With inflation growing at its fastest rate in decades, economists are locked in a debate over whether it stems from too much stimulus or from temporary, pandemic-induced supply-chain pressures. Less discussed are the ways that the pain of inflation may not be shared equally. Prices have soared for physical products but have risen only modestly ...

Americans everywhere remain concerned about getting past what feels like a never-ending litany of Covid-19-induced economic problems, from out-of-stock products to inflation and continued fears of exposure to illness when going out. When will it finally end? Professional economic forecasters are struggling to answer this question. Many are ...

Not having to commute was the equivalent of a big bonus for many employees. In the future, bosses may expect more hours in exchange for remote work. Millions of Americans have gotten a taste of working from home during the pandemic, and, boy, have they liked it. Almost two-thirds of U.S. workers in a McKinsey survey at the start of the year ...

Going in big with more relief now can prevent suffering and permanent structural damage, an economist says. The United States is in grave danger of repeating a central error: reacting to the coronavirus, instead of getting ahead of it. One of the biggest failings in dealing with the Covid-19 health crisis has been moving too slowly, responding ...

The coronavirus crisis and the transition of 2020 have the clear potential to spiral out of control, an economist says. The worst economic crises of the last century both played out during "transition" — the period between the presidential election and the inauguration. That's not a coincidence. The most important transitions — ones that ...

The exuberant rebound of large companies while their small competitors struggle will require more vigilant government antitrust action than ever before. The next six months could witness one of the biggest consolidations of corporate power in the United States in almost a century, yet a variety of legal and economic factors may leave the ...

Precious public support will be squandered if the economic relief effort isn’t handled with full transparency and accountability, a former presidential adviser says. As early as we are in the fight against the Covid-19 virus, I fear that many Americans may already be exhausted by it. A medical crisis created an economic crisis. But a ...

If people stop traveling and going to the dentist, the gym or even March Madness basketball games, the impact could be enormous, an economist says. After a string of deaths, some heart-stopping plunges in the stock market and an emergency rate cut by the Federal Reserve, there is reason to be concerned about the ultimate economic impact of ...

It has been a tough decade for brick-and-mall retailers, and matters seem only to be getting worse. Despite a strong consumer economy, physical retailers closed more than 9,000 stores in 2019 — more than the total in 2018, which surpassed the record of 2017. Already this year, retailers have announced more than 1,200 more intended ...

The long-run health of the United States economy is in serious danger from a self-inflicted wound: the Trump administration’s big cuts in immigration. The latest data indicate that immigration to the United States fell 70 percent last year to only 200,000 people — the lowest level in more than a decade. Major causes of the decline, experts ...

Now that it has finally happened, don’t expect the Federal Reserve’s long-awaited rate cut to make all that much of a difference for the economy. In the weeks leading up to Wednesday’s decision to cut the benchmark Fed funds rate by 0.25 points to 2.25 percent, the stock market seemed to leap whenever Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve ...

The monetary union now seems more attractive to smaller countries with weak economies. There is no aroma of chocolate outside the Roshen Confectionery factory in Lipetsk, Russia, today. The Ukrainian candy maker's machines remain idle, toasting no hazelnuts, wrapping no bars. Russian authorities seized the factory last Wednesday after ...

Admit it: The Fed's loose money policy worked. Now the challenge is how to manage the tapering. Trouble has a way of finding Ben Bernanke. This time, it surrounded his trip to the American Economic Association meeting in Philadelphia to give a capstone speech last week summarizing his eight years as head of the Federal Reserve. A major ...

At $10,000 per child yearly, high-quality early education is a bargain. Most of us watching the looming budget showdown do so with a sense of dread. The last one left congressional approval at 9%, the president's popularity at a new low, and consumer confidence at levels not seen since the 2008 financial crisis. The trouble, of course, is ...

There's no way the GOP candidate can avoid increasing the deficit without adding to the burden on middle-income earners..

I once asked a guy who does focus groups where he thought the gap was largest between the views of policy types and ordinary people. He decided it was probably about the federal budget. ...

The only practical choices are more geographic mobility, inflation, or subsidies.

Recently Kurt Bills, a candidate for the U.S. Senate and a devotee of Ron Paul, introduced a bill to consider an alternative currency for Minnesota and its citizens. When I heard this idea I thought what every mainstream economist probably thought: Wow is that nuts. ...

The euro has punished Southern Europe the way China's currency has hurt the United States.

Guidebooks call the classic route through southern Germany toward Italy "the Romantic Road." It starts in Wurzburg, winds through Bavaria and gloriously presents the charming castles, towns and cathedrals of medieval Europe, culminating at Neuschwanstein Castle outside ...