Daily Picks
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Economics & Policy, picked daily

Macro, jobs, trade, housing, energy and public policy — how a society allocates, and how it is governed.

Uncharted Territories
70,000 people walked into a city of 84,000 in a dayA Spanish Supreme Court ruling that swimming in did not count as climbing the fence, amplified on social media, was read on the Moroccan side as: once you arrive, you will not be sent back.
ChinaTalk
Team China Showed Up at the Nomad Games — and Was Told to Keep QuietChina sent its ethnic-minority athletes to the World Nomad Games but instructed the officials travelling with them to avoid incidents rather than make friends, squandering an almost free chance to win over Central Asia.
Noahpinion
America is too divided to beat China nowAmerica's internal divisions have made it unable to organise allies against China the way it did in the Cold War, and the window for a containment strategy has already closed.
Conversable Economist
Africans use 14 gigajoules a year. Who exactly is going carbon neutral?The world still runs on fossil fuels, and whether emissions fall depends on Asia-Pacific and low-income countries, not on how much Europe and America cut at home.
Your Local Epidemiologist
Want a say on US vaccines? You have two days to post a commentA 30-day comment window from the US health department is laying the groundwork to bypass the existing vaccine recommendation process and narrow access.
The Atlantic · Health
He runs the CDC, and he told anti-vaxxers the White House is theirsKennedy used his office as health secretary to endorse the anti-vaccine movement he founded, while a measles outbreak kills people in Pennsylvania.
The Conversation
Nepal asked for $20m in climate damages. The fund has paid out nothingFour years after it was created and with 119 countries queuing up, the Loss and Damage Fund has disbursed nothing, which shows rich countries will acknowledge a debt on paper but not in practice.
Noema Magazine
The rich now hold top salaries and top portfolios. AI is coming for thatAmerica's wealthiest people sit at the top of both the wage scale and the capital scale, and the meritocratic story that justified them is being forced open or shut by AI.
Noahpinion
One photo of Texas football fans exposed the New RightThe New Right sees the world as zero-sum competition between groups: whatever you do, and however legally you got there, a brown face marks you as an invader — and that refusal to build coalitions will dismantle the country it claims to defend.
The Conversation
Three camps fight over wildfire strategy while the fires get worseAmerica's wildfire deadlock comes from three camps each insisting its one method is best, when the effective approach is wiring all three methods together.
Klement on Investing
Two years after the hurricane, poor countries are still losing GDPStorms and droughts dent economic output for two years, the most extreme floods wipe 3.2% off GDP after two years, and poor countries take far heavier hits than rich ones.
The Conversation
Trump promised $5,000 if Republicans win. Is that buying votes?Trump's promise to pay every adult American $5,000 if Republicans hold Congress may sound like vote-buying, but under current U.S. law and Supreme Court precedent, it is closer to a protected campaign promise than a prosecutable bribe.
Noahpinion
Americans would rather drop the Middle EastAmerica's deep entanglement in the Middle East is both a strategic burden and a poison in its domestic politics, and falling oil dependence plus fading Islamism now make withdrawal feasible.
The Conversation
Two babies died of measles. The CDC's count became an asteriskWhen public health bodies contradict each other, the damage comes less from officials lying than from people being handed conflicting claims they have no way to adjudicate.
Conversable Economist
Candy is expensive now, and greed has nothing to do with itCandy prices rose not because candy-makers suddenly turned greedier, but because the supply of cocoa and sugar kept breaking down.
Klement on Investing
Britain isn't short of houses, it's short of building themEurope's biggest cities need new housing worth well over two percent of their entire existing stock, and Britain's numbers likely look as bad as Ireland's.
Rest of World
China's professionals become gig teachers for AIAmid economic downturn and government push, underemployed Chinese professionals are turning to AI training gigs to earn extra income, though the work is poorly paid and unstable.
Conversable Economist
Work is more than a paycheck: losing a job can cost you years of lifeThe hidden benefits of work—health, happiness, skills, and social connections—far exceed the paycheck, and losing a job can be devastating across the board, even shortening life expectancy.
Noahpinion
AI refuses to take our jobs, but we're scared anywayDespite widespread fear that AI will replace jobs on a massive scale, data so far shows AI complements rather than substitutes human labor, and may even create more new jobs than it destroys.
Klement on Investing
Organic farmers aren't the ones getting richA study of German farms shows that the economic benefits of organic farming mostly go to distributors, not farmers.
The Conversation
What comes next for the 1 million people who have lost – or will soon lose – Temporary Protected StatusThe U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal courts cannot review most TPS terminations, leaving about a million people facing loss of status and possibly deportation without clear legal recourse.
ChinaTalk
How Trump and Xi Can Do AI SafetyUS-China cooperation on AI safety should avoid grand, all-encompassing agreements; instead, it should begin with the most tractable, concrete technical issues to build trust and progress gradually.
Construction Physics
How Will the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act Affect Housing Supply? Part IIIMost provisions of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act are unlikely to have a meaningful impact on housing supply, with the few potentially significant changes concentrated in a handful of independent sections.
Conversable Economist
Gross and Net US InvestmentAround three-quarters of annual US corporate investment merely offsets depreciation of existing assets, leaving only a quarter that actually expands productive capacity.
Blood in the Machine
Why office workers are turning against AIWorkers' feelings about AI are determined by their power at work: bosses like AI because it cuts costs and they face no accountability, while frontline workers hate it because it creates more work, anxiety, and stress.
Conversable Economist
US Energy: Source to End-UseDespite rapid growth, solar and wind account for only about 3% of U.S. primary energy; to become the dominant source they would need to expand at least twentyfold, while also overcoming grid losses and build-out challenges.
The Conversation
Federal stimulus money bought new technology for Philly students, but many schools lost track of where items wentAfter the pandemic, Philadelphia schools bought equipment with federal stimulus money, but more than 60% of those assets went missing on the books, exposing a systemic failure in tracking public funds.
ACOUP
Collections: Global Trade and United States NavyDespite changing US politics, the US Navy is currently the only force capable of keeping global maritime trade open, and the world is paying the price.
Uncharted Territories
What Is Happening in Ceuta?In July 2026, over 70,000 people surged from Morocco into Spain's enclave Ceuta after a court ruling clarified that swimming across the border wouldn't lead to instant deportation — and Morocco may have been happy to let it happen to pressure Spain.
The Conversation
Making the Fed more accountable to Congress and the public may be just what it needs to fend off Trump’s threats to its independenceThe real threat to the Federal Reserve is Trump-style interference, and greater accountability to Congress might be just what it needs to defend its independence.

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