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Ben Keys

@benkeys.bsky.social

I’m not a player I just lurk a lot. Economist and Professor of Real Estate and Finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School

85 Posts3509 Follower579 Folgt
Mark Jacob@markjacob.bsky.social · 3d ago

This New York Times article, which ran a week before Christmas last year, didn’t get the attention it deserved. It detailed Trump and Epstein's predatory behavior toward women – “a game of ego and dominance” in which “female bodies were currency.” Here’s a gift link and a thread. 1/6🧵

‘Don’s Best Friend’: How Epstein and Trump Bonded Over the Pursuit of Women (Gift Article)

The president has tried to minimize their friendship, but documents and interviews reveal an intense and complicated relationship. Chasing women was a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were cur...

nytimes.com

Philip Gourevitch@pgourevitch.bsky.social · last wk.

by way of idle wishful thinking - would be great if NYT hired a science writer/thinker for the op-ed page to tell us what’s happening and what’s at stake in the sciences, at a time when they are under attack in a way Galileo would recognize, while newspaper science journalism is facing extinction

Catherine Rampell@crampell.bsky.social · 2w ago

Trump admin has quietly drafted new rules governing the census expected to recategorize millions of immigrants (both unauthorized and legal) as not actually living here in the United States This would allow the GOP to steal congressional seats & redirect hundreds of billions of federal dollars

Inside Trump’s Stealth Trick to Rig the Census—and Congress

The administration’s latest power grab is disguised as boring technical guidance.

thebulwark.com

The Hamilton Project@hamiltonproject.org · 2w ago

The cost of reinsurance for U.S. catastrophes such as wildfires is high and volatile, both of which are being amplified by climate change. Benjamin Collier, @benkeys.bsky.social, and Philip Mulder discuss how a federal reinsurance entity could lower costs and restore stability:

A proposal for a US federal property reinsurer - The Hamilton Project

This proposal outlines a federal reinsurance entity, US Re, to address rising premiums and volatility in the U.S. homeowners insurance market.

hamiltonproject.org

Greg Shill@gregshill.com · 3w ago

Just as transit policy (still) needs to adjust to pre-pandemic commute patterns not coming back, housing policy should incorporate the fact that many older adults are not downsizing. Compared with transit, the solution here is straightforward: build more. www.wsj.com/economy/hous...

Boomers Were Supposed to Downsize. They Are Buying Bigger Homes Instead.

Wealthy, older Americans are ripping up the traditional script for aging: “We’ll downsize when they plant me 6 feet into the ground.”

wsj.com

Mira Rojanasakul@rjnskl.bsky.social · 3w ago

Climate change worsens wildfires, but we could also be building our homes and neighborhoods in safer ways. Visit the lab where they're burning down entire houses to learn how to do just that.  🎁🔥 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The Wildfire Researchers Who Burn Houses Down on Purpose (Gift Article)

As wildfires intensify, threatening more people, a nonprofit is studying how to rethink homes and neighborhoods to prevent catastrophe.

nytimes.com

Chris Hayes@chrislhayes.bsky.social · 3w ago

"In Detroit, the air quality index reached a value of 728 late Wednesday, far worse than the peak of 465 in New York during the apocalyptic June 2023 fires." www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2026...

Wildfire smoke will worsen in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic through Friday

More than 115 million people could be exposed to unhealthy air quality. See the forecast for 20 cities.

washingtonpost.com

Chris Hayes@chrislhayes.bsky.social · 3w ago

So far this year we've had: the warmest winter on record in the mountain west, a record-shattering heat wave in Europe, once in a thousand year rainfall and flooding texas and forest fire smoke blanketing the mid west and the north east. Feels like something's going on with the climate!

Chris Hayes@chrislhayes.bsky.social · 3w ago

So far this year we've had: the warmest winter on record in the mountain west, a record-shattering heat wave in Europe, once in a thousand year rainfall and flooding texas and forest fire smoke blanketing the mid west and the north east. Feels like something's going on with the climate!

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3w ago

OSSOFF: Who won the 2020 election? CLAYTON: Uhm, you know, I'm not going to do this with you O: This is a job interview. You have an obligation to be honest with the committee. Who won the 2020 election? C: I'm not gonna get into that with you O: You're not being honest or forthright C: ...

