The national politics of deceased organ donation

 The U.S. transplant system is relatively open to foreign patients, and the NYT reports with some concern the number of foreign citizens receiving scarce organs from deceased donors, sometimes paying full list price to the hospitals involved.  One question I have that I haven't seen addressed in discussions of this type is how many foreign citizens who happen to die while visiting the US become deceased organ donors?

Here's the NYT:

Hospitals Cater to ‘Transplant Tourists’ as U.S. Patients Wait for Organs
International patients can bring a hospital as much as $2 million for a transplant. In recent years, they have typically gotten organs faster than U.S. patients. By Brian M. Rosenthal and Mark Hansen

  "In the past dozen years, more than 1,400 patients from abroad received a transplant in the United States after traveling specifically for the procedure. That was a small fraction of all U.S. transplants, and most transplant centers did not operate on international patients at all.

"But The Times found that a handful of hospitals are increasingly catering to overseas patients, who make up an ever-larger share of their organ recipients: 11 percent for hearts and lungs at the University of Chicago; 20 percent for lungs at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx; 16 percent for lungs at UC San Diego Health; 10 percent for intestines at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington; and 8 percent for livers at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston.

"In many countries, this would be illegal. World leaders agreed in 2008 to fight so-called transplant tourism, and most nations do not provide organs to overseas patients. Yet the United States has long allowed it. The policy has drawn criticism in the past, such as when organs went to Saudi royals and a Japanese crime boss. 

...

"Dr. Mark Fox, a former chair of the transplant system’s ethics committee, said the findings were troubling, especially because overseas patients do not contribute to America’s pool of donated organs. “The unfortunate reality is that we don’t have enough organs,” he said. “When people jet in, get an organ and jet home, it’s a problem. It’s not fair.” 

 ##########

I'm reminded of this 2018 article which expressed a similar concern :

Delmonico, F. L., Gunderson, S., Iyer, K. R., Danovitch, G. M., Pruett, T. L., Reyes, J. D., & Ascher, N. L. (2018). Deceased donor organ transplantation performed in the United States for noncitizens and nonresidents. Transplantation, 102(7), 1124-1131. 

Abstract: "Since 2012, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN)/United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) has required transplant centers to record the citizenship residency status of patients undergoing transplantation in the United States. This policy replaced the 5% threshold of the non–US citizen/nonresidents (NC/NR) undergoing organ transplantation that could result in an audit of transplant center activity. Since April 1, 2015, the country of residence for the NC/NR on the waitlist has also been recorded. We analyzed the frequency of NC/NR deceased donor organ transplants and waitlist registrations at all US transplant centers by data provided by UNOS for that purpose to the UNOS Ad Hoc International Relations Committee. During the period of 2013 to 2016, 1176 deceased donor transplants (of all organs) were performed in non–US citizen/non–US resident (NC/NR) candidates (0.54% of the total number of transplants). We focused on high-volume NC/NR transplant centers that performed more than 5% of the deceased donor kidney or liver transplants in NC/NR or whose waitlist registrants exceeded 5% NC/NR. This report was prepared to fulfill the transparency policy of UNOS to assure a public trust in the distribution of organs. When viewed with a public awareness of deceased donor organ shortages, it suggests the need for a more comprehensive understanding of current NC/NR activity in the United States. Patterns of organ specific NC/NR registrations and transplantations at high-volume centers should prompt a review of transplant center practices to determine whether the deceased donor and center resources may be compromised for their US patients." 

They note that " a noncitizen/nonresident could be a foreign student or businessperson traveling to the United States, whereas an undocumented individual living in the United States would also be a noncitizen/resident." 

The local politics of deceased organ donation

 "All politics is local" may not be entirely true, but local politics doesn't end at death.

MedPage Today has the story: 

Senators Urge More Localized Use of Donor Organs
— "Too many of our organs are leaving" the geographic area, says Sen. Roger Marshall, MD
by Joyce Frieden, 

"More needs to be done to make sure donated organs are transplanted to recipients within the local geographic area whenever possible, several senators said Thursday at a hearing on the future of the organ procurement and transplantation network.

