Archive

Storm argues the AI data-centre investment boom is creating a bubble that will be socially and financially expensive when it pops.

Summers’ influence was immense, but so were his blind spots. It’s time for economics that values people and the planet over power and prestige.

Europe’s revamped fiscal rules promise discipline and stability, but Italy’s numbers tell a different story. Once realistic multipliers and hysteresis are built in, consolidation pushes debt up, growth down, and recessionary pressure outwards across the eurozone, hardly a recipe for sustainability.

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.

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.

Since 2007, recurring food-price spikes reveal hunger as a problem of market design and underinvestment, not scarcity. With Brazil’s COP30 on the horizon, aligning climate commitments with food systems could cement policy space to manage markets and advance the right to food.

Elon Musk secured shareholder approval for a new stock-based package designed to double his voting power at Tesla, potentially making him the first trillion-dollar employee. As this plan cements Musk’s control it ties vesting to audacious market-cap and production targets and diverts focus from progressive value creation. Musk’s governance, layoffs, and politicization could imperil Tesla’s EV leadership and ambitions in AI and robotics.

As the government shutdown drags on, official economic data has slowed to a crawl, leaving policymakers, markets, and citizens increasingly reliant on private-sector numbers. That’s a problem.

The soaring costs of city life appear to be sending urban voters toward progressive leaders who promise relief, both in the U.S. and globally.

The argument that free trade is always the correct policy is based on a flawed welfare analysis. Free trade results in winners and losers and economists are not competent to analyze the impact on well-being as a whole or the spillover social consequences of the discontent of the losers.

From political slugfests to classroom battles, historian Marc Egnal talks with INET’s Lynn Parramore about the need for a new approach to our national story.

The idea is finally catching on, but many still miss how deeply it’s driving inflation, masking wage losses, and complicating recovery.

The new $100,000 H-1B fee tacitly acknowledges what early policy architects signaled: expanding temporary tech visas can depress domestic wages. By bringing the fully loaded cost of a new H1B hire closer to what the local market would require to recruit and retain comparable talent, it narrows the wedge between visa-enabled staffing and hiring Americans at market rates.

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.

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.

The GENIUS Act is a disastrous law that poses grave and unacceptable threats to our financial and economic future. Congress must remove those threats by (1) repealing the GENIUS Act and passing legislation that requires all stablecoin providers to be FDIC-insured banks, and (2) adopting legislation that requires all crypto derivatives to comply with the rules governing non-digital derivatives under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act.

INET’s new data archive of historical political finance records at the National Archives assembles all campaign finance reports filed by political parties and presidential candidates up to 1974, the year before the Federal Election Commission was established.

This paper argues that (i) we have reached “peak GenAI” in terms of current Large Language Models (LLMs); scaling (building more data centers and using more chips) will not take us further to the goal of “Artificial General Intelligence” (AGI); returns are diminishing rapidly; (ii) the AI-LLM industry and the larger U.S. economy are experiencing a speculative bubble, which is about to burst.

We examine the World Bank’s protracted and conflicted attempts at shareholding reform from 2008 to the present, situating them within the broader context of multipolarity and intensifying geopolitical rivalries.

Hughes discusses his recent book Marketcrafters, and how markets are deliberately built with outcomes that can serve the public good – or not. He uses this lens to unpack today’s economic flashpoints, from the Fed to crypto to climate.

In a significant new study published by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Canadian economist Mohsen Javdani reveals that gender shapes views on power, equality, and inclusion in ways politics alone can’t explain.

How women economists expand orientations and perspectives that can transform economics into a pluralistic, critically engaged, and socially responsive discipline.

Contrary to what many economic models suggest, salaries aren’t constantly recalibrated based on skills or technology. They follow the economy and politics—and common sense: hire when needed, promote from within, and slow hiring when budgets tighten.

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.

The famed short-seller reminds us that technology might advance, but we’re still a pretty predictable bunch of apes.

Why do market-centric fixes for “unequal exchange” fall short? Sidelining social relations and production power turns colonialism into a pricing problem—and hides the mechanisms that keep uneven development in place.

Without transparent accounting practices and proper risk management, the Federal Reserve’s current financial losses—unprecedented in scale—and the questionable accounting practices it uses to downplay their impact threaten public trust, economic stability, and the integrity of fiscal policy.

Phillip Alvelda, a former DARPA program manager, reveals how a fracturing federal system has opened the door for bold state leadership. Will blue states rise to build a healthier, more just future?

Inflation persists not just because of spending or interest rates, but because underlying social conflicts over income, expectations, and power remain unresolved.

Why real reform in American politics won’t come from slogans, scandals, or new parties — but from breaking the grip of investor politics and rebuilding power from the ground up.

Without strong privacy laws and aligned incentives, increased AI competition worsens surveillance, manipulation, and disinformation—threatening privacy, autonomy, and democracy.

