Mark G. Sheppard
@markgsheppard.com
640 followers 220 following 410 posts
Inequality/Mobility. Researcher @NBER.org. 3rd Year Econ PhD, The Graduate Center. 2nd Lt., U.S. National Guard. Former Congressional Staff.
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markgsheppard.com
🚨 NEW INTERACTIVE RECESSION TOOL 🚨
The #SahmRule is the best tools we have to indicate a recession. I extend the logic laid out by
@claudia-sahm.bsky.social, building off work by
@pmichaillat.bsky.social and Saez, to create an interactive tool. #EconSky

markgsheppard.github.io/SahmRule/int...
markgsheppard.com
It's probably fine. I think there's probably a bit of an over-supply of performative activism, and a deficit in worthwhile dialogue.
markgsheppard.com
This is one of my favorite marketing pieces for the Green Book Project. I like the portraiture, the movement, the balance.

#EconSky
trevondlogan.bsky.social
Traveling while Black during Jim Crow was about survival as well as mobility. The Green Book Project website documents that story. Share your family’s Green Book memories and help us preserve this rich history:
greenbookproject.org.ohio-state.edu #GreenBookProject #CommunityMap #EconSky
Reposted by Mark G. Sheppard
minneapolisfed.bsky.social
Most #MinimumWage research focuses on short-run empirical findings or a theoretical long-run steady state. Our economist Patrick Kehoe & co-authors model the essential transition effects to understand the optimal balance of minimum wage and tax policies. https://bit.ly/4jki97P #EconSky
The Macroeconomic Dynamics of Labor Market Policies | Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
bit.ly
markgsheppard.com
The real problem is that the press has lost so much credibility and readership in the social media era, that more and more of society is taking Rogan more seriously, and the press less seriously.

But that is a squarely a problem that only the press can solve.
markgsheppard.com
The press is critical of comedian-podcasters in a really odd way. The Rogan-sphere explores dumb topics like: whether you could fight a bear while high or MMA in outer space; it's not really partisan, or even male, it's just dumb.

It doesn't warrant the full weight of the long-form-writing elite.
markgsheppard.com
I love making lecture slides. This is my cover slide this week. #EconSky
Reposted by Mark G. Sheppard
upshot.nytimes.com
At Stake in the Shutdown Fight: Obamacare Prices That Could Rise by Thousands of Dollars

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
markgsheppard.com
The data shows that on average a #GovernmentShutdown lasts ~9 days, but the shutdown in the first Trump administration lasted 35 days. So trying to set a baseline expectation feels sketchy.

#EconSky
markgsheppard.com
Pyscho-analyzing an entire occupation seems dumb.

The reality is that it's not doctrine to de-escalate in these mass protest scenarios. It's all crow-control and deterrence.

So open provocation will be met with arrest —which just are more violent than the modal left-wing BlueSky user realizes.
markgsheppard.com
Almost 20 years ago, I watched #OscarGrant get shot IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD while in handcuffs for hopping a turnstile, skipping out on a $1.25 BART ticket, in 480p from at least 20 camera angles.

This trend is wrong. It has been wrong. But it's not new. Some things are new. It's not this.

2/2
markgsheppard.com
Excessive use of force by police has been the norm in poor communities, a trend that predates my entire life, so the newfound outrage reserved for middle-class liberal protestors getting arrested for being openly antagonistic —as if this is "new"— is actually really frustrating to me.

1/2
markgsheppard.com
But isn't this just a story of increasing lethality?

Frequency of violent crime can go down, and still lead to more death, if more crimes involve lethal means. Like this trend of death ↑ but incidents ↓ is replicated in the political violence data as well.
markgsheppard.com
The data shows that Google search results on #NationalGuard lag about two weeks behind search peaks of #Epstein. Which correlates to federal activations of the National Guard to Democrat-run cities following periods of media traction on Jeffrey Epstein.

#EconSky
markgsheppard.com
Then you shouldn’t be acting like this is new.
markgsheppard.com
I saw Oscar Grant get shot in the back of the head from point blank range in handcuffs for hopping a train turnstile, from like 37364 different phone camera angles.

The U.S. has needed to raise its standards forever; I’m just annoyed that people are acting like this is somehow new.
markgsheppard.com
No, your newfound outrage is the luxury. None of this is new. Poor people have been getting ravaged by police forever.
markgsheppard.com
I watched Oscar Grant get shot point-blank in the back of the head while in handcuffs from 438361 different phone camera angles, and basically nothing happened to the cop. There’s a whole movie about it.

We can agree it’s not good, but let’s not pretend this is new. It’s offensive.
markgsheppard.com
My point is: it’s annoying watching middle class liberal white people pretend like this is new or shocking, when they’ve flatly ignored it happening to poor people my entire life.

The asymmetric advocacy is annoying to me, even if I agree that this shouldn’t happen to anyone.
markgsheppard.com
I can understand that maybe this wasn’t your lower-middle class experience, but speaking as a representative of folks from the bottom, this is not evidence of “authoritarianism” or whatever, this is what just happens everyday to poor people.

Ask any Black person if this video is shocking.
markgsheppard.com
Again, when you’re from the actual bottom, it’s understood that law enforcement have the authority to manhandle you.

When I was in the group homes, the house did a program called the Fly Program, and one of the practical lessons was don’t disobey police, they will hurt you and get away with it.
Law Program - FLY
How Youth Are referred FLY generally accepts referrals for youth to our Law Program from probation departments; school teachers, counselors, and administrators; social workers; and family and communit...
flyprogram.org
markgsheppard.com
Yeah you probably weren’t as “poor” as you thought.

I was in a group home throughout high school, and the whole house watched an agent fist fight a 15 year old in the kitchen. And I get that results may vary.

But it sounds like you were just in a more protected class.
markgsheppard.com
It doesn’t make any sense.

It’s a mission you disagree with, you don’t like this use of federal agents, but it’s clearly within the bounds of law; even though there’s sometimes process questions about federal activation of state forces.

Anyways saying “invade” gains you nothing with normies.
markgsheppard.com
In the lead up to the election, there was many on the left that actively campaigned on the notion that Harris was a “genocider in chief” and she didn’t deserve support.

If you know any of these people, please call them everyday and tell them their views were excessive and wrong.