The past 10 years have been eventful, both in terms of political events and economic ones, but it is not yet clear how historians will classify this decade. Will it be deemed the first decade of the 21st century in…
Cost-benefit analysis can apply to justice, too
The Supreme Court unleashed a controversy earlier this year when it ruled that prosecutors couldn’t introduce results from blood-alcohol and other needed lab tests in court without testimony from the technicians who prepared them. But how that decision should be…
Economists can nudge the ship of history
Do economists in dusty academic offices ever really change the course of history? British economist John Maynard Keynes argued they do: ‘The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more…
Bankers’ reluctance to make loans is understandable: Defaults
President Barack Obama called in leading bankers to the White House on Monday to lecture them on their responsibility to lend. The bankers say they are doing all they can. Who is right? In the president’s view, U.S. taxpayers saved…