Dr. David Mussington, cybersecurity expert with two decades of experience, reveals why the clock is ticking on U.S. vulnerabilities under Trump.

Has the Inflation Reduction Act hindered pharmaceutical innovation? Evidence shows that the pharma industry can strategically manage disruptive change.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Kalecki’s seminal lecture in Mexico on financing economic development, Jan Toporowski’s INET Working Paper considers the relevance of structuralism and Kalecki’s view of economic development for today.

In Capitalism and Its Critics, New Yorker writer John Cassidy brings to life the figures who warned of monopoly power, inequality, environmental peril, and authoritarianism—forces still at work today. He discusses his book with Lynn Parramore.

In Treasury markets, there are no libertarians, only grateful recipients of single-payer insurance for ailing financial markets.

How to guide innovative AI efforts to increase labor demand and create better-paying jobs?

Times have changed. Now we have David Brooks, of The New York Times, and economics blogger Noah Smith defending neoliberal globalization from the pincer movement of anti-trade populists from both the right and the left.

Misaligned incentives account for many of the most troubling features of the pharmaceutical industry’s present practices and performance.

A new INET Working Paper by Yaroslav Melekh, James Dixon, Katrina Salmon, and Michael Grubb, interrogates the contradictions between fossil lock-in through LNG import capacity and overcontracting, and policy-driven demand reduction. Here is a summary of the paper’s main findings.

Economist William Lazonick reveals how the extraction model of American corporations has migrated from business to government.

Faced with a shrinking list of options to trim the budget, Republicans are now eyeing Medicaid - but will that fly among Trump supporters?

The most likely outcome of the second Trump administration is a recession and an exacerbation of inequalities, and a further degradation of the living standards of working and middle-class Americans.

The money to support well-paid American jobs exists—it’s just being hoarded at the top. Economist William Lazonick argues that this is not just unfair; it’s a failure of the whole economic system.

Professor Marc Egnal of York University joins the Institute for New Economic Thinking’s Lynn Parramore to explore why historians cling to an inaccurate and misleading narrative, and what we can learn from the real history about tyranny, checks and balances, imperialism — and resistance.

Top money-and-politics expert Thomas Ferguson breaks down the real drivers of Trump’s aggressive tariff agenda, from big crypto plans to a new world order emerging.

Trump ran in both 2016 and 2024 on a promise to reverse the deindustrialization caused by globalization and free trade, using tariffs as his main tool. But the critical question now is: Can it work?

Sara Wynn-Williams, defying Facebook’s attempts to silence her, reveals the company’s toxic culture and global damage, exposing unethical practices and a profit-at-any-cost approach. The key question she leaves us with: How can this be changed?

To understand politics in America, follow the money. When we do, we find good cause to expect McConnell’s shadow to live long beyond his tenure.

Phillip Alvelda, a scientist and entrepreneur with past roles at NASA and DARPA, sounds the alarm on cuts that threaten the innovative capacities that have made America a global powerhouse.

Consumer demand by America’s most affluent citizens is driving consumer spending, and consumer spending, in turn, is the main force keeping inflation so high

A review of Perry Mehrling’s book, Money and Empire: Charles P. Kindleberger and the Dollar System, and an exploration Mehrling’s discussion of the 1982 correspondence between Charles Kindleberger and Ben Bernanke examining their theories concerning financial crises.

New research reveals that rising insurance costs, reckless building, regulatory inaction, and big banks’ fossil fuel investments are driving a dangerous cycle that jeopardizes homeowners — and financial stability for everyone.

DeepSeek’s appearance is changing the AI landscape in more ways than we might think.

The distinguished economist talks about the power of entropy in shaping a new economic reality and viewing current events. His new book, Entropy Economics: The Living Basis of Value and Production, challenges flawed mainstream models that lead to distortions and bad policy.

New book reveals how and why hedge-fund activists have been able to suck the life from big-name companies like J.C. Penney and Samsung with their short-sighted profit-grabs. Can their harmful activities be stopped?

If there is no universally accepted outside authority to tell us how to judge theories then knowledge is only going to progress by means of debate

Fifty years ago the actions of the Federal Reserve mattered. Today, so far as the aggregate measures of the American domestic economy go, they do not.

Sociologist Michael A. McCarthy’s latest book shows how ordinary people can take back control of financial capitalism and make it work for them.

The country’s flawed insurance model, driven by greed, leads to inefficiency, inequality, and denied care - a colossal scam that has sparked fury across the nation.

An interview with Thomas Ferguson on the 2024 US election conducted by Andrew Yamakawa Elrod and Tim Barker for Phenomenal World

Industrial organization economists have caused antitrust to cling to an antiquated and disproven economic theory.

Dr. Victor Gurewich, a researcher and Harvard Medical School faculty member since 1965, discovered a breakthrough drug treatment for heart attacks and strokes with the potential to save millions, but institutional resistance and a U.S. healthcare system that puts profits over patients are keeping it out of reach.

