Director of Economic Policy Studies and Senior Fellow at @AEI. Professor of Practice at @Georgetown. Contributing Columnist for the @FT.
Washington, D.C.
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Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte.
Ora pro nobis, Sancta Dei Genitrix.
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Michael R. Strain retweeted
Check out my @WSJFreeEx video foray among the anti-Israel protesters in New York this week for the U.N. General Assembly:
Nearly 130 heads of state are in New York for the U.N. General Assembly. But one leader has drawn particular attention: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. @JackButler4815 spoke with protesters demonstrating against him.
Subscribe today: on.wsj.com/4hMmHpt
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Michael R. Strain retweeted
Trust in official government data is one of the pillars of American prosperity. Millions of businesses rely on government data for myriad decisions, as do financial markets, writes AEI’s @MichaelRStrain
project-syndicate.org/commen…
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Michael R. Strain retweeted
Illegal voting is a topic that the @uscensusbureau previously would have bent over backward to avoid. But under @realDonaldTrump, even the most staid, critically important statistics agencies can be sullied, laments @MichaelRStrain. project-syndicate.org/commen…
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Michael R. Strain retweeted
Dear Kristalina, I am delighted to be appointed as the @IMFNews's Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department as of 4 January 2027. In this role, I will devote all my energy to fostering global cooperation and financial stability.
I'm delighted to announce the appointment of Isabel Schnabel as IMF Financial Counsellor, effective Jan. 4, 2027. Her distinguished record, including at the ECB, and leadership in research and policymaking will be invaluable to the Fund. imf.org/en/news/articles/202…
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"Five years after the federal No Surprises Act, its arbitration system is driving up everyone’s premiums."
By David A. Hyman and @ben_ippolito.
cato.org/regulation/fall-202…
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Michael R. Strain retweeted
3/ 👇
The Census Bureau has begun checking the Voter Records from 2020 against their Citizenship Records. On the first 128,000,000 Voters, the Census Bureau proves that over 24,000 Noncitizens voted illegally! The Census Bureau is going to analyze the next 32,000,000 Voters, and this number will explode. I WON THE ELECTION! We must pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
( TS: Aug 18 2026, 4:48 PM ET )
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Michael R. Strain retweeted
Trust in official government statistics is a foundation of American prosperity. President Trump — and this shoddy new Census Bureau brief — are eroding that foundation.
🧵 President Trump’s attacks on the integrity of official statistics have continued. Last month, the US Census Bureau published an official brief that claims to have “readily determined with high confidence” that 24,000 non-US citizens illegally voted in the 2020 presidential election. The report flags: “Over 32 million voter records remain to be analyzed.”
The Census brief is of shockingly low quality across several dimensions. Like every professional economist, statistician, or demographer with whom I've spoken, I was astonished and deeply troubled to see analysis this shoddy be published by a gold-standard statistical agency.
The president himself posted about the report on social media, highlighting the 24,000 illegal vote figure and claiming that “The Census Bureau is going to analyze the next 32,000,000 Voters, and this number will explode. I WON THE ELECTION!”
Sadly, more shenanigans are coming. The Census brief described itself as “a beginning analysis,” and President Trump has already foreshadowed a follow-up report.
Before that happens, the authors of the first one should step out of the shadows and subject their analysis to interrogation by professional statisticians, economists, and demographers.
That sort of scrutiny is how US statistical agencies built the sterling reputations Mr. Trump is wantonly trashing — reputations that are a foundation of American prosperity.
My @ProSyn column.
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Michael R. Strain retweeted
The great Pharoah Sanders died on this day in 2022. I wrote the FT's obituary of him as.ft.com/r/58a1d917-2ffb-4b…
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Michael R. Strain retweeted
New paper with @ben_ippolito and @borisvabson
We use data on 118.5 million patient visits across 172 hospitals to document some poorly understood parts of how billing and payment actually work in U.S. healthcare.
