New Ideas are the Key to Economic Development
For all our progress, it is important to remember that critics and regulators have still won a lot of battles. They could win more.
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Jim Simons and His Quants
We meet colorful characters, financial success, and business matches made in heaven — but also ceaseless struggling, heartbreaking losses, friendships, marriages, and partnerships with flourishing beginnings and abrupt endings.
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Top Ten Economic Trends This Year and Next
It’s been a remarkable year in economics. Here are my personal picks for the top ten economic trends of this year and next. 1. The Chinese model of political economy is under pressure. Two years ago, there was a growing consensus that China had it rig …
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The Last Days of the Left
Left-wing collectivism is not, in the end, about making society better off; it is about transferring power from the people outside of government to those inside of government.
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How To Stop the Proliferation of Municipal Bond Issues
It seems rather strange that in a putative democracy a handful of people can legally, if figuratively, reach into the pockets of their neighbors but it happens all the time all across America via municipal bond ballot measures. The main problem i …
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Technology Has Made Flexible Work Possible, and That’s Wonderful
When I got my first summer job, my coworkers and I were paid the same hourly wage. Doing sales and booking in three languages for a shipping company, we spent our days mostly managing fares and talking to calling customers over the phone (this job has …
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What’s Gone Wrong with the Aramco IPO?
Imagine for a moment, the following: In an industry with global demand there is one organization that has the following advantages. It has the lowest cost of production for its product, exported and used by every country on the planet, and is part of a …
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The Giant Debt-for-Equity Swap
The number of companies listed on US stock markets has halved since 1996; Low interest rates have pushed debt to all-time highs; The credit quality of corporate bonds and loans is declining; Even a mild recession may prove cathartic.
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How to Avoid the Dead-Weight Loss of Christmas
With the Christmas season again upon us, recall the old adage that holds that it is better to give than to receive. The problem, though, is that humans are such inveterate traders that we often feel compelled to reciprocate. But that often just turns i …
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Why that Hotel Shop Undershirt Is So Expensive
“What do you need?” “Undershirts.” I was in a hotel gift shop and not optimistic. “Right this way.” I was surprised. I guess they have undershirts after all, I thought. I had my usual rhapsodic feelings about how people who don’t necessarily care about …
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Confessions of an Affluent Welfare Bum
Our obligation is not to don a hair shirt but to understand and explain why these programs should not exist.
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Twenty Crazy Beliefs on Economics and Politics
Why do so many American Progressives, fearing that rich people abuse state power, aim to reduce the riches of rich people, instead of the state power that Progressives admit is subject to being abused?Why do so many American Progressives wish to put ev …
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