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Lydia DePillis

@lydiadepillis.bsky.social
1.8K followers 393 following 125 posts

NYT economics reporter. Just checking things out over here.

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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Energy costs are falling, but overall prices are still rising -- we unpack the ups and downs of CPI in July. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/b...
nytimes.com
Inflation Eased Slightly in July, but Prices Remain Elevated as War Drags On
Though energy prices fell last month after their spring surge, other factors pushed up costs as the Fed considers raising interest rates.
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Today from me: After a summer of eye-popping heat, vicious wildfires and relentless storms, businesses are finally facing up to climate change. (Or at least protecting themselves from its effects.) www.nytimes.com/2026/08/11/b...
nytimes.com
In a Summer of Climate Misery, Businesses Confront the Need to Adapt (Gift Article)
Repeated heat waves, wildfires, droughts and storms are solidifying the understanding that new investments are unavoidable.
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
The final cut on a jobs report that feels as gross as this summer's weather: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/07/b...
nytimes.com
Labor Market Shifts Into Reverse as Employers Balk at Hiring
A spring surge rapidly faded as the summer brought higher prices and more uncertainty for businesses, even as they avoided layoffs.
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Today from me: I wade into the strange world of token economics, in which companies are spending huge sums on a mysterious resource that they can't be sure will deliver a return and might just be a waste of money. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/b...
nytimes.com
What Are Companies Getting for All That A.I. Spending?
A new field of “tokenomics” has emerged to measure the return on all the money companies are pouring into artificial intelligence.
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Today from me: A.I. companies suddenly have a voracious appetite for electricians and carpenters. I wrote about the hundreds of millions of dollars they're pouring into training as competition sends wages soaring: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/b...
nytimes.com
A.I. Companies Are Recruiting Electricians and Carpenters by the Thousands
The future of artificial intelligence depends on finding more skilled humans for some very physical jobs.
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Job loss fears have soured many Americans on AI, while Congress and the White House do nothing to cushion the impact. So a bunch of big companies and foundations have ponied up $500m to work with states on building a workforce strategy for the transition: www.nytimes.com/2026/06/25/b...
nytimes.com
Big Companies Aim to Ease A.I. Transition for American Workers
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Today from me: America has usually been thought of as a place with relatively "inelastic" gasoline demand. But that is changing, as remote work and hybrids and EVs become more available. Gas sales are down since the war started, and may not fully rebound. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/b...
nytimes.com
America’s Thirst for Gasoline May Not Recover After Iran War
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Peter Baker @peterbakernyt.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Inflation surges to 4.2%, significantly above the 3% that Trump inherited after a campaign in which he vowed to bring down prices starting on day one. @lydiadepillis.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/live/2026/06...
nytimes.com
Live Updates: Inflation Jumps as Iran War Intensifies Price Squeeze
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Today from me: The Trump administration is squeezing almost every legal immigration path into the U.S. Except one: H-2A visas for guest farmworkers. That program is getting cheaper and easier to use. The problem is, it's long been plagued with labor abuses.
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Americans take birthright citizenship for granted, but most countries don't allow it. I wanted to know what that means for kids who are born in a society without the full right to participate. We found some answers in Ireland and Germany. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/b...
nytimes.com
What Ireland and Germany Can Teach Us About Birthright Citizenship
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Today from me: Everybody knows that GDP is a flawed metric, blind to the wellbeing of humans and the planet, but we keep chasing it because no alternative measure has gained traction. Inside the fight over how to knock GDP down a peg: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/b...
nytimes.com
G.D.P. Is a Flawed Measure of Prosperity. Alternatives Are on the Way.
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Personal news: I am writing a book! The conversation around birthrates has grown toxic. The truth is that fertility decline is mostly a consequence of freedom and opportunity, and seems unlikely to reverse. We can deal with the downsides--if we confront them head on, rather than wishing them away.
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Today from me: How do gas stations actually set prices at times like these? Sometimes with sophisticated software, sometimes with magnets. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/b...
nytimes.com
Why Gas Prices Go Up Fast and Take So Long to Fall
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Alongside our inflation coverage today, I line up some stories and some datapoints that show how even those resilient U.S. consumers are starting to run out of gas. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/b...
nytimes.com
Consumer Spending, Engine of the U.S. Economy, Is Under Strain
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Reposted by Lydia DePillis
Ben Casselman @bencasselman.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Couple quick charts re: data reliability. First, revisions: Recent revisions have been consistently downward (although note that January was revised UP). The scale of the revisions isn't unprecedented, but they have been quite large. #EconSky #NumbersDay
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Also today was jobs day and there were lots of jobs! But, you know, caveats. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/b...
nytimes.com
Job Growth Rebounded in March
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Today from me: Job growth has been tepid over the past year. On the flip side, so has labor force growth, keeping unemployment in check. So what's the problem? www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/b...
nytimes.com
Jobs and Workers Are in Balance. Nobody Is Happy About It.
