Tyler Cowen

One of my great concerns about the pandemic was that it would hinder the global mobility of people and labor, perhaps permanently. Unfortunately, my worst fears are being realized: As Covid mutates, it is affecting not only tourism and business travel but migration more generally. Consider that…

As the Taliban seize control of Kabul and indeed all of Afghanistan, it is worth pondering the less obvious lessons of this 20-year episode. It is a reminder of why I cannot bring myself to be a foreign policy hawk, even though I largely accept the hawks’ worldview and underlying values. Let’s…

As the delta variants spread, and as the number of vaccinations continues to rise, a new Covid stance is evolving: Namely, we should not look too closely at the new situation for fear of being spooked by high case numbers. There is the hyper-careful view found in “blue” locales such as San…

How weird is the future going to be? Just a little bit — or plain flat-out radically unthinkably weird? And is this future 1,000 years from now — or 100? The notion that the future will be weirder than we think, and come sooner, is a possibility raised by Holden Karnofsky, the co-chief executive…

As woke culture has led to a reexamination of American language and life, from pronoun usage to calling slaves “the enslaved,” perhaps it is time to look at professional titles. Why for instance should I be called “Professor Cowen,” but few people would address the person fixing their toilet as …

A revolution is pending in finance, and the world is only beginning to realize the transformations it is likely to bring. Financial institutions will have to take a radically different approach to information technology just to stay in business. Bullish Global, a crypto firm, is planning to go…

True patriotism, especially of the American variety, comes from questioning the history you were born into. As July 4 came, we should all keep this in mind as we question some of the fundamentals of the American story — and we should ask ourselves not whether these reconsiderations are justified,…

Just last week I argued that cryptocurrency is here to stay. Now I’d like to explain to some of my crypto friends why parts of the mainstream economics and financial world do not take them more seriously. To put it bluntly: Many of you do not understand monetary economics very well. There are…

Energy policy is often judged by three criteria: cost, reliability and effect on carbon emissions. That makes good sense, but I would like to suggest an alternative approach: Ask which green energy policies can get the support of most special-interest groups, and the fewest forces in opposition,…

I have news from the world of cryptocurrency: After many years of doubt and uncertainty, a killer app has finally been found. That’s why crypto prices, in spite of numerous plunges, have remained much higher than many skeptics expected. The core use case for crypto is called DeFi, a recently…