The FTC is suing to prevent consolidation in the playground industry! Very excited to be working on this case to keep playgrounds affordable for parks, schools, and others as well as keeping incentives for playgrounds to be novel and fun for kids!

FTC Sues to Block PlayPower’s Acquisition of Rival Playground Manufacturer Burke

Today, the Federal Trade Commission sued to block Platinum Equity and its portfolio company PlayPower’s acquisition of BCI Burke, alleging the deal to combine two of the largest commercial outdoor

ftc.gov

*record scratch* *freeze frame* Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got here.

Can't argue with the Pope on this one.

The future of healthcare is a Reddit flame war between health insurance AI agents and health system AI agents.

Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 4w ago

"Just as providers are using sophisticated A.I. tools to say their patients are sicker, insurance companies have been accused of using the tools to delay or deny care." AI, unlocking opportunities for bad-faith corporate actors to try to extract more money www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/b...

Highly recommend both (1) working for my good friend Evan and (2) living in Chicago! ==>

@evan-mast.bsky.social · 4w ago

I am hiring a predoc to work on some projects on housing and neighborhoods! The position is based in Chicago, and the predoc will work out of the Census RDC at the Chicago Fed. populationanalytics.nd.edu/resources/ca...

Very curious what makes for a .2 bath

Alright I give: what’s AI?

“She had a survivor's instinct and seemed to always know just what to do, just what to say, to make things right...and then she'[d] stick her butt out the car window and moon Kenny Roger's home.” - Jane Fonda on the passing of Dolly

A cool thing that happened: one of my dissertation chapters has been published! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... tl;dr? Rebuilding a hospital/part of a hospital makes patients significantly happier! But is their care better? Too soon to tell, but rough signals point to no. Short 🧵

The Impact of Hospital Infrastructure Investment on Quality of Care - Zachary Levin, 2026

Hospitals spend billions of dollars annually on major construction projects and facility upgrades, but limited research to date has examined whether this expend...

journals.sagepub.com

O’Hare is a great airport for when your favorite part of flying is being delayed.

Showing up to my date with a prepackaged salad so he knows I'm brave.

Polls have closed in California which means we're only a few weeks away from knowing the results of today's election.

On Monday the 27th, the AcademyHealth Health Economics Interest Group is hosting a webinar on the non-academic job market for health economist. Hope to see you there! Register here: wustl-hipaa.zoom.us/webinar/regi....

Help! For the second time this month I've discovered a bee trapped between my window pane and the screen and I really have no idea how this is happening or how to fix it.

Health econ students: a great opportunity to learn about non-academic job opportunities from a group of qualified individuals (and also me for some reason)!

I'm happy to share the release of a new BE Economic Issues paper: "An Atlas of US Physician Practice Choice and Firm Structure: 2015-2020, for Selected States from the FTC Physician and Facility Merger Study." www.ftc.gov/reports/atla....

An Atlas of US Physician Practice Choice and Firm Structure: 2015-2020, for Selected States from the FTC Physician and Facility Merger Study

In this paper, we describe US physician practices using data from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s Physician Practice and Healthcare Facility Merger Study.

ftc.gov

(Adding to the The Discourse™ on this article) It's hard not to think about hospitals/health systems transform areas into modern coal/steel "company towns." The example of 50% of a county's workers being employed at Geisinger Health is eye-popping!

Health Care Has Become the Lifeblood of the Labor Market

nytimes.com

Anyone have a good source for how interprovider payment happens in global capitation? For example: if you’re a PCP with Blue Cross HMO global capitation and your patient needs an MRI, how is the reimbursement amount negotiated?

Lola says “give me the treat in your hand already” and also Happy Valentine’s Day!

Rob Reiner will be remembered for his many, many accomplishments but I would be remiss if I didn't point out the time he played a Congressman at an anti-trust hearing!

Rob Reiner Once Played a Congressman on Television

YouTube video by CyberDurden

youtube.com

Come work with me! #EconJobMarket

Matthew Thomas@matthewthom.as · 11mo ago

The Federal Trade Commission is hiring PhD Economists (very late, because shutdown)! Please repost/quote so JMCs can see. - no experience: www.usajobs.gov/job/851497400 - some experience: www.usajobs.gov/job/851497300 - much experience: www.usajobs.gov/job/851496000 #Economics #EconSky

Had a claim denied by Aetna but joke’s on them because I’m a health economist on furlough. Bet they’ve never seen an appeal with a “methods” section before.

Time to see my PCP (primary care pastry)

"Forgive me father, for I have put ketchup on a hot dog"

A Chicago Pope means we're getting deep dish communion wafers!

A nice by-product of tariff discourse has been discovering one of my favorite undergrad economics professors is on this site (the incomparably brilliant @kclausing.bsky.social).

AOL warned us of the dangers of logging on. It would play for us the screams of the damned. But we didn’t listen. We didn’t listen.

Hearing a lot about TikTok lately, thinking of finally downloading it and signing up for an account.

More detailed list of reconciliation policy options here from Punchbowll (h/t @zachlevin.bsky.social) punchbowl.news/reconciliati... ACA proposals include repealing APTC eligibility for DACA recipients, reintroducing the family glitch, and lifting income-based limits on APTC clawback

🚨new paper alert!!!🚨 My newest piece (and first solo-author pub!) is out at the Journal of Criminal Justice! I use daily jail roster data from 20 rural/suburban jails to study the impacts of Illinois' ban on cash bail on actual incarceration patterns. doi.org/10.1016/j.jc...