"The Midwest, where I'm from ... is famous that we have a higher organ donor rate than the [East or West] coasts do typically," said Sen. Roger Marshall, MD (R-Kansas). "And you know, there's a concern that too many of our organs are leaving the Midwest." 

Australia's ban on social media use by teens under sixteen

 Australia has put into effect a ban on social media use by teenagers younger than 16.  My first thought is, good luck with that...

Here are some headlines that caught my eye:

From MSN: 

Australian leader defends social media ban as teens flaunt workarounds  by Byron Kaye 

"A day after the law took effect with bipartisan support from the major political parties and backing by some three-quarters of Australian parents, the country's social media feeds were flooded with comments from people claiming to be under 16, including one on the prime minister's TikTok account saying "I'm still here, wait until I can vote".

####### 

And (more optimistically) from Nature:

Australia’s world-first social media ban is a ‘natural experiment’ for scientists
Researchers will study the effects of the policy on young people’s mental health, social interactions and political engagement.   By Rachel Fieldhouse & Mohana Basu 

" Many teenagers in the country are furious, but for social scientists, the policy offers a natural experiment to study the effects of social-media restrictions on young people." 

########

And this:

Social Media Lab Appointed as Lead Academic Partner for Australian Legislation 

Nottingham's Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics celebrates its 25th anniversary

 In September, Nottingham's productive center for experimental economics celebrated a quarter century since it's founding: 

 CeDEx 25th Anniversary Workshop .

I just saw the announcement now, but maybe that's a sign of how successfully experimental economics has become established in the profession, over the last century and around the world.

 For some early history, see e.g. 

Roth, Alvin E. "The early history of experimental economics." Journal of the History of Economic Thought 15.2 (1993): 184-209.

 

Crypto has found a use, and it's money laundering

The NYT has the story:

How a Cryptocurrency Helps Criminals Launder Money and Evade Sanctions
Through layers of intermediaries, stablecoins can be moved, swapped and mixed into pools of other funds in ways that are difficult to trace, experts say.  By Aaron Krolik

"Smugglers, money launderers and people facing sanctions once relied on diamonds, gold and artwork to store illicit fortunes. The luxury goods could help hide wealth but were cumbersome to move and hard to spend.

"Now, criminals have a far more practical alternative: stablecoins, a cryptocurrency tied to the U.S. dollar that exists largely beyond traditional financial oversight.

"These digital tokens can be bought with a local currency and moved across borders almost instantly. Or they can be returned to the traditional banking system — including by converting funds into debit cards — often without detection, a New York Times review of corporate filings, online forum messages and blockchain data shows.

"A report released in February from Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis firm, estimated that up to $25 billion in illicit transactions involved stablecoins last year. And as more Russian oligarchs, Islamic State leaders and others have begun using the cryptocurrency, the rise of these dollar-linked tokens threatens to undermine one of America’s most potent foreign policy tools: cutting adversaries off from the dollar and the global banking system.
...

"To test just how easily crypto can slip between the cracks of banking controls, I found a crypto A.T.M. in Weehawken, N.J., to convert cash into stablecoins.

"Soon after I fed two $20 bills into the machine, I received a notification on my phone that crypto had arrived in my digital wallet. A Telegram bot then guided me through the next step: using the stablecoins to generate a Visa payment card number with a balance that I could spend anywhere.

"A payment card functions very much like a debit card, though it is not tied to any of my bank accounts. In this case, the card I was issued did not require me to provide an address or identity check of any kind — in effect creating a degree of anonymity for my spending. 

...

"Tether, which has over $180 billion worth of stablecoins in circulation, is based in El Salvador and would not be covered by the new rules. The company holds more than $112 billion in U.S. Treasuries, and any law enforcement action against Tether could potentially risk destabilizing important financial markets.

"The picture is further complicated by political and financial ties surrounding Tether. The company has close connections to the family of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who is responsible for restricting exports of sensitive U.S. technology — restrictions that people can try to sidestep by making transactions with stablecoins like Tether. 

