One thing I'm thrilled to see FINALLY taking off in the states is balance bikes If a kid starts on a balance bike instead of training wheels, they learn to ride a real bike way faster than with training wheels Part of the reason for this is obvious: you learn to actually balance instead of having the training wheels do that for you The other reason though is something called countersteering, which is one of those skills so subconscious it's basically impossible to verbally teach You need to learn how to countersteer in order to reliably turn without falling, which is where a large part of the frustration comes in when kids switch from training wheels to real bikes Balance bikes teach all of this naturally, and pedaling is one of the easiest skills to add Training wheels are archaic, ditch them!

So much of popular narrative (China, minimum wages, climate damage, inequality) turns out to be wrong. Yet economics and politics doesn't pay much attention to replication. Honestly wrong. Authors can do their best and still end up with wrong results. But a "scientific" profession and polity should pay attention to replication.

For this reason, economists' self-imagine of robustness should not be taken too seriously. There remain the same problems of whimsy and fragility that Edward E. Leamer identified decades ago. You can read more about it in my EJW article: econjwatch.org/file_download…. And also on my blog: poorrichworld.blog/p/what-re…. 8/8

The "China shock" narrative illustrates why the lack of debate is a problem in economics. Autor et al. published a series of articles that have since been falsified by subsequent research. However, few realize this, which means the articles persist, like zombies. 1/8

"Once Borusyak et al.’s corrections are applied, then, the evidence for Autor et al.’s narrative of catastrophe disappears" econjwatch.org/articles/whim…

Bill Gates says we will get superabundance if we make it like 10-20 years, but also says we need to tax robots because otherwise social security will go bankrupt. I am sorry but it doesn't add up. nytimes.com/2026/09/29/opini…

The White House and its allies have said this Iowa steel project is a great example of tariffs' results, and I gotta say: I increasingly agree. 😏

Something tells me this is likely the case with the other $21 trillion in investment that the President keeps talking about!

While the President parades the obvious beneficiaries of protection through the Oval Office, we shouldn’t forget that those gains are paid for by others, including other American businesses and workers. ericadyork.substack.com/p/pr…

This is the $$ chart

Someone Michael talked to is inventing a corporate lobbyist to be mad at. I won't say this has *never* happened in the history of the world, but we have had accelerated depreciation for decades and this is the first time I've heard of this particular idea.

A new paper from @kpomerleau & @AEI finds that Trump's tariffs have increased US firms' cost of capital and act as a significant tax on new US investment - one that offsets the OBBBA's investment tax cut. ☹️ aei.org/research-products/re…

Indeed, they aren't.

If you get rid of all the economic expansions, there’s been no income growth rather than the American middle class being the richest the world has ever known

Very sound! I wrote 3 years ago why Biden should (re)join CPTPP to counter China and put Trump's trade legacy in the bin. thehill.com/opinion/internat…

Rather than creating thousands of jobs and adding billions to the economy, President Trump’s tariffs will reshuffle economic activity to protected sectors at the expense of others and destroy some economic output in the process. substack.com/@ericadyork/p-2…

President Trump is Right: The Effects of the Steel Tariffs Really Aren’t That Complicated ericadyork.substack.com/p/pr…

This is what happens when you either don't understand that tariffs are taxes on Americans, or you choose to lie about it.

The jobs “saved” in the steel-producing industries from the tariffs came at a high cost to consumers, at roughly $650,000 per job saved according to @PIIE.

Read that research here: piie.com/blogs/trade-and-inv…