Jonathan Haidt versus Social Media

A $17.1 Billion Vote of Confidence That Jonathan Haidt Was Right
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/style/meta-jonathan-haidt-anxious-generation.html
In “The Anxious Generation,” he laid out the evils of social media for kids. The landmark Meta settlement seems to agree.  

Related:
https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-adverse-effects-of-social-media.html
https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2024/05/tech-and-teen-anxiety.html

China’s Super-Dam

China’s Super-Dam Is Becoming an Upstream Water Bomb
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/china-himalayan-super-dam-dangerous-and-plan-lacks-transparency-by-brahma-chellaney-2026-08
The latest evidence suggests that the Chinese scientific establishment understands the dangers of a planned Himalayan dam—the world's largest—more clearly than its political leadership is willing to acknowledge. With the livelihoods of two billion people at stake, the international community needs to weigh in. 

College Rankings and Choice of College Majors

LinkedIn Top Colleges 2026: The 50 best colleges for long-term career success in the U.S.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-top-colleges-2026-50-best-long-term-career-success-6gyze
 
Does What You Major in Really Matter?
https://www.townandcountrymag.com/education-college/a71944143/how-to-choose-college-major/
Is computer science out? Will a degree in AI have legs? What about the humanities? Choosing an undergraduate major has never felt more high stakes. 

Mass Migration - The Case of Spain

Quo Vadis, Hispania? Part One
https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/quo-vadis-hispania-part-one/
 
Quo Vadis Hispania? Part Two
https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/quo-vadis-hispania-part-two/
Mass immigration is arguably the most important demographic force at play in Europe today. It is also one of the most salient—and polarizing—issues in contemporary European politics. 

When Following the Rules Leads to Disaster
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/08/ceuta-morocco-crisis-immigration/688149/
A supreme-court decision helped cause the Ceuta disaster.
 
Schengen’s Greatest Failure
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/07/migration-splitting-europe-apart/688137/
The Ceuta crisis is undermining an agreement designed to foster “solidarity.” 

Economics PhD Placements

Expanding Opportunities: New Facts about the Placement of PhD Economists
https://docs.iza.org/dp18868.pdf
Abstract
Is the top of the economics profession becoming more insular? We study the placement of top PhD graduates over the past quarter-century matching them to their advisors. Three trends point towards greater openness: graduates increasingly place outside academia, outside the US, and into a tech sector recruiting broadly across gender, ethnicity, and program prestige. The disaggregated picture is less reassuring: the Emerging South is largely sidelined in the global job market, East Asians face persistent gaps in top academic placement, and elite advisors continue to confer substantial advantages within academia. Tech placement, meanwhile, is dominated by a single employer.

Economists Are Studying the Slowing Job Market – and Feeling It Themselves
https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/economists-job-market-hiring-2213807b
Newly minted Ph.Ds. tend to work for universities, government agencies and big white-collar companies. It’s not a great hiring time for any of them.

The Bull Market for Economists Is Over. It’s an Ominous Sign for the Economy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/business/economics-jobs-hiring.html
Earning a Ph.D. in economics has long been a reliable path to affluence and prestige. Not anymore. 

Related:

https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2024/12/oversupply-of-economics-phds.html 

Rise and Fall of Situational Awareness - A Cautionary Tale

The Connections That Turned a Precocious Teen into the Fallen ‘Nostradamus of AI’
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/situational-awareness-leopold-aschenbrenner-ai-fund-4dbb00a4
A 24-year-old investor hailed as a visionary attracted billions—before turning into Wall Street’s latest cautionary tale. 

What Does the Humbling of Leopold Aschenbrenner Mean for the A.I. Bubble? 
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-financial-page/what-does-the-humbling-of-leopold-aschenbrenner-mean-for-the-ai-bubble
The troubles of a twenty-four-year-old hedge-fund manager highlight some larger questions about the tech-driven stock boom.

Inside the Meltdown of a Wunderkind’s A.I. Hedge Fund

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/business/situational-awareness-leopold-aschenbrenner.html

Situational Awareness, led by a 24-year-old, exploded onto the artificial intelligence scene — and then nose-dived.

Crude Oil versus Refinery Products

Jeff Currie, Real Macro CEO, on the latest oil price trends and ongoing choke points for fuel products
https://youtu.be/uuvIwco01ks
 
The Price of Diesel, the ‘Workhorse’ of Fuels, Nears a Record High
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/business/energy-environment/diesel-prices-iran-war-oil.html
The cost of the fuel, used in farm machinery, trucks and other heavy equipment, has surged because of the war in Iran and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries.