Jonathan A. Parker

Hmm, some facts from Molly White . . .

trump, last saturday: don’t need british ships. we will remember, we don’t need people that join wars after we’ve already won. trump, this saturday: hopefully united kingdom will send ships so that strait of hormuz will no longer be threatened.

Trump in 2008: Anyone who invades the Middle East under false pretenses should be impeached.

Frightening. Trump threatening like an evil dictator.

In a several kilometers long Truth Social post, Donald Trump is now suggesting all journalists reporting negatively about his war be charged with treason immediately and imprisoned.

RIP Chris Sims. I was enormously influenced by Chris. My own, perhaps idiosyncratic take: His main contribution came at a time when macroeconomists had constructed the first wave of big macroeconometric models. They were constructed piece by piece, a consumption block, an investment block, and so on. Each piece looked reasonable, but when assembled together, the implied macro dynamics were all wrong. What Chris did was to turn things around, namely argue that one had to start from the actual macro dynamics, the so called VARs, and show how, with minimal identification conditions (leading to "structural" VARs), they could be used to suggest the dynamic effects of various shocks, dynamics that the structural models had to replicate. To say that his approach was influential would be to understate its influence. Today, a model that did not fit the VAR evidence, would be simply dismissed.

Saddened by the passing of Chris Sims. When he spoke in seminars, I *always* learned something. And he was nice, talking about books, laughing, & treating junior faculty & grad students well. I miss & treasure the regular informal lunches with Princeton macro group in 2000’s.

The March 15, 2025, killing of Ruben Ray Martinez drew almost no public attention. But Martinez is now the first known American citizen shot to death by federal immigration agents during President Trump’s second term. wapo.st/4btkRXl

Why was this story on the front page of the UK’s Daily Telegraph — but NOT America’s leading newspapers?

Why did Fox News find old footage and splice it into new footage to trick its viewers? Because Fox News knew that trump was being undignified at the dignified transfer ceremony for six American heroes.

Vance: " If you're worried about the world spinning out of control, if you're worried about a military draft, if you're worried about, God forbid, a world war, the best way to prevent it is to vote for Donald Trump."

Incredible reporting by the team at WSJ. The government is covering up its crackdown on political opposition with bogus charges and claims of assaults. They are defaming hundreds of people and erasing the first amendment

A year ago we were supposed to be getting $2,000 rebate checks, DOGE was going to find $2 trillion in waste to balance the budget, we were going to pay no income taxes because tariffs would pay for everything, gas & home electric bills would be cut in half, and no new wars.

Had to doublecheck the date on this

Asked whether Americans should be worried about retaliatory attacks at home, Trump acknowledges the possibility: “I guess,” he says “Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.” time.com/7382697/trump-…

“Safe America,” a so-called media company, was incorporated just 11 days before it was handed $143 million in taxpayer money to produce a propaganda campaign starring cosplay Barbie. And the company’s listed address? The Virginia home of longtime Republican operative Michael McElwain. Eleven days old. No track record. $143 million contract. This isn’t government. It’s a taxpayer-funded cash grab for political insiders. While Americans struggle to pay rent and groceries, Trump’s circle is handing nine-figure checks to their friends and calling it patriotism.

Maybe this time if we don’t call it a war it will work out fine . . .

Neguse: Where is this company headquartered? Noem: I don’t know. Neguse: I don’t know either. We can’t find it. We did find an address that’s registered to a political operative. This company that received 143 million dollars was incorporated 8 days before this contract went out. You want the American people to believe that this is all above board, that $143 million of taxpayer money just happened to go to this one company that doesn't have a headquarters, doesn't have a website, has never done work for the federal government before and is registered apparently or attached to a residence from a political operative, and of course one of the subcontractors of that contract, as you know, is a political firm that's tied to, to you back when you were governor of South Dakota?

Quite a clear statement about the end of American exceptionalism

Reposting this given the court ruling that the Trump administration needs to start refunding the tariffs wsj.com/politics/polic… via @WSJ