Peter Coy

The Midlife Crisis Is Very Real and Nothing to Be Laughed At

In popular culture the midlife crisis is fodder for comedy, personified by the 40-something guy who suddenly hankers to sky-dive or buy a convertible. In scientific circles the midlife crisis is sometimes said not to exist at all: “Epidemiological study of psychological distress in adulthood does…

China Is Playing Hardball with Troubled Debtors. That’s Dangerous for All of Us.

Over the past decade, Chinese banks have lent generously to poor nations for China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, a politically and economically motivated effort to help build ports, rail lines and telecommunications networks abroad. But now that some of those borrowers are having trouble…

Boris Johnson Leaves a Mixed Legacy With His Brexit Gambit

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be remembered for Britain’s exit from the European Union long after the world has forgotten the tousled hair, the quotations in Homeric Greek, the fibs, fabrications and scandals — not to mention the time he got stuck on a zip line while serving as London mayor,…

Lockdowns Protected Older People. But at What Cost to the Health of Young Adults?

Covid-19 has killed mostly old people. But since the pandemic began, the rate of death from all causes for younger adults has risen by a bigger percentage than has the rate of death from all causes for old people. When I heard that stat I thought it had to be a mistake. If Covid is ravaging the…

How Ordering a Pint of Guinness Might Explain Economics

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s push to give renewed prominence to the old imperial system of weights and measures in the United Kingdom is stirring fresh interest in a fascinating corner of economics: path dependence. Path dependence explains how small, even random, events can have lasting…

High Gas Prices Are a Problem. But Let’s Not Moralize About It.

Prices of gasoline and diesel fuel are crazy high and oil refiners are earning stupendous profits. But the refiners, who convert crude oil into consumable products, aren’t price gouging — that is, they aren’t deliberately charging an unfairly high price. Highlighting that combination of facts…

Courage Seemed to Be Dead. Then Came Zelensky.

Courage can seem like an outdated virtue in a world of selfish genes and utilitarian economics. If we are meant to put ourselves first — to maximize our individual utility — then what room is left for heroism? How can a self be selfless? It sounds almost illogical. It isn’t. Volodymyr Zelensky,…

‘If Economists Are So Smart, Why Ain’t They Rich?’

After I wrote a newsletter last month on how economists’ views differ from those of ordinary people, I got emails to the effect of, “If economists are so smart, why ain’t they rich?” I’m not an economist, so the question doesn’t ruffle my feathers. The possible explanations, though, are interesting…

Unemployment Is Low. That Doesn’t Mean the Economy Is Fine.

The Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, was correct on Wednesday when he said in a news conference that the unemployment rate is “just about as low as it’s been in 50 years.” But that does not necessarily mean, as Powell also said, that “the American economy is very strong and well positioned…

I Spoke to the Experts. Bitcoin Isn’t Going to Change.

The people behind Bitcoin, the No. 1 cryptocurrency by market value (and renown), are under heavy pressure to reduce its carbon footprint — the planet-warming emissions from burning fossil fuels for electricity to run the network’s computations, known as mining. I spoke with people on both sides of…