Economic Policy

Even before the swooning of the Dow, the current economic expansion was less robust than it appeared. Is this a new economy? Or just people working harder to stay in place?

I t has been amusing to watch the natural rate of unemployment come down. Two years ago, the community of respectable economists held-though with exceptions including Robert Eisner of Northwestern, Ray Fair at Yale, Harvard’s James Medoff, and myself-that 6 percent unemployment was as low as the economy could go without triggering inflation. This meant, […]

The claim that the freest market produces the best economic and social outcome is the centerpiece of the conservative political resurgence. But without government intervention, the market can destroy a lot of things–including itself.

Walt Disney dubbed one of his attractions the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT), but the name might better describe his design for private government.

It’s now a familiar story: The Fed raises interest rates to slow the economy. But new research suggests that we are needlessly sacrificing prosperity on the altar of false economic assumptions.

The conservatives haven’t made “tort reform” a crusade to stop a flood of products liability litigation. There is no such flood. This is a straight payoff to their benefactors.