On the meaning of the superyacht
Recently ProPublica, a nonprofit, independent newsroom that has partnered with The New York Times on occasion, released a remarkable report about the relationship between Justice Clarence Thomas of...
AI may change everything, but probably not too quickly
“Artificial intelligence (AI) is already having a significant impact on the economy, and its influence is expected to grow significantly in the coming years.... Overall, the effects of AI on the...
The trouble with sunsets
My latest column was about President Joe Biden’s remark that some Republicans want to sunset Social Security and Medicare (and, indeed, all federal legislation) after five years, and the howls of...
Problem(s) with China’s population drop
China’s population declined last year, for the first time since the mass deaths associated with Mao Zedong’s disastrous Great Leap Forward in the 1960s. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say...
What Ukraine teaches us about power
Credit where credit is due: Make America Great Again was a brilliant slogan, precisely because nobody knew what it meant. Was it about bringing back jobs in manufacturing? Was it about restoring...
The football game theory of inflation
If you don’t think of economists as party animals, you’re right. Or at least that’s the conclusion one might draw from the fact that several prominent economists carried on a thoughtful, earnest...
Did the Tesla story ever make sense?
If you’re one of those people who bought bitcoin or another cryptocurrency near its peak last fall, you’ve lost a lot of money. Is it any consolation to know that you would have lost a similar...
Is the inflation storm letting up?
The average national price of regular gasoline this Christmas was almost 20 cents a gallon lower than it was a year earlier. Prices at the pump are still higher than they were during the pandemic...
Why petulant oligarchs rule our world
Some years ago — I think it was 2015 — I got a quick lesson in how easy it is to become a horrible person. I was a featured speaker at a conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and my arrival flight was...
When trade becomes a weapon
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: We’re now engaged in a trade war.Actually, you probably haven’t heard this one before. I’m not talking about Donald Trump’s clumsy tariffs aimed at...
War, inflation and squandered credibility
What does Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, understand that Vladimir Putin doesn’t?OK, I know that may sound like a trick question, or a desperate effort to offer a counterintuitive take...
What Ukraine needs from us
Lately, I’ve been seeing what seems like a growing number of reports about Ukraine’s economic difficulties. And it definitely makes sense to focus more on the country’s economy now that the tide...
What Joe Biden has - and hasn’t - accomplished as president
There’s something strange in the DC air these days. It smells a bit like... competence.Seriously, it has been amazing to watch the media narrative on the Biden administration change. Just a few...
Why Republicans turned against the environment
In 1990 Congress passed an amendment to the Clean Air Act of 1970, among other things taking action against acid rain, urban smog and ozone.The legislation was highly successful, greatly reducing...
Wonking out: Is 2022 like 1980?
It has been a good week on the inflation front. First, we had a flat month for the consumer price index — zero inflation in July. Then we saw an actual decline in the producer price index.Naturally,...
Did Democrats just save civilisation?
They really did it. The Inflation Reduction Act, which is mainly a climate change bill with a side helping of health reform, passed the Senate on Sunday; by all accounts it will easily pass the House,...
Will Putin kill the global economy?
Economic commentators always reach for historical analogies and with good reason.For example, those who had studied past banking crises had a much better grasp of what was happening in 2008 than those...
Putin and the myths of Western decadence
Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine was, above all a blunder. In less than five weeks, Putin has destroyed Russia’s military reputation, battered his country’s economy and strengthened the...
Odesa and the Ukraine that should have been
Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine has sent the prices of many commodities skyrocketing. And it is not just oil and gas. From a humanitarian point of view, the soaring price of food, especially...
How the Putin shock might affect the world economy
When Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine, I think it’s fair to say that most observers expected him to get away with it. Surely Russia’s huge military would take Kyiv and other major cities within a...