"One of Mr. Lutnick’s sons, Brandon, is the chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, which provides services to Tether, placing the family in a position where the company behind the world’s largest offshore dollar token intersects with a key federal enforcement role. Another son, Kyle, is executive vice chairman of the firm.

"Cantor Fitzgerald and the Commerce Department declined to comment." 

The former governor of Indiana is pleasantly surprised by Harvard

 Eric Holcomb taught a seminar at Harvard after stepping down as governor of Indiana.  He reports that he expected to find a woke hell, but instead found a thriving university.  He attributes that in part to President Trump's war on American universities in general and on Harvard in particular.

I was a red state governor. What I saw at Harvard surprised me.
The spirit of association remains alive in unexpected places.   By Eric Holcomb
Eric Holcomb, a Republican, was the governor of Indiana from 2017 to 2025.

"In January, I completed two terms as governor of Indiana. This fall, I did what all red state Republicans do (right?): spent a semester teaching at Harvard University. As someone who believes that restoring our communities is among America’s greatest challenges, my goal was to see if the foundation of an open-minded, problem-solving community still existed in a place far removed from my own cultural comfort zone. It does.

...

"I found a community that didn’t always agree but could still talk with each other and work together toward the greater good, which in Harvard’s case includes education, discovery and the development of ideas and technologies.

...

"What I’ve experienced may be a natural return to Harvard’s more moderate bearings, following noisy displays of intolerance by campus agitators in recent years. Or it may be due to the Trump administration’s forceful executive orders and fiscal pressure. Either way (and it’s probably both), let’s take the win and learn the broader lesson." 

Kate Ho (1972-2025)

 Kate Ho has passed away, tragically early.  I met her when she was a grad student at Harvard, who worked with Ariel Pakes.

Here's the Econometric Society announcement:

In Memoriam: Kate Ho 

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of Kate Ho, the John L. Weinberg Professor of Economics and Business Policy at Princeton University and a Fellow of the Econometric Society. Kate was a brilliant IO economist and scholar whose impact on the profession will resonate for many years to come.

Among her numerous achievements, Kate delivered the 2021 Fisher-Schultz Lecture of the Econometric Society and received the 2020 Frisch Medal for the best applied paper published in Econometrica over the previous four years, recognizing her pathbreaking work on contracting and insurer competition in health care markets. She served as Co-Editor of Econometrica from 2021 to 2025, contributing with extraordinary dedication and insight. She was also an elected member of the Council of the Econometric Society from 2021 to 2024 and served on many other Society committees. Beyond her professional excellence, Kate was an exceptionally kind, thoughtful, and collaborative colleague. We will miss her deeply.

We extend our heartfelt condolences to Kate’s family, friends, colleagues, and all who were fortunate enough to know her." 

Kidney exchange updates

 Here are three kidney papers and proposals that I've noted recently,  which will have implications for the growing interest in international kidney exchange on a global scale:

Klaassen MF., de Klerk M, Dor FJ.M.F., Heidt S, van de Laar SC., Minnee RC., van de Wetering J, Pengel LH.M. and de Weerd AE. (2025) Navigating a Quandary in Kidney Exchange Programs: A Review of Donor Travel versus Organ Shipment. Transpl. Int. 38:14804. doi: 10.3389/ti.2025.14804

Abstract:  In multicenter kidney exchange programs (KEPs), either the explanted kidney must be shipped, or the donor must travel to the transplanting center. This review describes the available data on these two approaches and formulates recommendations for practice. We searched for studies addressing organ shipment or donor travel in KEPs. Data were categorized into four domains: cold ischemia time (CIT), logistics, donor/recipient perspectives and professional perspectives. From 547 articles screened, 105 were included. Kidneys are shipped in most countries. Prolonged CIT due to shipment may increase the risk of delayed graft function, but does not seem to impact graft survival. Planning the shipment requires a robust logistical framework with guaranteed operating room availability. Donor travel is reported to be both emotionally and financially distressing for donors and exposes them to inconsistencies in donor evaluation and counseling across centers. Reduced willingness to participate in KEP when travelling was reported by 36%–51% of donors. Professionals generally support offering organ shipment to donors not willing to travel. In conclusion, the decision between donor travel or organ shipment should be tailored to local circumstances. Healthcare professionals should prioritize minimizing barriers to KEP participation, either by facilitating organ shipment or reducing the burden of donor travel. 

