Here are some of the most ridiculous (and tragic) events of 2025, in economic or economic policy terms.
January: CEA designate Stephen Miran cobbles together a disjointed attempt at international finance, wherein exorbitant privilege is diminished, but US borrowing capacity and interest rates are unaffected…
February: EJ Antoni, who has not a single published peer reviewed journal article, disparages the economists at the Fed.
March: EJ antoni called a recession start at end of 2022; he also called one for beginning of 2024 — without ever declaring an end to the earlier recession.
April: Republicans/lean Republicans seem completely insensisible to “news” as tabulated by text analysis methods. This contrasts with Democrats/lean Democratic, and Independents.
May: EJ Antoni defines a recession as what people “feel” rather than using the the 2 consecuitve quarters of negative GDP growth, or the NBER definition.
EJ Antoni Redefines Recession as What the American People Feel
June: CEA engages on some pretty adventurous supply-side thinking. For a laugh, look at some of the references.
July: CRFB agrees, CEA has gone of the deep end.
August: Steve Bannon suggests EJ Antoni for BLS Commissioner. Antoni seems to have no qualifications, other than being a partisan (his PhD is in public finance). And indeed the President nominates him.
September: Section 232 for upholstered furniture and bathroom vanities? I’d like to see the study! (None published in Trump 2.0 by the Bureau of Industrial Security, unlike in Trump 1.0).
The Safety of the Nation Depends on … Upholstered Furniture and Bathroom Vanities
October: Now he attacks the University of Michigan Survey of Consumers as being partisan(!)
November: What kind of world are we in when BLS survey workers can’t collect October CPI data, nor October CPS data, but somehow funds can be (illegally) tapped to dig a big hole in ground where the East Wing of the White House used to be?
December: EJ Antoni argues that poverty is a “choice”.
By the way, as far as I can tell, it’s still a hole in the ground…
