Mike Murphy
@mjamurphy.bsky.social
I'm an applied economist interested in how we get better at interacting with natural systems. You can find out more about my research at mjamurphy.com
Personal account, only Scottish football takes guaranteed correct
Personal account, only Scottish football takes guaranteed correct
They electrified my old rail line and now the last station by my sister's has been adopted by the local primary school, and the kids will garden and decorate while learning about mass transit, because we can and should have nice things.
Local school adopts new Scottish railway station
A local primary school and nursery class has adopted the new railway station at East Kilbride in Scotland.
www.railadvent.co.uk
January 19, 2026 at 5:57 PM
They electrified my old rail line and now the last station by my sister's has been adopted by the local primary school, and the kids will garden and decorate while learning about mass transit, because we can and should have nice things.
Reposted by Mike Murphy
US beef is underestimated by ~6x if factoring in the missed opportunity to rewild & restore the land used for its production.
And according to this new WRI report, implementing EVERY existing & breakthrough mitigation tech would only reduce US beef carbon costs by 18%:
www.wri.org/insights/tru...
And according to this new WRI report, implementing EVERY existing & breakthrough mitigation tech would only reduce US beef carbon costs by 18%:
www.wri.org/insights/tru...
January 19, 2026 at 1:33 PM
US beef is underestimated by ~6x if factoring in the missed opportunity to rewild & restore the land used for its production.
And according to this new WRI report, implementing EVERY existing & breakthrough mitigation tech would only reduce US beef carbon costs by 18%:
www.wri.org/insights/tru...
And according to this new WRI report, implementing EVERY existing & breakthrough mitigation tech would only reduce US beef carbon costs by 18%:
www.wri.org/insights/tru...
Physical climate risk is a major issue in pricing US homes, but measuring it for individual properties is fraught at best.
A macro threat looming in plain sight.
A macro threat looming in plain sight.
January 19, 2026 at 1:31 PM
Physical climate risk is a major issue in pricing US homes, but measuring it for individual properties is fraught at best.
A macro threat looming in plain sight.
A macro threat looming in plain sight.
Reposted by Mike Murphy
The European Union plans to suspend a trade deal with the United States over Trump’s Greenland tariffs, Bloomberg reports.
January 17, 2026 at 9:03 PM
The European Union plans to suspend a trade deal with the United States over Trump’s Greenland tariffs, Bloomberg reports.
"At development and climate meetings, he said, you can go a long time without hearing anyone acknowledge that China matters vastly more to the climate-change story than anything happening anywhere else, very much including the US."
The crisis whisperer: how Adam Tooze makes sense of our bewildering age
The long read: Whether it’s the financial crash, the climate emergency or the breakdown of the international order, historian Adam Tooze has become the go-to guide to the radical new world we’ve enter...
www.theguardian.com
January 16, 2026 at 11:54 PM
"At development and climate meetings, he said, you can go a long time without hearing anyone acknowledge that China matters vastly more to the climate-change story than anything happening anywhere else, very much including the US."
Launching my centrist think-tank OneScalar
January 16, 2026 at 8:36 PM
Launching my centrist think-tank OneScalar
"A staggering 55 million people in the region are expected to endure crisis levels of hunger, or worse, during the June–August 2026 lean season"
"[O]ver three million people will face emergency levels of food insecurity (Phase 4) this year - more than double the 1.5 million in 2020."
"[O]ver three million people will face emergency levels of food insecurity (Phase 4) this year - more than double the 1.5 million in 2020."
Humanitarian aid cuts push millions deeper into hunger amid rising violence and population displacement in West and Central Africa | World Food Programme
DAKAR, Senegal – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that without urgent resources and action, the most vulnerable people in West and Central Africa are headed for yet another dire yea...
www.wfp.org
January 16, 2026 at 6:54 PM
"A staggering 55 million people in the region are expected to endure crisis levels of hunger, or worse, during the June–August 2026 lean season"
"[O]ver three million people will face emergency levels of food insecurity (Phase 4) this year - more than double the 1.5 million in 2020."
"[O]ver three million people will face emergency levels of food insecurity (Phase 4) this year - more than double the 1.5 million in 2020."
Reposted by Mike Murphy
America losing influence fast.
"A trade negotiator for a Mercosur nation ... insisted [the American side] had not been contacted about the issue recently."
www.ft.com/content/1442...
"A trade negotiator for a Mercosur nation ... insisted [the American side] had not been contacted about the issue recently."
www.ft.com/content/1442...
US accuses EU of seeking cheese ‘monopoly’ in South America
Bloc will sign trade agreement on Saturday after 25 years of talks
www.ft.com
January 16, 2026 at 12:56 PM
America losing influence fast.
"A trade negotiator for a Mercosur nation ... insisted [the American side] had not been contacted about the issue recently."
www.ft.com/content/1442...
"A trade negotiator for a Mercosur nation ... insisted [the American side] had not been contacted about the issue recently."
www.ft.com/content/1442...
