Economics
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Dishwashers, Dining Out, and Why We Spend the Way We Do
Why might we hesitate to buy a labor-saving appliance while routinely paying for restaurant meals? Our spending choices reflect our individual preferences and priorities.
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Expectations Matter. This Year’s Economics Nobel Explains Why.
Nobel laureates helped explain how expectations shape spending decisions, inflation, and the effectiveness of economic policy. Yes, that feels obvious.
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Afghanistan, Again? Unlearned Lessons of America’s Longest War
Congress rejected constitutional alternatives in favor of remaking a nation. Abroad, as at home, lawmakers cannot manufacture preferred social outcomes simply by spending more money.
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What Zohran Mamdani Could Learn From His Father
Mahmood Mamdani’s research showed why people often don’t behave the way central planners wish they would. His son faces a similar test in New York.
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Humility Is Civilization’s Price of Admission
A Canadian shop mailed me the hard-to-find part to save my wife’s old blender. How do prices help strangers cooperate on a scale no one can engineer?
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Cheap Groceries, Costly Consequences: City-Run Stores Ignore Second-Order Effects
New York’s city-run stores promise cheaper groceries, but their discounts merely transfer costs. Taxpayers foot the bill, while bodegas and grocers lose customers.
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The ‘Better and Worse’ of Stephanie Coontz’s Marriage History
Stephanie Coontz’s new book succeeds as a thoughtful history of modern marriage but misdiagnoses the economic forces reshaping it.
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Beefsteak Socialists? Left and Right Are Competing to Control the Economy
By making political control more valuable, distorting markets can encourage rival factions to seek still more power.
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The Fed’s Mortgage Policy Made Homeownership Cost More
The Fed’s mortgage-market policy rewarded existing homeowners, but raised the price of entry for first-time and future buyers.
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Abdul El-Sayed Has a Socialist Platform and a Capitalist Life
Abdul El-Sayed and his wife prosper by treating their medical credentials as private goods. Now he campaigns against the system that made it possible.
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Dishwashers, Dining Out, and Why We Spend the Way We Do
Why might we hesitate to buy a labor-saving appliance while routinely paying for restaurant meals? Our spending choices reflect our individual preferences and priorities.
-
•
Expectations Matter. This Year’s Economics Nobel Explains Why.
Nobel laureates helped explain how expectations shape spending decisions, inflation, and the effectiveness of economic policy. Yes, that feels obvious.
-
•
Afghanistan, Again? Unlearned Lessons of America’s Longest War
Congress rejected constitutional alternatives in favor of remaking a nation. Abroad, as at home, lawmakers cannot manufacture preferred social outcomes simply by spending more money.
-
•
What Zohran Mamdani Could Learn From His Father
Mahmood Mamdani’s research showed why people often don’t behave the way central planners wish they would. His son faces a similar test in New York.
-
•
Humility Is Civilization’s Price of Admission
A Canadian shop mailed me the hard-to-find part to save my wife’s old blender. How do prices help strangers cooperate on a scale no one can engineer?
-
•
Cheap Groceries, Costly Consequences: City-Run Stores Ignore Second-Order Effects
New York’s city-run stores promise cheaper groceries, but their discounts merely transfer costs. Taxpayers foot the bill, while bodegas and grocers lose customers.
-
•
The ‘Better and Worse’ of Stephanie Coontz’s Marriage History
Stephanie Coontz’s new book succeeds as a thoughtful history of modern marriage but misdiagnoses the economic forces reshaping it.
-
•
Beefsteak Socialists? Left and Right Are Competing to Control the Economy
By making political control more valuable, distorting markets can encourage rival factions to seek still more power.
-
•
The Fed’s Mortgage Policy Made Homeownership Cost More
The Fed’s mortgage-market policy rewarded existing homeowners, but raised the price of entry for first-time and future buyers.
-
•
Abdul El-Sayed Has a Socialist Platform and a Capitalist Life
Abdul El-Sayed and his wife prosper by treating their medical credentials as private goods. Now he campaigns against the system that made it possible.