economic

When it comes to diagnosing the causes of the Great Depression and prescribing cures for our present recession, the pundits and economists from the biggest schools typically argue about two different types of intervention. Big-government Keynesians, such as Paul Krugman, argue for massive fiscal stimulus—that is, huge budget deficits—to fill the gap in aggregate demand. …

Workers with the least education have been hit particularly hard by the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the jobless rate for workers with a high school degree rose to more than twice the rate for those with a college degree in April. As the coronavirus caused states to issue lockdown orders and all …

Several Senate Democrats are proposing a new coronavirus relief bill to supplement the initial direct cash payments provided to Americans as part of the phase-three CARES Act. Under the bill, introduced by Senators Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), and Ed Markey (D., Mass.), all Americans earning less than $120,000 per year would …

The clock is ticking on the continuing existence of the EU. The French president Emmanuel Macron recently fired a warning shot across the bow of the European ship of state. He said that without making all EU countries mutually responsible for the debts of individual countries, the EU could collapse. In March, Christine Lagarde asked …

Anyone who writes anything other than prescriptions for a living, has been giving some thought lately to what Lockdown is teaching us. A fellow twitterer, @EltAuthor observed the other day that he was braced for every possible take on the last couple of months – “Lockdown has made me realise:“… I’m with the wrong partner.”“… …

Think extreme poverty rates rise under capitalism? Think again—the truth might surprise you. The Rich and the Poor Under Capitalism You might have heard the phrase, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” Yes, it’s true that the rich (tend to) get richer, but the poor get richer too—especially if we look at …

Employees don’t magically become more productive because businesses have to pay them more, so they need to make up the losses elsewhere. Both in Canada and in the U.S., many jurisdictions have “listened” to the people and enacted feel-good legislation like increasing the minimum wage, sometimes up to $15 an hour. Now that the consequences …

COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on American jobs. State shutdowns and social distancing have resulted in 26 million people being laid off and furloughed. Policymakers in some states are starting to loosen business restrictions and are hoping for a strong jobs recovery. But a quick rebound in jobs will be undermined by government policies. The federal government has …

When prices change, how that impacts people depends crucially on which prices increase and what goods and services people are consuming. Across the western world, price inflation–the rate at which prices increase–has been relatively slow for over a decade. Central bankers have consistently undershot their inflation targets despite their careful implentation of complex monetary policy.  …

On Tuesday in an interview with Reuters, the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Gita Gopinath, said that one hundred countries seek pandemic aid. This was only a few weeks after the managing director of the very same IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, said in an emergency statement that the IMF is ready to deploy all …