Noncompetes for lower- and middle-wage workers are atrocious, humiliating, and obviously bad for economic dynamism. Excellent piece from Amelia Pollard, James Fontanella-Khan, and @anjliraval: on.ft.com/4d3cSiz

This is awesome! Congrats to everyone involved for launching such an important new venture.

Income transfer programs amplify the U.S. federal tax system’s progressivity, move the state and local system from moderate regressivity to moderate progressivity, and result in a highly progressive fiscal system overall.

The lowest quintile of Americans receives a net of 127…

Yes, and we should also be skeptical that the rate of multiple job holders on its own is tells us much about the health of the labor market.

In America, you can do anything you want as long as no one is inconvenienced, no one can get hurt, and no one can lose their job. An instance of #3.

This works out to roughly $140,000 per homeless person in the state. Incredible.

New on my blog: A Q&A with How Asia Works author Joe Studwell on industrial policy lessons for the U.S., state capacity, and corporate culture

cojobrien.com/p/how-asia-wor…

“This brings TSMC's total Arizona investment to $65 billion — the largest foreign direct investment in a new project in U.S. history”
axios.com/local/phoenix/…

Professional news—psyched to join the excellent folks at EIG! Today is my first day, assuming I can find the office and defeat the battalion of Sardaukar that guards it. Can’t wait to get started.

I’m thrilled to announce that Cardiff Garcia is joining Economic Innovation Group as Editorial Director—and coming with him is The New Bazaar podcast!

Cardiff’s remarkable talent for exploring economic trends and ideas will add exciting dimensions to EIG’s work.⬇️
eig.org/eig-welcomes-c…

This Inst. Family Studies piece is really interesting--married people are about 1/3 more likely to say they're better off than their parents. Declining marriage is one reason it's harder to achieve absolute mobility. ifstudies.org/blog/how-marri…

High-skilled immigration is crucial to the success of America's strategic industries, but we could be doing *much more* to maximize our advantage as the destination of choice for the world's most talented people.

Immigrants from Latin America accounted for 36% of new firm creation in 2023 and started businesses at twice the rate of the U.S. population as a whole. The Wall Street Journal
edwardconard.com/macro-roundup/…

Where do Americans live the good life? We spliced Economic Innovation Group's Distressed Communities Index up with Economic Policy Institute's Family Budget Calculator to find out.

Let’s take a tour 🧵

eig.org/dci-cost-of-li…

The European mind cannot comprehend this

Some people look at a collapsed bridge in a major American city and think 'Wow, this is awful. We need to replace this and get people back to their normal lives ASAP.'

Others react with 'Wow, what an amazing opportunity to purchase concrete at above normal market prices.'

A significant number of major tech figures have given TERRIBLE activists a LOT of money to do HORRENDOUS things over the last decade. What are they going to do to fix it? This should be question #1 at every public event they go to.