By Jay Fitzgerald – A blog about Boston, Hub of the Universe, and everything else.
Hairdressers report clients are requesting less expensive services and stretching out the time in between appointments, Bloomberg News reports. Just pointing it out. …. More on the Beauty Salon Recession Indicator here. …
Update – Here’s some decent business news for a change, via Inno-BBJ: VC funding in Massachusetts was slightly up year-over-year in Q1, led by AI investments. But all of that was before “Liberation Day.”
Globe reporter Kara Miller’s story on the potential long-term decline of Boston’s biotech industry is looking more prescient by the minute. Banker & Tradesman is reporting that the Boston area’s lab vacancy rate hit 25 percent in the first quarter. From B&T’s Steve Adams: “The prospect of trade wars and federal cuts to National Institutes of Health funding add new risk factors to an industry that’s been retrenching since 2022.”
Update — 4.16.25 – More space coming on the market. From the BBJ: “Mural Oncology cuts 90% of staff, pulls plug on cancer drug.”
Update II — 4.16.25 – I assume Blackstone and Biomed Realty know what they’re doing. From the BBJ: “Cambridge office building marked for lab conversion.”
Harvard had to do it. It had to stand up to the Trump administration if it was going to retain its position as the world’s preeminent higher-ed institution. It had to stand up to the blatant government intrusion into how a private institution operates. It had to stand up to the blatant lie that these proposed funding cuts are all about fighting antisemitism. …Keep in mind: I’m a long-time critic of academia and all its infuriating politically correct/CRE/woke ways. But this isn’t the way to achieve change. This is an autocratic power grab. …
… The Globe, NYT and WSJ have more on the dramatic showdown between Harvard and Trump.
Update – In other news from the academic battlefront, via the BBJ: “MIT joins lawsuit against Department of Energy cuts.”
Update II — 4.16.25 – From a WSJ editorial: “The Trump Administration on Monday froze $2.2 billion in funds to Harvard after the university refused to surrender to its sweeping demands. Few Americans will shed tears for the Cambridge crowd, but there are good reasons to oppose this unprecedented attempt by government to micromanage a private university.”
Update III — 4.16.25 – From David Ignatius at the Post: “By saying ‘no’ to Trump, Harvard saves its soul.”
Answer: nothing. But the Trump administration’s antisemitism task force , via the NIH, just froze funding for a top Harvard scientist’s multistate research into tuberculosis, as the Globe reports. … Anyone who seriously defends this and other cuts to medical research in the name of fighting antisemitism has a moral screw loose.
Update — The WSJ has a big story on the administration’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism , whose real job, as the Journal notes, it to root out leftist tendencies on campuses.
Contrarian Boston’s Scott Van Voorhis has a fascinating interview with Jack Lu, a retired Massachusetts Superior Court judge and an adjunct professor at local law schools, who says the entire Karen Read case would have been over and done with by now if prosecutors hadn’t “overcharged” Karen Read with second-degree murder, rather than easier-to-prove manslaughter. … And you have to wonder if prosecutors did so because the case involved the death of a cop. … Check out Scott’s excellent newsletter.
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The Herald’s Joe Battenfeld writes that President Trump may yet decide to attend local festivities this weekend marking the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington & Concord, noting the U.S. Army has said a “special guest” would be attending the celebrations. As Battenfeld points out, a Trump appearance could spark “massive protests” against the president. I can only hope local, state and federal officials are ready for any short-notice visit.
But Concord, where a potential Trump visit seems most likely (if it takes place at all), did successfully host a presidential visit and massive demonstration during the Bicentennial celebrations of 1975. I know. I was there as a youth, watching a little awe-struck as President Ford walked by toward the North Bridge and hearing the distant roar of thousands of “People’s Bicentennial” demonstrators located across the Concord River. It was a special day, with patriotism and protests on full display, side by side. It was classic Americana.
In 1975, event organizers pulled it off. But they had plenty of advance notice of a presidential visit and planned protests, as this 50-year-old NYT piece makes clear. From the Concord Bridge earlier this week: “1975 record bears warnings, lesson for region’s 250th.”
Fyi – The “People’s Bicentennial” poster above was found here. And the photo of President Ford at Concord’s North Bridge in 1975 via the Concord Free Library.
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GBH’s NOVA is getting into the spirit of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington & Concord with a new show on the technology behind the American Revolution’s war weapons. As a colonial-era history buff, I loved it. … More on this coming weekend’s Patriots’ Day festivities can be found here.
Btw: Most Patriots’ Day events in Massachusetts will be held this year on Saturday, April 19th (the actual anniversary of the battle), rather than the traditional third Monday in April; the Boston Marathon and the Red Sox’s annual late-morning holiday game will still be held on Monday.
I was going to write that Donald Trump has lost some his mojo as a result of last week’s tariff’s debacle. But others have written about Trump’s mojo levels after various setbacks in 2015, 2016, 2022, 2023 and 2024, etc. And he’s always bounced back. So let’s just say, as I did last week, that he wounded and weakened himself with his crazy tariff moves of late. … The WSJ’s Holman Jenkins thinks so too. … Dana Milbank at the Post lovingly recaps this past week’s seeming non-stop squabbling and finger-pointing among Republicans. … And, of course, there was Peggy Noonan’s epic tariff-reversal column on Friday: “Trump’s Climbdown for the Ages.” … The NYT’s Ross Douthat is more cautious about discounting Trump, considering Ross once pronounced the president’s political demise back in 2017. But he is wondering if failure is now an option.
Update — More signs of weakening, via the Hill: “Republicans fear Trump’s trade war could lead to political wipeout.”
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Like the old Chiffon Margarine commercial (‘It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature’), it’s not nice to stiff Howie Carr. … Scott Van Voorhis at Contrarian Boston explains the Herald columnist’s ongoing merciless bashing of Jim “Jones” Lyons, the disastrous former chairman of the MassGOP who ran the party’s political prospects and finances into the ground. It apparently has to do with some unpaid bills. …
There’s so much news swirling around higher-ed these days that I decided to stuff all the related items into this one post. Here goes. … The Globe’s Jon Marcus has a good story on why dozens of Mass. colleges may close soon – and it has little to do with Trump. … From the BBJ: “Harvard borrows $750M after funding threats from Trump.” … Boston.com reports student visas are being revoked at Berklee and Emerson. … And there’s yet more revocations at WPI and Harvard, NBC Boston reports. … A lot more local students will likely see their visas yanked, if this Globe piece is any indication: “Massachusetts has, by far, the most international students of any New England state.” … Pity the parents who have to tap into their 529 College Accounts these days, as the WSJ reports. … Former Harvard president and economist Larry Summers asks at the NYT: “If Powerful Places Like Harvard Don’t Stand Up to Trump, Who Can?”
And last but not least, from the WSJ’s Jason Riley: “Obama Has Some Advice for the Post-Obama Democrats.” … And it’s wise advice about how campus progressives need to reflect more on their own intolerances.
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