Articles
Articles and analyses from the INET community on the key economic questions of our time.

On the US-EU Debate: A Response to Paul Krugman
A response to Paul Krugman’s recent essay on U.S. and European productivity opens onto a broader question. If the standard metrics point in conflicting directions, perhaps the problem lies less with the economies than with the measures themselves.

Russell’s Teapot: Dispatches From the Final Stage of the AI Bubble
What if the AI future being sold to markets rests on claims that cannot survive scrutiny? From superintelligence to mass job loss, the loudest promises around generative AI begin to look less like foresight than hype dressed up as inevitability.

What Does it Mean to Work Under Algorithmic Eyes?
AI surveillance and algorithmic management threaten worker autonomy and dignity. It’s time for a rethinking of rights. Part of “AI and the Future of the American Worker,” a series on how artificial intelligence is impacting labor, power, and the meaning of work.

Failed State, Failed Market: Europe’s Bid to Reprice Social Media Harms
Europe’s social media crackdown is less about “speech wars” than a long-overdue attempt to price the public damage created by large platforms.

America’s Real Health Crisis? Economics — and a Generation Pays
Health researcher Steven H. Woolf tells INET’s Lynn Parramore why making Americans healthy again means economic policies that help working- and middle-class families. Raw raw milk won’t cut it, and even being rich won’t save you. *This is Part 2 of the interview; Part 1 is here.

AI, Antitrust, and the Future of the Marketplace of Ideas
AI was sold as a tool to broaden the marketplace of ideas. Instead, a handful of platforms now control how truth travels, shaping what we see, starving journalism, and locking new AI rivals out of the data democracy needs to survive.

Red Tech and American Politics: Nick French Interviews Thomas Ferguson
Venture-backed “tech capital” is reshaping U.S. politics through campaign finance, platform gatekeeping, defense/AI procurement, and policy entrepreneurship. In an interview with Nick French, INET’s Research Director Thomas Ferguson discusses these channels of influence, examining their macro-distributional consequences, and outlining guardrails to restore democratic accountability and broadly shared gains.

Drug Price Wars: What Can Really Tame Big Pharma?
Here’s the breakdown on what’s really driving America’s runaway drug prices — and whether any of the current plans stand a chance to lower your pharmacy bill.

Bretton Woods: A System That Can’t Be Fixed—But Can Be Made Fairer and More Effective
The IMF and World Bank can no longer function as instruments that discipline some member countries while deferring to others. Their challenge is to transform the exercise of power among member countries into a framework of mutual respect and cooperation.

Economists Warn: Trump’s Intel Move Looks Like Performance, Not Policy
Two economists who have studied Intel warn that Trump’s move to take a stake in the company amounts to flashy optics, incoherent strategy, and a creeping politicization of economic policy.