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Today from me: Opposition to data centers is cropping up all over the country, and stopping hundreds of billions of dollars worth of projects. Is it enough to shake Wall Street's confidence in the hyperscale A.I. companies and their trillion-dollar promises? www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/b...
nytimes.com
Local Opposition Is Slowing A.I. Data Centers. Wall Street Has Noticed.
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Today from me: The SBA is struggling to collect on a $378 billion Covid loan portfolio as businesses who took out huge amounts never recovered. Treasury is now tacking on hefty fees and hiring debt collectors to pursue people who say they can't repay. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/b...
nytimes.com
Covid Relief Loans Are Haunting Small Businesses
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Today from me: The Middle East war is the biggest-ever global oil disruption and will boost prices around the world. But the U.S. is in a much better position to weather it than it was decades ago. Here's why. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/b...
nytimes.com
America Depends Less on Oil Than Ever
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Today from me, a deeper look at the only industry that's been creating any jobs, and what it means for the people and the communities adjacent to it: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/b...
nytimes.com
Health Care Has Become the Lifeblood of the Labor Market
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
What does the war-without-end in Iran mean for the U.S. economy? Honestly who knows yet, but here's how things could go: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/b...
nytimes.com
How War in the Persian Gulf Could Spill Into the U.S. Economy
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
A little explainer from me today on the relationship between climate change and inflation: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/c...
nytimes.com
Is Climate Change Making Inflation Worse?
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Also from me today: Like the old ones, the new versions of prediction markets are looking pretty accurate relative to professional forecasters. Just with a lot more money involved. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/b...
nytimes.com
Thousands of Amateur Gamblers Are Beating Wall Street Ph.D.s
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Two months of heavy ICE presence in the Twin Cities are crushing the metro area's retail, food, and entertainment industries -- like Covid, business owners told me, except without the federal aid. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/b...
nytimes.com
‘It’s Been Brutal’: Twin Cities Economy Suffers Under ICE Crackdown
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
The great @anaswanson.bsky.social and I took a look back on what a year of Trump policy hath wrought for manufacturing. Short version: No big resurgence, but some interesting stuff going on under the surface. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/b...
nytimes.com
Trump’s Trade Policies Sort Manufacturers Into Winners and Losers
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Today from me: Bill Pulte has made a lot of headlines for going after Trump's opponents and proposing far-fetched housing affordability ideas. But the agency he runs, FHFA, has taken steps that make it harder for low-income people to buy homes. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/b...
nytimes.com
As Trump Pushes Housing Affordability, His Mortgage Chief Undermines It
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Early last year, a study came out in Nature that forecasted climate change would cause truly shocking economic damages at the end of the century if left unabated. Today, the journal retracted it. I explain why and what it means: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/b...
nytimes.com
Top Journal Retracts Study Predicting Catastrophic Climate Toll
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Did some videosplaining of the jobs situation that we learned about yesterday: www.nytimes.com/video/busine...
nytimes.com
Video: What the Jobs Report Tells Us About the Economy
What does the September jobs report, delayed by six weeks because of the government shutdown, say about the economy? Lydia DePillis, our economics reporter, describes how the report, which was better ...
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Our final pass on today's jobs report, the first since early September and the last until mid-December. In a twist, job growth is healthy but unemployment is rising: www.nytimes.com/live/2025/bu...
nytimes.com
Hiring Increased in September, but So Did the Unemployment Rate
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Since the pandemic, private equity firms have been aggressively rolling up home remodeling and roofing companies. A couple of weeks ago, one of the largest platforms abruptly collapsed. I found out what happened, and explain what it means: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/b...
nytimes.com
How Private Equity’s Vision for a Roofing Conglomerate Went Bust
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Today from me: Come for the cat picture, stay for the exploration of how specialty grocery stores serving immigrant diasporas are seeing the most concentrated impact from super-high tariffs on places like Myanmar and Bangladesh. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/b...
nytimes.com
Where the Taste of Home Comes With a Tariff Charge
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
For an effective tariff rate that's now at about 9%, pass through to consumer prices has been somewhat muted. But if you listen to earnings calls, that's a mirage: Businesses are saying they'll have to keep raising prices to make up for the new costs. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/b...
nytimes.com
Companies Have Shielded Buyers From Tariffs. But Not for Long.