######

Neetika Garg, Joe Habbouche, Elisa J. Gordon, AnnMarie Liapakis, Michelle T. Jesse, Krista L. Lentine,
Practical and ethical considerations in kidney paired donation and emerging liver paired exchange,
American Journal of Transplantation,
Volume 25, Issue 11,  2025, Pages 2292-2302,
ISSN 1600-6135,  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajt.2025.07.2459.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1600613525028382)
 

Abstract: Since the first kidney paired donation (KPD) transplant in the United States in 1999, the volume and scope of KPD has expanded substantially, accounting for nearly 20% of living donor kidney transplants in 2021-2022. This review article discusses the practical and ethical issues specific to paired donor exchange that patients, transplant centers, and exchange programs commonly encounter. Access to paired donor exchange and education of candidates regarding the potential benefits, risks, and logistics of KPD are important considerations. Transplant centers and patients must consider practical issues including wait times, allocation and matching strategies, assessment of organ quality, complex donors, cold ischemia time, and risks of broken chains. Protections available to donors from current KPD programs, the potential psychosocial effects, and the ethical concerns related to variable access and the proprietary nature of private exchange programs are also discussed. More detailed, timely data collection at a national level, and ability to merge national data with individual donor exchange registries will enable the analysis of the impact and outcomes of future trends in paired donation. KPD experience and key concepts may inform liver paired exchange, which has been used internationally to expand living donor liver transplantation and is emerging in the United States.

######

Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation (APKD) Launches Wish Upon a Donor: A Hope-Focused Advocacy Program Helping Kids Who Need Kidneys Find Living Donors

"TOLEDO, OHIO / ACCESS Newswire / December 9, 2025 / The Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation (APKD) is proud to announce Wish Upon a Donor, a groundbreaking program that amplifies the voices of families fighting for a better and brighter future for their child. While pediatric kidney patients cannot advocate for themselves, their parents can - and too often, they face this battle alone. Wish Upon a Donor helps families share their child's story, shining a light on their hopes, dreams, and urgent need for a living kidney donor.

...

"The onboarding process is fast and simple, taking just 10-15 minutes to complete, and finalized videos are sent to patients in just one to three days. Participation is free, and patients retain full control over how and where their stories are shared.

Wish Upon a Donor offers a range of support for families as they seek living donors, including:

Production of a personalized, high-quality video designed to reflect the patient's wishes, personality, and future - not just their disease

Dedicated campaign webpage to make it easy to convert interest into action

QR-coded postcards and magnets for sharing in local communities

Social media guidance to help families and supporters spread the word

Spanish- and English-language outreach materials for broader access

A living donor mentor to answer any non-medical questions about the process

"Wish buddy" volunteers to assist with video narration and/or sharing patient videos with a broader audience

When interest is generated through the Wish Upon a Donor campaign, APKD ensures both patients and transplant centers are effectively supported with guidance grounded in real-life experience from a dedicated living donor mentor. The organization manages all incoming donor inquiries, educates potential donors on the process, protections, and realities of living donations, and then refers qualified donors to an appropriate transplant center partner. APKD maintains communication and support throughout the evaluation and donation process. This approach empowers potential donors with education while easing the burden on transplant centers."
 

Abortions in the U.S. since state bans have been enacted

 It's hard to effectively ban something that is legal in neighboring jurisdictions.

The NYT has the story:

A Small Illinois City at the Center of a Seismic Shift in Abortion Access. 
Carbondale, Ill., a liberal enclave within driving distance of 10 states with abortion bans, has become a hub for the procedure. Last year there were nearly 11,000 abortions in this city of 21,000.   By Elizabeth Williamson

"Abortion is legal in Illinois, but the state is surrounded by others that have largely banned the procedure in the three years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. As a result, Illinois now leads the nation in out-of-state abortion patients. Carbondale, a college town in Illinois’s southern tip within driving distance of 10 states with abortion bans, has become a major abortion hub.

