Economics Is Not a Morality Play

By and large, the investors who profited from the financial crisis saw it coming because they understood the economics, not because they were morally any better or worse than their competitors.

Refugee

Ted Cruz

Spock

Beyond HeforShe

If a campaign explicitly designed to tackle gender inequities can falter in its own mission, then no one is immune. Only through honest discussion and thoughtful critique can we hope to expose our own missteps and prejudices.

Oklahoma

The End of Economics

Like many good ideas, Keynes’s utopian view was wrong but perceptive.

Homo Economicus For President

To their credit, all the presidential tickets have tackled serious financial issues in their campaign platforms. But there has been disappointingly little use of economic reasoning this election season.

Love and the Dismal Science

What makes romantic love worthwhile is its inexplicability. Love is not rational, and so it cannot be reduced to the bloodless equations of utility maximization. In the realm of romance, Homo Economicus—the author, not the concept—will freely admit that he is a sucker.

Secular Stagnation

A sterile term like “secular stagnation” could strike fear only into the heart of an economist. But it could be the malaise that defines the economic prospects of our generation.

Economic Prosperity from the Barrel of a Gun

Economists can no longer afford to ignore the important role of politics in shaping people’s sense of well-being.

Meet Homo Economicus

Human beings do not actually think like Scrooge McDuck, but, in approximation and in aggregate, we often behave like we do.

The Great War: A Cautionary Tale

The ethical ambiguities and diplomatic confusion of World War I are far more relevant to today’s world than World War II’s clear tale of good and evil.

Of Lovers and Baseball

Baseball offers the full range of emotional experience. April in the major leagues, just like the heady first days of love, is full of hope.

The Moneyball Myth

Statistics are meaningless without context, and the true lesson of “Moneyball” is that we should learn to temper our faith in numbers.