The Utah Project on Antitrust and Consumer Protection hosted a conference on the future of consumer financial services law on October 11, 2024, which was supported by an INET grant.

What Japan, the US, and Europe have in common is growing popular anger over the economy despite high stock prices and low unemployment.

The firehose of affluent consumption continues to drive inflation, not the stimulus package

Earlier investments make large-scale emission reductions easier to do over time because their unit costs drop

Ever since 2016, INET researchers confirmed the significance of economic issues in Trump’s ascendency.

Many voters, feeling disillusioned, are searching in vain for narratives that resonate with their experiences.

The key role coal industrialists played in supporting and financing the eventual Nazi triumph

In his new book, Mindless, acclaimed economic historian Robert Skidelsky urges readers to pause and reflect on the delicate balance between advancing technology and our human essence.

The limitations of the benchmark E-DSGE framework and how these limitations restrict the ability of this framework to meaningfully capture the macroeconomics of the climate crisis.

As artificial intelligence reshapes our economy, policymakers must act swiftly to prevent a winner-take-all scenario in the rapidly evolving market for AI foundation models.

In a fresh release from INET’s book series with Cambridge University Press, renowned German economic historian Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich uncovers the startling truth behind German currency reform usually hailed as the foundation of the post-war German economic miracle: Ludwig Erhard, who cooperated with the Nazis, unjustly claimed the spotlight, overshadowing the real architect, Edward Tenenbaum.

The biggest factor in accounting for the strength in the economy is the continuing importance of the wealth effect in sustaining consumption by the affluent.

Medicare Needs a Perspective on “Collective and Cumulative Learning” in Inflation Reduction Act Negotiations

The financialization of U.S. firms making critical products endangers both American global leadership and, in Tesla’s case, climate change progress.

From the perspective of innovative enterprise, we ask how Musk might abuse his power of strategic control—and what that would mean for corporate governance reform.

A new book, The Hamilton Scheme, explores a very different founder than the one we’ve come to think we know.

By 1812 the U.S. already had more business corporations than any other country and possibly more than all other countries combined.

The IRA has the potential to rectify the imbalance between public benefit and private incentives

Patrick Gelsinger stepped down as INTEL’s CEO on December 1. We published an analysis last August that provides context for why this is significant for the company and the US economy.

Cybersecurity expert Muayyad Al-Chalabi assesses CrowdStrike’s update failure and its broader implications for cybersecurity in a discussion with Lynn Parramore.

Increasing evidence that the IRA is probably not harming pharmaceutical innovation.

Dr. Phillip Alvelda tells INET’s Lynn Parramore about persistent political and public health failures exposing us to devastating diseases, while vastly underestimating their long-term health effects.

The McKinsey report’s highlighting of an extremely high job vacancy ratio in recent years does not reflect the true state of the U.S. labor market.

New technologies appear to yield long-lasting benefits for the pioneer locations where they were originally developed.

Journalist Peter Goodman delves into the persistent problems with supply chains and how to fix them his new book, “How the World Ran Out of Everything,” in conversation with the Institute for New Economic Thinking

The most crucial issue in European policy, and one on which no big party campaigned and no important public discussion took place, was the fiscal policy stance for the next few years.

An excerpt from Revolt of the Rich: How the Politics of the 1970s Widened America’s Class Divide by David N. Gibbs, published by Columbia University Press (2024)

In persisting with its high rates policy, the Fed is acting like James Dean in the famous “chicken run” auto race in Rebel Without a Cause.

The $48 Billion Stock-Option Package and its Implications for the EV Transition

In a candid discussion with INET’s Lynn Parramore, Dr. Phillip Alvelda highlights the imminent dangers of long COVID, criticizing governments and health agencies for ongoing preventable suffering and deaths. *This is Part 2 of a two-part interview.

An ensemble of mechanisms enables cloud hegemons (Microsoft, Google, Amazon) to plan the whole AI knowledge and innovation network by weaponizing interdependence in networks.

Stuck in a fog of misleading narratives, most of us don’t see the true extent of COVID’s persisting—and intensifying—threats. INET’s Lynn Parramore talks to Dr. Phillip Alvelda about the dangers we’re missing and the failures of public health agencies to inform and protect us. *This is Part 1 of a two-part interview.

How have the macroeconomic problems in the US blinded many participants and observers to the actual state of the American economy as the election approaches?

In a political system whose primary currency is not the vote but the dollar, McConnell’s role as leader has plainly been well-earned.

Experts are clear that working into old age often threatens the health and well-being of U.S. seniors.

Wang Hui, author of The Rise of Modern Chinese Thought, now available in English, provides conceptual guidance for understanding China’s intellectual progress in a conversation with INET’s Lynn Parramore.

The American state has lost the capacity for concentrated and decisive effort at the forefront of technology and the associated science.