is: (1) A uses foreign-made inputs or (2) B uses deliberately outdated equipment.
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The world of work is changing. More & more Americans are choosing flexible & entrepreneurial jobs. But our policies often cling to the past, like 's contractor rule. Instead, let's look to the future: Flexible work benefits for a flexible workforce: mercatus.org/research/polic
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Given the abundance of job openings, especially in the tech sector, it doesn’t seem like the layoffs are as scary as first reported.
Maybe they're not the recession harbinger after all--maybe it's just the normal response to the surge of talent acquisition during the pandemic.
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Furthermore, the number of job openings (11M) remains near its record high—that’s almost double the number of workers who are officially unemployed.
In fact, it’s enough to satisfy every person who says they want a job, regardless of whether they’re actively searching or not.
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But the January jobs report from the BLS offers a rosier view:
•Payroll employment rose by 517K
•Unemployment remained at 3.4%, near a historic low point
•Updates to last year’s data showed almost 600K more jobs in the economy than we previously understood
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