"Last year three clinics in this city of 21,000 provided close to 11,000 abortions, almost all for women from other states. The numbers, provided by the clinics, account for nearly a third of all out-of-state abortions in Illinois. 

,,,

"The clinics have already drawn protests as well as intervention efforts from Coalition Life, a St. Louis-based anti-abortion group that stations “sidewalk counselors” outside Carbondale’s clinics.

...

"In states without total bans, there were 1,038,100 clinician-provided abortions in 2024, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. The number includes 155,000 abortions for patients who had crossed state lines. Overall, the number of abortions in the country has slightly increased since the Dobbs decision, largely because of medication abortions."

 

Why I Chose to Get E. Coli. — by Josh Morrison

 Josh Morrison is a glutton for (effective) altruism: he's a nondirected kidney donor (who founded the advocacy organization WaitlistZero), and he's an advocate of human challenge trials for vaccines, who founded the organization OneDaySooner.  He reports his own recent experiences as a challenge trial participant, in MedPage Today:

Why I Chose to Get E. Coli. — Human challenge trials can accelerate medical innovation  by Josh Morrison

" challenge trials have been essential for scientific advancements that may not have been possible (or would have taken much longer) with traditional studies. Challenge studies were crucial to developing malaria vaccines. The correlates of protection they established for influenza immunology are still used to license flu vaccines today, and they played an important role in discovering the origins of both ulcers and yellow fever.

"The E. coli vaccine study I joined was at the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Center for Vaccine Development (CVD). Two of my friends had been in studies at the CVD and had positive experiences overall. I felt like the E.coli vaccine in particular was an important one, so I decided it was time for me to participate too.

"To start, half the participants received the first vaccine in the series and half got a placebo. These initial shots and their associated follow-up were part of eight appointments over 3 months. At our appointments, we had our vitals checked and, in some cases, we had our blood collected or received another vaccine. At appointments the week after a vaccination, we'd provide a stool sample. The study culminated in a 9-day quarantine in Baltimore where were we were exposed to the infectious agent: It was time to drink the E. coli.

"The E. coli was suspended in a bicarbonate solution and tasted like Gatorade without the sugar or flavoring. I remember chuckling nervously as I drank it alongside my fellow participants. It was such an odd experience; I felt like an astronaut counting down for liftoff. 

...

"People's motivations for being in the study included the money (about $4,500). But most of my fellow participants were also excited about the chance to be part of important research and were motivated by the novelty of the experience.

...

"

This was the first challenge study I've participated in, despite having been connected to the field for 5 years. I run 1Day Sooner, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of challenge study volunteers. Some of my colleagues have been challenged in Shigella, Zika, Malaria, COVID, and Salmonella studies. But I never have because I live in New York and I'm not aware of any institutions in New York that run challenge studies. That may sound surprising, but there are only about 30 challenge studies globally each year, and the U.S. is a relative laggard compared to Europe.

"You might be wondering, would I participate in another one? I would, though I'd prefer something outpatient that didn't require a strict quarantine."

 

 

Disagreement in Science: Missing Women by David Klinowski

 Here's an study of women in science that explores a novel angle.

David Klinowski; Voicing Disagreement in Science: Missing Women. The Review of Economics and Statistics 2025; 107 (6): 1743–1753. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01322 

Abstract: This paper examines the authorship of post-publication criticisms in the scientific literature, with a focus on gender differences. Bibliometrics from journals in the natural and social sciences show that comments that criticize or correct a published study are 20% to 40% less likely than regular papers to have a female author. In preprints in the life sciences, prior to peer review, women are missing by 20% to 40% in failed replications compared to regular papers, but they are not missing in successful replications. In an experiment, I then find large gender differences in willingness to point out and penalize a mistake in someone's work. 

 

 

 

Tom Stoppard (1937 –2025)

 Tom Stoppard, the great English playwright, passed away last week. I saw many of his plays, including his last one, about his apparently late in life discovery that he was Jewish, and that his immediate family had fled Czechoslovakia ahead of  the Nazis, while most of the rest had perished, with a few exceptions.