Reposted by Mike Murphy
Striking new work on how gangs shape economic development in El Salvador, Melnikov et al. in Econometrica
Stunted development in gang-controlled territory driven by labor mobility limits: harder to commute/work outside territory, smaller labor mkt, less specialization —>
doi.org/10.3982/ECTA...
Stunted development in gang-controlled territory driven by labor mobility limits: harder to commute/work outside territory, smaller labor mkt, less specialization —>
doi.org/10.3982/ECTA...
January 16, 2026 at 11:45 AM
Striking new work on how gangs shape economic development in El Salvador, Melnikov et al. in Econometrica
Stunted development in gang-controlled territory driven by labor mobility limits: harder to commute/work outside territory, smaller labor mkt, less specialization —>
doi.org/10.3982/ECTA...
Stunted development in gang-controlled territory driven by labor mobility limits: harder to commute/work outside territory, smaller labor mkt, less specialization —>
doi.org/10.3982/ECTA...
Reposted by Mike Murphy
Superb thread
January 16, 2026 at 12:05 PM
Superb thread
Americans who travel are going to ask increasingly why they have to pay 2-3x more for cars running on outdated technology
Canada agrees to cut tariff on Chinese EVs in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products
Canada has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products.
apnews.com
January 16, 2026 at 12:25 PM
Americans who travel are going to ask increasingly why they have to pay 2-3x more for cars running on outdated technology
"The soybean innovation lab at the University of Illinois, had been developing dozens of higher-yielding varieties of soybeans for West African farmers, which Peter Goldsmith, the lab’s director, said would have accelerated local economic growth and created new export markets for U.S. soy farmers."
For the World’s Food Supply, Federal Funding Cuts Have Long-Term Impacts
www.nytimes.com
January 15, 2026 at 10:48 PM
"The soybean innovation lab at the University of Illinois, had been developing dozens of higher-yielding varieties of soybeans for West African farmers, which Peter Goldsmith, the lab’s director, said would have accelerated local economic growth and created new export markets for U.S. soy farmers."
Happy Nat Bullard Chart Day to all those celebrating
Do you like charts? Oh yes you do. I've just published hundreds of them, as I do every year. www.nathanielbullard.com/presentations
January 15, 2026 at 2:31 PM
Happy Nat Bullard Chart Day to all those celebrating
Sales of last century's technology are not doing so great
January 15, 2026 at 2:27 PM
Sales of last century's technology are not doing so great
Reposted by Mike Murphy
📢 Just accepted in #JAERE! 📢
"Glyphosate Use, Water Contamination, and Neonatal Health in the United States" by Tzu-Hui J. Chen.
Read it here: buff.ly/PhCSHrH
📈📉 #Econsky
"Glyphosate Use, Water Contamination, and Neonatal Health in the United States" by Tzu-Hui J. Chen.
Read it here: buff.ly/PhCSHrH
📈📉 #Econsky
January 15, 2026 at 1:00 PM
📢 Just accepted in #JAERE! 📢
"Glyphosate Use, Water Contamination, and Neonatal Health in the United States" by Tzu-Hui J. Chen.
Read it here: buff.ly/PhCSHrH
📈📉 #Econsky
"Glyphosate Use, Water Contamination, and Neonatal Health in the United States" by Tzu-Hui J. Chen.
Read it here: buff.ly/PhCSHrH
📈📉 #Econsky
"These are the places that [...] account for well over 90% of the world’s emissions increases over the past decade. If they are turning the corner towards a green tech revolution, then there is more than just a little ray of hope shining our path towards a better future."
Yes, the world is burning. We need to do more than just reject and retvrn. We need to reconstruct something different, something better. That requires introspection and conversation.
Let's begin.
thechinalab.substack.com/p/where-to-n...
Let's begin.
thechinalab.substack.com/p/where-to-n...
Where to now? What next?
Promises for the year to come
thechinalab.substack.com
January 15, 2026 at 1:16 PM
"These are the places that [...] account for well over 90% of the world’s emissions increases over the past decade. If they are turning the corner towards a green tech revolution, then there is more than just a little ray of hope shining our path towards a better future."
A victory for common decency, I hope more MPs will follow suit
I am leaving X.
The app is capable of creating pornographic images of children, there is absolutely no question: I cannot, in good conscience, remain on the platform.
Follow me on Instagram: @ tonyvaughanmp
Follow me on Bluesky: @ tonyvaughanmp.bsky.social
Follow me on Facbook: Tonyvaughanlabour
The app is capable of creating pornographic images of children, there is absolutely no question: I cannot, in good conscience, remain on the platform.
