Free exchange
Our economics column offers rigorous analysis, insights into global trends and policy debates
Finance & economics
“The Traitors”, a reality TV show, offers a useful economics lesson
It is a finite, sequential, incomplete information game
Finance & economics
An American purchase of Greenland could be the deal of the century
The economics of buying new territory
Finance & economics
Would an artificial-intelligence bubble be so bad?
A new book by Byrne Hobart and Tobias Huber argues there are advantages to financial mania
Finance & economics
Don’t count on monetary policy to make housing affordable
Unless housebuilding picks up, neither cheap nor dear money will bring relief
Finance & economics
What a censored speech says about China’s economy
If growth is on target, why is inflation so low?
Finance & economics
Cronyism is a problem. But not always an economic one
Research on the topic is surprisingly nuanced
Finance & economics
Why Black Friday sales grow more annoying every year
Nobody is to blame. Everyone suffers
Finance & economics
What Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders get wrong about credit cards
Forget interest rates. Rewards are the real problem
Finance & economics
Economists need new indicators of economic misery
Existing measures of discomfort are failing to predict elections
Finance & economics
Big Macs, strawberry jam and the wealth of nations
Alan Heston, a pioneer in comparing economies, died on October 25th
Finance & economics
Greenland faces one of history’s great resource rushes—and curses
The territory sits on an astounding number of critical minerals
Finance & economics
An economics Nobel for work on why nations succeed and fail
Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson tackled the most important question of all
Finance & economics
Can the world’s most influential business index be fixed?
Two cheers for the World Bank’s new global business survey
Finance & economics
Why economic warfare nearly always misses its target
There is no such thing as a strategic commodity
Finance & economics
Why the Federal Reserve is split on the future of interest rates
Jerome Powell began with a big cut. What comes next?