The play tells the story of three generations of assimilated Jews. You, the audience, of course know how it will end, but they don't, and they are optimistic that their current troubles will soon pass.  It's an eerie feeling to watch that play amidst the world's current uncertainties. 

The NYT tells his story through that final play.

When Tom Stoppard Confronted His Background in His Final Play
The playwright, who learned about his Jewish heritage late in life, addressed it in the Tony Award-winning drama “Leopoldstadt.”   By Marc Tracy

"Stoppard’s final play, too, contained characters whose fates were tragically preordained. The rest is silence." 

Binding early decision in college admissions: "Go early, or go somewhere else"

 There was a time when only football coaches and presidents had news-making salaries at colleges and universities.  Now top admissions officers--i.e. sales managers--are the subject of this NYT story:

Meet the Millionaire Masters of Early Decision at Colleges
The enrollment chiefs at Tulane and the University of Chicago attracted many early applicants. Now both of them earn a lot of money. By Ron Lieber

"The University of Chicago was where fun went to die. Tulane University was where you could die from too much fun.

"Neither place liked its reputation, but in 2016, both felt confident enough in changes on their campuses that they started offering an early decision option for student applicants. Apply by November (or January for the “Early Decision II” option) and get an answer weeks later. You just had to agree to attend if you got in.

"Within a handful of years, two-thirds of Tulane’s first-year class had taken the deal. The University of Chicago found so much success that it recently added an opportunity to apply even earlier, in some cases before the senior year of high school has even begun.

"The enrollment chiefs who made this all happen also found success.

"According to federal filings from 2023, Chicago’s vice president for enrollment and student advancement, James G. Nondorf, received $967,000 over a year from the university and “related” organizations. At Northeastern University, the executive vice chancellor and chief enrollment officer, Satyajit Dattagupta, got $1.079 million in compensation after decamping in 2022 from Tulane, where he had a strong run in a similar role."

...

"James Murphy, who works with Class Action, an advocacy organization, recently ranked schools on this early decision advantage — the difference in admissions rates between early decision and the “regular” round, when applicants get an answer later. Northeastern ranked first, with an early decision advantage that was over 11 times as large. Tulane was second, and its figure was over five times. "

Ludwig Amadeus Minelli (5 December 1932 – 29 November 2025), leader of Dignitas assisted suicide organization

 The Washington Post has the story

Ludwig Minelli, founder of leading assisted suicide group, ends his life at 92.  Dignitas, which Mr. Minelli founded, has helped thousands of people to die, some from countries where assisted suicide is illegal.  By Maham Javaid

 "Ludwig Minelli, who became a leader of the death-with-dignity movement as the founder of Dignitas, a Swiss organization with more than 10,000 members that provides and advocates for access to assisted suicide, died Saturday, ending his life through the process he helped promote. He was 92 and would have celebrated his 93rd birthday on Friday.

...

"Mr. Minelli, a lawyer specializing in human rights, was the general secretary of Dignitas, which since 1998 has helped thousands of people from around the world, including from countries where assisted suicide is illegal, to die. 

...

"Mr. Minelli and his group claimed responsibility for major milestones in the field of assisted death. In 2011 the European Court of Human Rights confirmed the right and freedom of a competent individual to decide on the manner and the time of their own end of life. In 2022, the German Federal Constitutional Court declared a law that made providing professional assistance in suicide impossible in Germany was unconstitutional. The same year, Austria also revoked a blanket prohibition on assisted suicide.

"In recent years, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have shifted their stance on assisted dying.

"Dignitas has participated in nearly 4,200 accompanied suicides since Mr. Minelli founded the group in 1998, the group reported in 2024. More than a third of those people lived in Germany, and there were over 600 people each from France and Britain. The group says it has more than 10,000 members. "

#########

Here is the statement/obituary from Dignitas: Passing of a pioneer and warrior 

Scientists and policy makers with feet of clay

 A recent article in The Lancet talks about the checkered career of the late James Watson (1928-2025), who participated in great science (the DNA double helix), wrote about it in popular terms that had some vulgar elements (The Double Helix), and later in life had troubling, unscientific thoughts on race and gender. This made me think of yesterday's post, which touched on the Statement from the American Economic Association concerning Larry Summers. 

