As a writer, podcaster and economist — not necessarily in that order — I receive numerous emails asking for advice. People ask for my opinion not only on economic questions, but also about what kind of job they should get, if they should return to school, whether they should marry a given person,…

Most Americans believe that the economy is getting worse, and economic confidence measures are low. At the same time, as analysts have pointed out, a lot of the economic data look pretty rosy. The unemployment rate is 4.6% and falling, and US consumers have built up $2.3 trillion in extra savings…

The nuclear fusion startup Helion, which announced last week that it has raised $500 million, says it has developed new technologies that may make nuclear fusion viable — practically, economically and environmentally. It is too early to tell if its claims will pan out, but there have been so many…

The “China shock” was one of the most significant economic events of the last two decades in America. Most of the shock is now over — Chinese imports are competitive with much of the output of US manufacturing, and China has already displaced many US jobs — but there is a new and possibly larger…

Stablecoins have gone from an obscure corner of crypto to near the center of it. Major institutions, such as Mastercard, are now trying to create alternate payment networks based on stablecoin and crypto. I am rooting for such efforts to succeed, but in the meantime I have news for you:…

I am increasingly disturbed by what I call “mask apartheid.” If you have attended a conference or public event recently, you may have noticed it: The wealthier attendees are not usually wearing masks, but the poorer servers and staff almost always are. Even if the attendees are wearing masks at…

If the biggest news is what’s not being talked about, then my candidate for the most neglected story would be President Joe Biden’s plan for $3.5 trillion in new government spending. Crazy as my hypothesis may seem, given all the stuff about Biden’s agenda on the internet, there has been remarkably…

A longstanding business variable is gaining in relevance: Which time zone are you in? This is going to be a bonus for some parts of the world, and a setback for others. The relevant driver of change is the growth of remote work. That started with the pandemic, but the movement has taken on a…

Many reactions to Covid-19 can be explained by one simple concept: intertemporal substitution. Its awkward name notwithstanding, the idea helps to make sense of many behaviors that otherwise might appear irrational. At the most basic level, intertemporal substitution means shifting an action or…

The advent of gaming, especially computer gaming, marks a fundamental break in human affairs. Gaming is profoundly transforming two central aspects of the modern world: culture and regulation. There will be no turning back. When it comes to culture, the West has been in a dialogue with itself…