“I don’t care who writes a nation’s laws — or crafts its advanced treatises — if I can write its economics textbooks.” — Paul A. Samuelson What is the socially optimal amount of pollution in the ...

Paul Solman: On Tuesday, we posted the first transcript from a series of interviews I’ve done with Paul Samuelson over the years. This installment picks up where the last left off, explaining the most ...

California is a desirable place to live, regardless of its politics. Primarily it’s the comfortable climate made better by sucking the Colorado River dry. This is demand. On the supply side, there is ...

In his latest book, Economism: Bad Economics and the Rise of Inequality, former technology executive and current University of Connecticut business law professor James Kwak argues that the lessons of ...

Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. In January, James Kwak wrote about how basic economic principles can be ...

James Kwak is the latest to take up the point that Economics 101 isn't all that good as a basis for designing public policy. To which the answer is, well, yes, of course. Why is anyone in the least ...

From booms and busts to wealth and poverty, economics helps us to understand the material well-being of society. Its impact can be felt in almost every sphere of daily life, from the pound in your ...

If you are a Wall Street master of the universe or a billionaire hedge fund manager, you face the same challenge as the aristocrats and industrialists of the past: How do you justify the vast economic ...

Now, given that Ocasio-Cortez does apparently have a degree in economics, we might assume that she has come across this basic Econ 101 phrase before. Thus, the congresswoman really should know that ...