Here's the Lancet piece: 

James D Watson: a cautionary tale by Philip Ball  

It begins:

"There was always going to be a complex reckoning in the obituaries of James D Watson (1928–2025), the American geneticist who co-discovered the structure of DNA. For many years, Watson was one of the most influential figures in modern biology—Director, then President and Chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in New York, USA, from 1968 to 2007, and the key motive force behind the Human Genome Project. He was also notorious for his attitudes towards women, especially Rosalind Franklin (1920–58), and for his comments on race, which led to a precipitous fall from grace in the past two decades. Watson enjoyed playing the role of provocateur, proudly claiming that his Chicago heritage made him inclined to speak his mind frankly no matter who it upset. The popular image of Watson now is of a great scientist who held controversial views. That, however, lets everyone too easily off the hook." 

 And here are the two concluding paragraphs:

"But this is also a cautionary tale about how science comports itself. Watson's 2007 interview was hardly a revelation to those who knew him; he had been making bigoted comments for years. In the Esquire interview in that same year he said “some anti-Semitism is justified. Just like some anti-Irish feeling is justified”. And yet there had been a continual turning of a blind eye: he was seen as “outspoken”, “colourful”, and “controversial”. In Watson's heyday, the scientific community tended to indulge such behaviour so long as the perpetrator was sufficiently eminent. Even after the disastrous interview in The Sunday Times, some considered Watson's reputation should shield him from repercussions. When a talk at the Science Museum in London was cancelled in 2007, Richard Dawkins complained about “the hounding, by what can only be described as an illiberal and intolerant ‘thought police’, of one of the most distinguished scientists of our time”. It can sometimes look as though the biggest crime in science is to create an unseemly fuss, especially on a topic deemed “political”. That Elon Musk, who is a fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), gave a Nazi salute, or that Stephen Hawking FRS attended soirées on Jeffrey Epstein's private island, are seen primarily as sources of embarrassment best passed over quickly.
 

"Perhaps times are changing. When Watson turned up at the event marking the 75th anniversary of Schrödinger's What Is Life? in Dublin, Ireland, and was given an impromptu toast by the organisers, there were dumbfounded glances all around the tables at the thought that we were expected to raise our glasses. Scientists are starting to confront difficult behaviour—but we still have some way to go before acknowledging that it can taint not only the practice of science but also its substance too. "

########## 

 We have had to think about fine figures with feet of clay at least since Daniel (33-34) interpreted for King  Nebuchadnezzar his dream about a statue with "a head of fine gold, its breast and its arms were of silver, its belly and thighs were of copper.  Its legs were of iron, and its feet were partly of iron and partly of clay."

 

AEA Survey of hiring plans of U.S. Economics Departments (and an unrelated unprecedented AEA announcement about Larry Summers)

 Here's the latest survey of the job market for new PhD economists:

To: Members of the American Economic Association
From: AEA Committee on the Job Market: John Cawley (chair), Elisabeth “Bitsy” Perlman, Al 
Roth, Peter Rousseau, Wendy Stock, and Stephen Wu
Date: December 1, 2025
Re: Survey of hiring plans of U.S. Economics Departments 

 

 

 

################

Also on the AEA website is this unprecedented announcement:

    Announcement      December 2, 2025

Statement from the American Economic Association

"The American Economic Association (AEA) has accepted Lawrence H. Summers' voluntary resignation from membership and, pursuant to the AEA's Policies, Procedures, and Code of Professional Conduct, has imposed a lifetime ban on his membership. In addition, effective immediately, the AEA has imposed a lifetime prohibition on Mr. Summers' attending, speaking at, or otherwise participating in AEA-sponsored events or activities, including serving in any editorial or refereeing capacity for AEA journals. The AEA condemns Mr. Summers' conduct, as reflected in publicly reported communications, as fundamentally inconsistent with its standards of professional integrity and with the trust placed in mentors within the economics profession. Consistent with longstanding AEA practices and to protect the integrity and confidentiality of AEA processes, the AEA will not comment further on individual matters or the specific considerations underlying this determination.