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Usually government shutdowns just displace economic activity. This one could be different: It's broader than some we've seen in the past, it could be longer, and it's hitting at the worst time of year for many farms and small businesses. From me today: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/b...
nytimes.com
Shutdown With No Clear End Poses New Economic Threat
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Justin Elliott @justinelliott.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
Here is our full story that Vance is dismissing, with primary source documents showing Trump cabinet members with multiple primary-residence mortgages www.propublica.org/article/trum... www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
propublica.org
Trump Is Accusing Foes With Multiple Mortgages of Fraud. Records Show 3 of His Cabinet Members Have Them.
The White House has targeted opponents, including a Fed governor, for having more than one primary residence on their loan papers. ProPublica found that, in one case, a Trump cabinet secretary got two...
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
Today from me: The unemployment rate for Black workers has leapt upward in recent months, while staying level for other demographic groups. There are some pretty strong indications of what's going on. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/b...
nytimes.com
Black Unemployment Is Surging Again. This Time Is Different.
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Today from me: Everybody knew H-1B visas had problems. There were lots of ideas out there for how to fix it, and maximize the program's economic impact. A $100,000 fee wasn't one of them. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/b...
nytimes.com
High-Skilled Visas Have Problems. Trump’s $100,000 Fee Won’t Fix Them.
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
The equation of A.I. usage with "progress" seems like a big embedded assumption here
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Today with @haleaziz.bsky.social : Most of the Korean workers detained during an ICE raid on a Ga. battery plant last week were on short-term businesses visas. In at least one case, ICE acknowledged a worker hadn't violated his visa, and forced him to deport anyway. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/b...
nytimes.com
Georgia ICE Raid Netted Workers With Short-Term Business Visas
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
In the annual poverty & income numbers for 2024, the numbers appeared calm on the surface but reveal some interesting divergences and convergences underneath: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/b...
nytimes.com
The Poverty Rate Was Stable Last Year, as Household Income Grew Slightly
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
Pitched in on our coverage of the giant ICE raid on an EV battery plant in Georgia, where the Trump administration's immigration enforcement agenda is coming into conflict with its U.S. manufacturing ambitions. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/06/u...
nytimes.com
Immigration Raid Exposes Tensions From Seoul to Washington to Rural Georgia
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Here's our final cut on this morning's sputtering jobs report, which shows employment not even growing fast enough to soak up the shrinking number of people entering the labor force: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/b...
nytimes.com
Labor Market Stalled This Summer, With August Data Adding to Slowdown
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Happy jobs day. As a special treat, I also have a story from Miami about the strange equilibrium we're in: As the Trump administration gradually starts reversing the flow of immigration, the unemployment rate has remained steady even as job growth slows. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/b...
nytimes.com
Mounting Deportations Meet Slow Hiring in a ‘Curious Kind of Balance’
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
From me today: Squinting at GDP numbers, it's become clear that A.I. is propping up the economy -- not through productivity growth, but simply the sheer amount of money going into physical infrastructure needed to support all the computing power it gobbles up. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/b...
nytimes.com
The A.I. Spending Frenzy Is Propping Up the Real Economy, Too
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Joining @thebrianlehrershow.bsky.social shortly to talk trade and economy and stuff. Hop on that @wnyc.org channel
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Labor market and inflation data have taken a turn for the worse over the past few weeks. But this economy has taken a bunch of hits in recent years and kept on ticking, so economists aren't doomcasting yet. Here's my effort to put it all together: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/b...
nytimes.com
Economic Data Has Taken a Dark Turn. That Doesn’t Mean a Crash Is Near.
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
One more from my stint in South Korea: At last count, some 7 million people studied abroad. As Trump pushes away international students, it appears that fewer of them will come to American schools. But Southeast Asia is aggressively taking up the slack. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/b...
nytimes.com
As Trump Pushes International Students Away, Asian Schools Scoop Them Up
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
With @bencasselman.bsky.social and Alan Rappeport, a bit more on President Trump's pick to lead the BLS, Dr. E.J. Antoni III. The nomination has elicited strong concerns about the integrity of data that policymakers, investors, and journalists all depend on. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/b...
nytimes.com
Trump’s Pick to Lead Labor Data Agency Adds to Fears of Political Interference
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
I dug into the transshipment provision of the big reciprocal tariffs now in effect. Trade lawyers suspected that something bigger was in the works: A new plan for charging higher rates on all third-country parts & materials. Turns out they were right -- www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/b...
nytimes.com
New Tariff on ‘Transshipped’ Goods Mystifies Importers
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Lydia DePillis @lydiadepillis.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
What's the deal with all these energy purchase commitments in Trump's trade deals? Why the U.S. is overselling and our trade partners are overbuying, with the actual expert @rfelliott.bsky.social : www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/b...
nytimes.com
Countries Promise Trump to Buy U.S. Gas, and Leave the Details for Later
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