Allison Schrager

Quiet Quitters Are Looking in the Wrong Place for Meaningful Work

If you expect your job to give your life meaning, you’re setting yourself up for failure. There was a time when a job was just an economic transaction: Someone paid you for your labor and that enabled you to live and support your family. But for a variety of reasons, many workers today expect more…

This Is What Living With Long-Term High Inflation Feels Like

If you are under 45 and live in America or Europe, the odds are this past year has been your first real experience with inflation. Other than a blip in 2008, inflation has barely topped 3% in the last 30 years. But now inflation is back; up more than 8% last month, and it may get worse before it…

How Are Those Retirement Plans Going Now?

Even before Russia invaded Ukraine the economy felt pretty dicey. There was inflation, a weird post-pandemic job market, and the prospect of a more hawkish Fed. Now markets are even more volatile as sanctions roil the global outlook. For anyone counting the days until retirement, it’s been a…

The People’s Guide to Assessing Covid Risk

We’re often told that humans are lousy at judging risk, and the pandemic seems to have confirmed this in spades. What else can explain vaccine hesitancy or otherwise healthy people wearing two masks as they walk alone, outside? Yet despite all the evidence pointing to our inability to make sense…

Biden's Vaccine Mandate Is More Bad News for the Labor Market

Good policy can be bad economics. The US would be better off if as many adults as possible are vaccinated. But while President Joe Biden's mandate will lessen risk for Americans, it won't eliminate it, and the benefits must be weighed against the costs that will be borne by the most economically…

Americans Should Quit Their Jobs More Often

I recently caught up with a friend who has been working at the same company for more than a decade and was content enough. Other companies might pay more, make him feel more valued and offer room for advancement, but he didn’t pay much attention to his growing dissatisfaction and lack of forward…