I am very much guilty of this, but it is weird how much more attention American elites pay to UK politics than to Mexican politics given that Mexico has twice the population, shares a long border, and is a much bigger trading partner.
Neil Irwin
2,816 posts
Neil Irwin
@Neil_Irwin
Chief Economic Correspondent at Axios and author of Axios Macro newsletter.
Author of "The Alchemists" and "How to Win"; Formerly: NYT, WashPost.
- We're currently living in the brief moment between when Finance/Econ Twitter has realized that the new Covid lockdowns in Shenzhen are going to have hugely bad consequences for US inflation, but that has not yet become a widely-reported conventional wisdom.
- Whoa, 6.9% annualized GDP growth in 4q.
- Stunning to see these kinds of numbers at a time of elevated recession talk. This is an absolute boomtime kind of jobs report, the 180° opposite of a doom-and-gloom report.
- Minneapolis is the only major metro area where inflation over the last 12 months is below the Fed's 2% target (1.8%). Construction of more housing is the reason.
- Wow HUUGE positive revisions to August and September. Combined +235k jobs for the two months.
- Payrolls rise by 528k, unemployment rate edges down to 3.5%. Wow. This job market is still humming.
- As a rule of thumb, anytime economics writers like me end up needing to learn a lot about financial system plumbing, it's a sign something very bad is happening. I have an unsettling feeling we're entering one of those times again.
- All in all, a pretty good little week here for President Biden.
- Replying to @Neil_Irwin(To be clear, I agree with the finance/econ Twitter consensus that this is very bad news and at the worst possible time).
- [Takes deep breath] I’m excited to announce that, starting in January, I am becoming the chief economics correspondent at @Axios I’ll produce reporting and analysis on the economy, markets, policy, and how they all intersect.
- Replying to @Neil_IrwinTwo addenda, spurred by your replies: Yes, there is a language barrier with Mexico, but Americans also pay more attention to UK than to Canada. Also, the reverse applies, where British elites pay more attention to Washington than Paris/Brussels/Berlin.
- I feel like the Washington Football Team has had way more “random guy off the street” starters at quarterback in recent years than any pro team should have.