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New research from @ben_ippolito, @borisvabson, and Ali Melad: "Using detailed revenue-cycle data, we characterize the timing of billing, claims adjudication, and insurer payments across major insurance types. We decompose payment delays into the portions attributable to provider billing versus insurer adjudication, quantify how much of payments comes via initial payments versus delayed reimbursement, and compare final insurer payments with providers’ expected payments. We find that insurers complete their initial adjudication of claims about one month after a visit, with most of that time attributable to delays in provider billing. Payment completeness and adjudication patterns differ substantially across payers, with traditional Medicare exhibiting unusually permissive payment behavior." aei.org/research-products/re…
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Congratulations @Isabel_Schnabel. An excellent appointment for the IMF.
I'm delighted to announce the appointment of Isabel Schnabel as IMF Financial Counsellor, effective Jan. 4, 2027. Her distinguished record, including at the ECB, and leadership in research and policymaking will be invaluable to the Fund. imf.org/en/news/articles/202…
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Michael R. Strain retweeted
This old photo, which just popped up on my phone, remains one of my absolute favorites: walking my young daughter to school -- something that, prior to a major career course correction in 2014, I simply didn't do enough.
#daughter #fatherdaughterlove #fatherdaughter
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Michael R. Strain retweeted
I wrote about the long history AI apocalypse as a literary theme
slowboring.com/p/the-ai-apoc…
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Michael R. Strain retweeted
Our new paper digs into the billing and payment process at health systems
A big takeaway: Traditional Medicare stands out as unusually permissive. They pay essentially everything billed, quickly, and upfront.
Depending on perspective, that is good or bad!
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🧵 President Trump’s attacks on the integrity of official statistics have continued. Last month, the US Census Bureau published an official brief that claims to have “readily determined with high confidence” that 24,000 non-US citizens illegally voted in the 2020 presidential election. The report flags: “Over 32 million voter records remain to be analyzed.”
The Census brief is of shockingly low quality across several dimensions. Like every professional economist, statistician, or demographer with whom I've spoken, I was astonished and deeply troubled to see analysis this shoddy be published by a gold-standard statistical agency.
The president himself posted about the report on social media, highlighting the 24,000 illegal vote figure and claiming that “The Census Bureau is going to analyze the next 32,000,000 Voters, and this number will explode. I WON THE ELECTION!”
Sadly, more shenanigans are coming. The Census brief described itself as “a beginning analysis,” and President Trump has already foreshadowed a follow-up report.
Before that happens, the authors of the first one should step out of the shadows and subject their analysis to interrogation by professional statisticians, economists, and demographers.
That sort of scrutiny is how US statistical agencies built the sterling reputations Mr. Trump is wantonly trashing — reputations that are a foundation of American prosperity.
My @ProSyn column.
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4/ The sudden erosion in confidence in US federal statistics from the firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics may have reduced US GDP by roughly $20 billion. The comparison with agency budgets is striking. The FY2025 appropriation for the BLS was approximately $704 million. The shoddy new Census Bureau brief on illegal voting in the 2020 election is another erosion of trust in official statistics — with real consequences for American prosperity. nitter.net/MichaelRStrain/status/…
Trust in official economic statistics has become an increasingly salient policy issue. In the US, this debate intensified after the August 2025 dismissal of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer and accompanying public allegations that agency data had been manipulated. This @voxeu @cepr_org article — by @I_Am_NickBloom, @EricaGroshen, Duncan Hobbs, and me — reports our finding that the sudden erosion in confidence in US federal statistics may have reduced US GDP by roughly $20 billion. The comparison with agency budgets is striking. The FY2025 appropriation for the BLS was approximately $704 million.
Link: cepr.org/voxeu/columns/when-…
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5/ For example, quite literally, it would be much harder for retailers to know what products to put on their shelves if they did not trust official statistics.
From my paper with @dwschanz and coauthors: hamiltonproject.org/assets/f…
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