Start making contingency plans immediately. Especially if you are supporting staff or in the middle of a crucial step like data collection. Start looking for emergency bridge funding. Speak to your university about this. Often this will be fruitless but you never know.

The Many-Economists project with @nickchk, The Sources of Researchers Variation in Economics, is now on SSRN. We had 146 teams perform the same research task three times, each with less freedom, to explore what drives differences across researchers. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.…

The Jones Act makes domestic shipping so expensive that last year Hawaii purchased 100% of its light sweet crude from Libya (distance: ~10,500 nautical miles), Argentina (~7,300 nm), Nigeria (10,000 nm), and Algeria (~9,300 nm) instead of Houston (~6,300 nm).

JUST IN: Axios reports that OpenAI is set to announce artificial intelligence super-agents capable of performing tasks at a PhD level

"We show that male [college] students are 18.6% more likely than female students to receive favorable grade changes."

It happened again this morning, and it’s sadly becoming a joke at this point. I walked into Starbucks, and the shelf that just a couple of days ago was full of holiday merchandise for the new season was completely empty. Again. When I asked the barista, they confirmed it: someone walked in, calmly cleared the shelves, and walked out without a care. They of course aren’t allowed to stop them - that would be nonsensical. The barista told me that even if they call the police, it takes hours for them to arrive, and nothing happens anyway. This is just the new normal. The folks at Target told me the same thing when I watched a guy fill two entire bags and just calmly walk out with a smile on his face as he was surrounded by security that could do nothing to stop him. Some might say, "So what? Starbucks or Target are massive companies, and a few missing holiday items don’t matter." But it does matter. It makes order meaningless. It erodes the social fabric—the part of society that values integrity and accountability. What do kids think when they see this? What does it mean to the person who saves up to buy a special Starbucks mug as a gift for their uncle? It sends the message that stealing is fine, that rules don’t apply, and that no one cares. I don’t know what to do, but shrugging this off feels like a massive failure. Starbucks will restock the shelves, and they’ll just be cleared again. There are no consequences, so the thieves will keep coming back. And where does that leave us? A seemingly minor crime like this has far-reaching implications. It’s not just about stolen mugs—it’s about the creeping normalization of lawlessness. Years ago, New York City adopted a policy to address graffiti immediately. Graffiti may seem like a small crime, but tackling it sent a big message: small acts of disorder would not be tolerated. Crime rates dropped because the city prioritized order. Now, I find myself dreading the day I have to explain to my son why some people can just walk in and take what they want, or why we pay for the subway while others effortlessly jump the turnstile. These small acts of defiance aren’t harmless—they chip away at our society, slowly at first and then all at once. We need to bring back the lessons learned from the graffiti-removal days. This can’t go unchecked—it needs to stop, no matter if the resources it would take are great. The short-term expense is worth it. The costs of not doing something now is too high. It's not too late.