Amanda Katz@katzish.bsky.social · 3w ago

"According to U.S. code, “[o]nly the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on United States currency and securities”—a law that sprang from a Colonial-era tradition against putting current presidents on American coins themselves from the British monarchy."

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 3w ago

The U.S. Mint will soon begin producing a new $1 gold-hued coin with President Trump’s face on it to commemorate America’s 250th birthday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced.

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · last mo.

“.. The Florida for-sale market is flashing warning signs: 45% of listings have taken a price cut (6.6 pts above the national rate) “.. 1 in 10 homes are selling for less than the original owner paid.” - Parcl Labs

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Steve Rattner@steverattner.bsky.social · last mo.

The number of financial side deals the Trump family is running is so shocking it can sometimes be hard to track. According to @reuters.com, their crypto ventures alone have delivered $2.3 billion to Trump & co. while creating a similar-sized loss for investors.

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Michael Derby@michaelsderby.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Former Philly Fed Harker on Bowman blackout breach: “Reporting on a Fed official speaking at a private bank's client dinner during the blackout deserves a serious, transparent answer from the institution. Not as a partisan matter, but as a question of stewardship.” Via LinkedIn

During my years on the FOMC, the communications blackout was one of the rules I took most seriously, not because the text is sacred, but because of what it protects. The Fed's signals move markets only because people trust that everyone hears them the same way, at the same time. The quiet period exists to guarantee that no investor, lender, or institution gets a closer seat to the policy conversation than anyone else. The moment that fairness looks compromised, even in appearance, the credibility that makes monetary policy work starts to erode. That is why reporting on a Fed official speaking at a private bank's client dinner during the blackout deserves a serious, transparent answer from the institution. Not as a partisan matter, but as a question of stewardship. The Fed's most valuable asset isn't any one rate decision. It's the public's confidence that the institution holds itself to its own standards.
Ben Casselman@bencasselman.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In inflation-adjusted terms, workers have now seen *zero* wage gains since Trump returned to office -- the surge in prices over the past few months has wiped out all of the real wage gains made in the first year of Trump's second term.

Chris Hayes@chrislhayes.bsky.social · 2mo ago

To be clear: the lower court said the map intentionally discriminates against black people in violation of the *constitution* (not just the VRA) and the MAGA Majority of SCOTUS is saying "that's ok now."

Chris Geidner@chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 2mo ago

BREAKING: In an unsigned, per curiam opinion on the shadow docket, the SCOTUS conservatives allow Alabama to use a congressional map held repeatedly by a lower court to have been enacted with discriminatory intent.

At this preliminary stage, the State has shown that it is entitled to interim relief from the District Court's injunc-tion. See Abbott v. League of United Latin American Citi-zens, 607 U. S. 一 (2025) (slip op., at 1-2). The State is likely to succeed on the merits as to both claims. As to intentional vote dilution, the District Court did not heed the presumption of legislative good faith, see Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, 602 U. S. 1, 10 (2024), because it interpreted the State's legal disagreement with the court's earlier remedial order as proof of discriminatory animus. Cf. Abbott v. Perez, 585 U. S. 579, 608-609 (2018). And, as to both claims, the District Court's analysis departed from Callais. Under Callais, the District Court was required to deny relief unless the plaintiffs' alternative map performed "just as well" with respect to all of the State's constitutionally permissible districting crite-ria. 608 U. S., at— (slip op., at 29). Yet, the District Court found a violation even though the plaintiffs' alternative map would not perform just as well as to the State's constitutionally permissible criteria of keeping together the Gulf Coast community of interest and avoiding the pairing of in-cumbents. The District Court also failed to follow our instruction in Callais that the mere fact that voters of different races vote for different parties is not relevant to proving racially polarized voting patterns. See id., at _ (slip op., at 30).
Mark Copelovitch@mcopelov.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Folks look at you like you're crazy when you say we're in the midst of the worst, most unprecedented Article I constitutional crisis in American history, & then John Thune is deferring to Tom Cotton & he has no observations on the matter.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo ago

RAJU: Do you think Bill Pulte has experience to be acting DNI? THUNE: I'll defer to Chairman Cotton COTTON: We have 4 more weeks with Director Gabbard as the DNI RAJU: And Pulte? COTTON: I have no observations on the matter