Free exchange

Our economics column offers rigorous analysis, insights into global trends and policy debates


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

How bad are video games for your grades?

Chinese students provide an answer

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?

Finance & economics

What the history of money tells you about crypto’s future

The thread from shipwrecks and sheep flocks to digital currencies

Finance & economics

An American sovereign-wealth fund is a risky idea

Donald Trump’s latest proposal has worryingly broad support

Finance & economics

Why Oasis fans should welcome price-gouging

There are worse things in life than paying a fair price

Finance & economics

Vast government debts are riskier than they appear

A provocative new paper gets central bankers talking at Jackson Hole

Finance & economics

Artificial intelligence is losing hype

For some, that is proof the tech will in time succeed. Are they right?

Finance & economics

Why companies get inflation wrong

Bosses should pay less attention to the media

Finance & economics

Should central bankers argue in public?

Division is not always a weakness

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