The beginning of the academic year is always a bit hectic. Plus I was on a job search committee this year. While I was out in Philadelphia there were some really interesting papers presented that I will be following up on here. One looked at the future of oil in the US and their outlook was very pessimistic. It was especially skeptical of the profits from hydraulic fracturing. A different session had papers on Social Security and the macro consequences from the program. One of my favorite sessions examine infant mortality. One of the papers in that session examined infant mortality differences due to hydraulic fracturing proximity. Really interesting stuff! Stay tuned for updates.