Follow me on Instagram: @ tonyvaughanmp
Follow me on Bluesky: @ tonyvaughanmp.bsky.social
Follow me on Facbook: Tonyvaughanlabour
January 14, 2026 at 1:00 PM
A victory for common decency, I hope more MPs will follow suit
fyi dmv friends this is apparently happening at 2am 🙃
Fighter jets to fly over DC region in defense exercise - WTOP News
If you’re up late or an early riser, you could see or hear military aircraft over the D.C. region early Wednesday.
wtop.com
January 14, 2026 at 2:47 AM
fyi dmv friends this is apparently happening at 2am 🙃
Today, as ever, is a good day to encourage friends, family and colleagues to get off of Twitter
Yesterday Elon Musk retweeted "white solidarity is the only way to survive". In our numb overwhelmed media environment it barely made headlines that the world's richest man endorsed blood-curdling white nationalism. My brief writeup for @religiondispatches.org
religiondispatches.org/elon-musk-ju...
religiondispatches.org/elon-musk-ju...
Elon Musk Just Endorsed Blatant White Nationalism And the Silence is Deafening
On Thursday morning Elon Musk retweeted (with a ‘100%’ endorsement) a post declaring that:
If white men become a minority, we will be slaughtered. Remember, if non-Whites openly hate White men while...
religiondispatches.org
January 13, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Today, as ever, is a good day to encourage friends, family and colleagues to get off of Twitter
Reposted by Mike Murphy
Is there a mathematics of discontinuous behavior? Christopher Zeeman was a leading proponent of Catastrophe Theory, a topological approach to sudden change that underpins much of today’s work on tipping points. This is his beautiful 1976 paper in @sciam.bsky.social www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2...
January 12, 2026 at 11:27 PM
Is there a mathematics of discontinuous behavior? Christopher Zeeman was a leading proponent of Catastrophe Theory, a topological approach to sudden change that underpins much of today’s work on tipping points. This is his beautiful 1976 paper in @sciam.bsky.social www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2...
Really recommend checking out Hard Drugs if you are interested in global health
You can find all our other episodes here, including:
- ProteinMPNN and the AI tools that are changing drug development
- RFDiffusion and creating new proteins never seen in nature
- Will AI solve medicine?
- The history of vaccines
- The first cancer vaccine
Listen wherever you get your podcasts!
- ProteinMPNN and the AI tools that are changing drug development
- RFDiffusion and creating new proteins never seen in nature
- Will AI solve medicine?
- The history of vaccines
- The first cancer vaccine
Listen wherever you get your podcasts!
Hard Drugs
Hard Drugs is a show by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen about medical innovation: how to speed it up, how to scale it up, and how to make sure lifesaving tools reach the people who need them the mo...
harddrugs.worksinprogress.co
January 13, 2026 at 12:08 AM
Really recommend checking out Hard Drugs if you are interested in global health
Reposted by Mike Murphy
We'd love to see more graduate students here because we want to hear about your work! So what else could make this better? We'll build it.
Something @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social and I are very curious about... how can we make our client (a version of Bluesky for researchers) more friendly to grad students? What would encourage you all to post more?
Things I miss from our custom client when I'm using Bluesky:
- avatar colors that show whether we're mutuals
- exportable bookmarks with custom folders
- feed of trending papers and articles
- safety alerts when a post goes viral
- researcher profiles with topics, affiliations, featured papers
- avatar colors that show whether we're mutuals
- exportable bookmarks with custom folders
- feed of trending papers and articles
- safety alerts when a post goes viral
- researcher profiles with topics, affiliations, featured papers
January 12, 2026 at 10:37 PM
We'd love to see more graduate students here because we want to hear about your work! So what else could make this better? We'll build it.
Reposted by Mike Murphy
one defense of CBA has always been that it forces admins to be explicit about their values....
"Over the past four decades, Republican and Democratic administrations have used different estimates of the monetary value of a human life... But until now, no administration has counted it as zero."
"Over the past four decades, Republican and Democratic administrations have used different estimates of the monetary value of a human life... But until now, no administration has counted it as zero."
The "administration contends that these estimates are doubtful and said the E.P.A. would no longer take health effects into account in the cost-benefit analyses necessary for clean-air regulations, according to the documents. Instead, the agency would estimate only the costs to businesses."
E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution
www.nytimes.com
January 12, 2026 at 5:37 PM
one defense of CBA has always been that it forces admins to be explicit about their values....
"Over the past four decades, Republican and Democratic administrations have used different estimates of the monetary value of a human life... But until now, no administration has counted it as zero."
"Over the past four decades, Republican and Democratic administrations have used different estimates of the monetary value of a human life... But until now, no administration has counted it as zero."
chat how do i short the global monetary system
January 12, 2026 at 2:52 AM
chat how do i short the global monetary system
Reposted by Mike Murphy
If you don’t have access to a Terminal, here is the BBG article as a gift link 🎁
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Fed Served With DOJ Subpoenas, Powell Vows to Stand Firm
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the US central bank had been served grand jury subpoenas from the Justice Department threatening a criminal indictment, a dramatic escalation of the Trump admi...
www.bloomberg.com
January 12, 2026 at 2:27 AM
If you don’t have access to a Terminal, here is the BBG article as a gift link 🎁
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...