Restrictive immigration quotas in the 1920s reduced intergenerational mobility for US-born white men, and had imprecise but positive effects on intergenerational mobility of Black men, from James Feigenbaum, Yi-Ju Hung, Marco Tabellini, and Monia Tomasella nber.org/papers/w34775

2 weeks without smartphone internet significantly improved sustained attention. The effects were similar to being a decade younger.

For many of its advocates “remigration” is less a set of policies and more a catch-all term for a vision of Europe rid of what they call “Afro-Arab replacement migration”. The spread of the concept to mainstream politics is shocking econ.st/3Zi0rKe Photo: Picture

The academy is democratically unaccountable and politically homogeneous. So what? New from H S Joshi: “This paper defends a provocative thesis: namely, that the present structure and composition of the academy undermines democratic legitimacy.”

“The poor economic performance at all levels of the economy over the past year is a direct result of the tariffs.” washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/…

Gregory Clark and Bryan Caplan (the latter in separate work) are challenging the claim that human capital has huge returns. They find returns closer to 0%-3%. This is something I have disagreements with (for reasons of interpretation, causal mechanisms etc.) but I have not seen

"admitting 1,000 new immigrants would lead to 142 new foreign healthcare workers, … 25% increase in the steady state flow of immigrants to the US would result in 5,000 fewer deaths nationwide" nber.org/papers/w34791

A great piece about a truly wonderful development in American education. This hasn't been said often (or ever?), but Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi are leading the way in improving education outcomes.

Quantifying the effects of large-scale deportations on wages, prices, and real incomes in the United States, from Javier Cravino, Andrei A. Levchenko, Francesc Ortega, and Nitya Pandalai-Nayar nber.org/papers/w34790

Studies are now confirming the benefits of reducing the corporate income tax, finding the TCJA’s corporate tax reforms significantly boosted domestic investment. Read more: hubs.ly/Q041-t0P0

Democratic legitimacy depends not only on election outcomes, but on public confidence in the rules that govern them. A careful argument from AEI’s Yuval Levin on why nationalizing elections would undermine public trust. nationalreview.com/corner/nationa…

In a speech on Tuesday at Brigham Young University (BYU) — his first public address as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — Dallin H. Oaks (Dallin H. Oaks) shared four ways to come closer to Jesus Christ. 1. Strengthen our faith in Him. 2. Increase our

“we find that uncertainty from early childhood up until the age of 25 is negatively related to such tolerance later in life.”

Narrative violation: The low point for U.S. corporate profits as a share of GDP was during the "Greed Is Good" 1980s, and most of the increase since then is due to profits U.S. companies make abroad.

New arrivals.

Lots of interesting reporting recently on how private foundations, including the Mellon Foundation, have paid to make the funding-starved humanities more woke. Below is a sample of grants covering DEI, social justice, weaponization of antisemitism, indigenous knowing, etc: 🧵

I doubt any amount of evidence will change minds, but Mellon's hundreds of millions for explicitly progressive activism really puts a damper on the "left wing views just won the battle of ideas" and "reality has a liberal bias" defenses of ideological capture in the humanities.

Many have the impression that inequality in Western societies is out of control. However, accounting for taxes, transfers, pensions, and homeownership reveals a more balanced picture. Western societies are not as unequal as many believe. humanprogress.org/lifting-the-bo…

Elder Clark G. Gilbert (Clark G. Gilbert) is the newest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was called on Wednesday, February 11, 2026, and ordained on Thursday, February 12, by President Dallin H. Oaks (Dallin H. Oaks)

"The freedom to select a spouse and not have one imposed upon us is something we take for granted. Yet we’re still learning about the great personal and social benefits conferred by this medieval upheaval to ancient practice."