Economics
The Economy, by the Numbers: A Live Dashboard
Unemployment, inflation, wages, job gains, mortgage rates and consumer sentiment in one place, each chart drawn from official data you can download, and refreshed as new figures are released.
Topic
Economics
28 analyses
Business
Is Universal Basic Income Inevitable?
UBI is moving from theory to live policy debate. Here is what drives the interest, what pilot evidence suggests, and why cost and design choices determine feasibility.
Economics
Corporate Conglomerates: When Scale Becomes Systemic Risk
Consolidation can look like efficiency, but it can create single points of failure. Here is how conglomerates become de facto infrastructure, why resilience matters, and what policy can do.
Economics
The State of the 2026 Economy: Why It Feels Worse Than the Data
GDP and unemployment can look fine while affordability collapses. Here is what is driving the squeeze, what tariffs change, and who is actually doing well.
AI
How AI Is Reshaping Small Businesses (Not Just Big Tech)
AI is lowering the cost of admin, marketing, and customer service for small firms. It also widens skill gaps and removes entry-level rungs. Here is what changes.
Economics
Should Religious Institutions Pay Taxes? A $100B Transparency and Opportunity Cost Case
Churches provide public value, but $100B in tax advantages should come with auditable benefit, tiered reporting, and clear rules on politics and commerce.
Business
Capitalism, Reintroduced: What It Is, What It Isn’t, and Why It’s Breaking Down
Capitalism is a tool, not a religion. Here’s a grounded definition, how the U.S. variant drifted toward corporatism, and what reforms restore competition and broad prosperity.
Economics
Why Childcare Is Expensive for Parents and Still Pays Poverty Wages
Childcare is a classic market failure: families can’t afford it, providers can’t sustainably supply it, and workers are underpaid. Evidence, tradeoffs, and reforms.
Business
Jobs Added vs. Jobs People Want: Why the Numbers Don’t Match Reality
Headline job growth can look strong while job quality deteriorates. Here’s what the top-line jobs report misses, and what to watch instead.
Economics
Student Debt Explained: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions
Student debt became a national balance-sheet problem. Here’s how we got here, who is hurting most, and what reforms actually fix the system.
Economics
Why Grocery Prices Still Feel High Even as Inflation Cools
Inflation falling does not mean prices fall. Here’s why groceries still feel expensive, how wages compare, and what real relief would look like.
Economics
Housing Crisis: Supply, Demand, and Zoning Reform
The housing crisis in the U.S. stems from persistent supply constraints rather than just demand issues. Zoning laws and lengthy approval processes restrict construction, driving prices beyond typical incomes. The result is affordability problems for both renters and buyers.
Economics
Impact of Tariffs on Supply Chains and Consumers
The 2018 tariffs imposed by the Trump administration aimed to protect American manufacturing but resulted in increased costs throughout supply chains, affecting many businesses and consumers. Protected firms benefit, while costs spread to consumers and downstream employers.
Alternative Energy
Automation Giveth and Taketh Away
A boon to industry is a potential burden to society. Here the gains in output, cost and safety that automation brings are weighed against job losses and wider income inequality for workers.
Business
Net Effects of Illegal Immigration
Immigration and the U.S. economy are delicately intertwined. After looking at unauthorized workers in the labor force, the taxes they pay and the benefits they use, the author concludes that immigration appears to be good for the economy.
Business
Religious Institutions Should Pay Taxes
Argues that religious institutions should pay taxes, describing religion as a multi-billion dollar industry subsidized by American taxpayers and pointing to the wealth of some church leaders.
Economics
Affordable Education Requires Reform
Education is a pillar of modern society. Rather, it would be if it were not rife with inequality and greed.
Economics
Drug Testing Welfare Recipients Is Illogical
Drug testing welfare recipients isn’t worth the cost, the post argues. In four of five states with comparable counts, under 1% of welfare applicants tested positive, and more did among those referred for or taking a drug test; Oklahoma’s rate was about 9%.
Economics
Legalization of Cannabis
Makes the case for legalizing cannabis nationwide, citing lower enforcement costs, fewer possession arrests, new tax revenue and jobs, and its medical use as a substitute for opiates.
Alternative Energy
Balancing the Federal Budget: Summary
Pulls the Balancing the Federal Budget series into a master plan and argues that balance can be achieved, but it won’t be easy. It pairs more spending on science, education and infrastructure with cuts to defense and a single-payer health care system meant to lower costs.
Economics
Balancing the Federal Budget: Taxes
The objective of a taxation system is to cover federal expenditures, but it’s falling short in the United States.
Economics
Balancing the Federal Budget: Defense
Examines how $585 billion of defense spending is used, calls parts of it potentially wasteful, and proposes fewer overseas bases, a review of military contracts, and more support for United Nations efforts.
Alternative Energy
Balancing the Federal Budget: Non-Defense
Non-defense discretionary spending has stayed low and steady as a share of GDP, the post argues, and should grow rather than be cut. It walks through what this spending funds, from health research and transportation to education, science, law enforcement and diplomacy.
Economics
Balancing the Federal Budget: Health Care
Health care spending has increased rapidly since 1960, but why? This part of the budget series traces the growth in Medicare and Medicaid spending and asks whether it is sustainable.
Economics
Balancing the Federal Budget: Social Security
The Social Security program is the largest spending category in the Federal Budget and it is running out of money.
Economics
Balancing the Federal Budget: Introduction
An in-depth look at the Federal Budget, beginning with a high-level summary of federal tax revenues, spending, the largest spending categories and the national debt.
Alternative Energy
Empowerment Through Alternative Energy
It’s time to transition the United States away from fossil fuels and create millions of new jobs in the process.
Economics
The Case for a Nationwide Indexed Minimum Wage
The federal minimum wage has barely moved in real terms while the cost of living and worker productivity have surged. Indexing the minimum wage to economic fundamentals offers a more stable, evidence‑based path forward