Optimist Economy· Staffel 2· Folge 31

Immigration Economics Part II: Smaller is Worse

Dienstag, 27. Oktober 2026 · 41 min

MP3

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Over a year into the administration's anti-immigration agenda, we’re seeing the economic fallout. For the first time in at least 50 years, estimates are that we lost immigrants on net; far fewer than usual arrived and a somewhat higher than usual number left. But if anyone benefited from that shift, it wasn’t U.S.-born workers. Even against the backdrop of our weak labor market, foreign-born workers now have slightly lower unemployment rates and higher labor market participation than they did two years ago. Their wages have also ticked up. Meanwhile, reduced population growth has thrown the country’s economic benchmarks into chaos, making it harder to interpret job creation, GDP, and the health of the labor market.

Chapters:
Announcements: Send us your anticipated Thanksgiving dinner fights
Retcon: Consumer sentiment update, auto-enrollment for Trump Accounts
Terms & Conditions: Plutocratic
Big Pilcrow: Immigration and the Economy
Executive Orders: “The media isn’t covering this” comments; best-of award for bookstore tote bags.
Spiritual Sponsors: Sonoratown and an IPA on tap

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