Overview
- During a CNN interview on Saturday, University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers began coughing after an insect flew into his mouth and he said, “Mate, I just swallowed a fly on live television.”
- Anchor Omar Jimenez kept the segment moving while Wolfers recovered and the two traded light-hearted remarks as the interview continued.
- After the broadcast Wolfers posted on X that he had kept talking about the Fed, invoked Kevin Warsh as a metaphor for difficult-to-interpret signals, and joked that the fly was dead and he was no longer a vegetarian.
- The exchange took place while Wolfers was analyzing softer recent U.S. labor market readings and explaining how those jobs numbers could affect Federal Reserve policy decisions.
- News outlets amplified the clip and Wolfers’s follow-up post, turning a policy interview into a viral human-interest moment that drew attention away from the underlying economic discussion.