The AEA is committed to upholding the highest standards of professional conduct and to fostering a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment for all members of the economics community.  The AEA affirms its expectation that all members adhere to the AEA Code of Professional Conduct and the AEA Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, and Retaliation, and remains dedicated to maintaining professional environments in which economists of all backgrounds can participate fully, and with dignity and respect."

 
 

Interview with Joel Mokyr: "I'm Not Sure Democracy Will Survive"

 Joel Mokyr, the Dutch-Israeli-American 2025 Nobel Laureate in Economics for his work on the history of technology, is interviewed in Haaretz.  He's worried about democracy, but still optimistic about technology.

'I'm Not Sure Democracy Will Survive': Israeli 2025 Nobel Laureate Fears for the West's Future  by Guy Rolnik

“I can envision a world where democracy and the legal institutions we know and cherish do not survive, while technological progress continues. And some argue that this may really be what we need, because the greatest technological challenge we face today is climate change – and it's very hard right now to claim that democracies are handling it well. By contrast, China has been manufacturing electric cars endlessly, they've been manufacturing solar panels, they've been addressing climate change."  

Would you want your daughters to live in a technologically advanced but undemocratic world?

 
"No, but I'm not sure I can prevent it. Democracy is a modern product. Most societies in the past, including those that produced Newton, Galileo and Spinoza, were not democratic societies. The notion of democracy never occurred to them. This idea was born – or at least revived – in the Enlightenment, in the 18th and 19th centuries, and even then, it took many years for democracy to become the most common form of government. 
"Democracy isn't something that keeps evolving – there have been very serious setbacks. Between the two world wars, many countries pulled back from democracy, putting in place some form of dictatorship. Even France, which protected its democracy – as soon as the Germans arrived it all collapsed. So democracy is a fragile system. I'm not sure democracy will survive, but I'm sure technological advances will."

...

“ How worried are you about the future of Israel? 

 
"This is a difficult question. The Middle East is a huge graveyard for prophecies. Compared to the Israel you were raised in during the 1950s and 1960s, its geopolitical situation is better than ever. The threat from Arab countries, which was very real in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, is practically gone. Almost all Arab countries have accepted its existence. The countries hostile to us are, in fact, Muslim non-Arab countries – which is a kind of sad progress. 
"The big problem – the huge gorilla in the room – is what nobody addresses: Israel needs to learn that it cannot succeed in doing what South Africa tried and failed to do. You cannot live indefinitely as an occupying army without morally destroying the country from within."

Lucky By Design: book talk by Judd Kessler tomorrow

 

Mark your calendar for Tuesday, December 2, from 3:30–5 PM: Wharton Professor Judd Kessler will be visiting Stanford to deliver a talk about his new book, Lucky by Design. 

 

Location: Gunn Building (SIEPR), Koret-Taube Conference Center (KT130)

Note: A free copy of Lucky by Design will be available for each of the first 100 attendees!

 

RSVP

 

More about the event and Lucky by Design:

Wharton professor Judd Kessler discusses his new book, “Lucky by Design: The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want.”

 

Judd pulls back the curtain on the hidden markets that determine who gets what in everyday life. Unlike familiar markets that you might learn about in your economics class — where what we get depends on how much we’re willing to pay — hidden markets do not rely on prices: you can’t buy your way into a better position. Instead, what you receive hinges on the rules by which the market operates, and the choices you make in them.

 

What are the tricks for getting reservations at the hottest restaurants, live-event tickets, job offers, and spots in elite preschools and selective colleges? What about finding a soulmate on a dating app or receiving a life-saving organ transplant? How can policymakers design these markets better?

 

Judd has spent a career studying and designing these very markets. Now, he reveals insights about how they work, how to maneuver in them, and how to tip the scales in your favor.

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Earlier post about this book:

Monday, August 11, 2025  Lucky by Design: The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want, by Judd Kessler