Yves here. This piece gives a useful overview of theory versus practice with tariffs. It also describes how the Trump bullying pattern of making threats and then maybe or maybe…

Musk wants to cut your Social Security benefits and then have Congress use the savings to give himself a gigantic tax cut.

Why trade deficits can’t always be solved by price, as in tariffs or currency manipulation.

On Perry Mehrling’s Money and Empire: Charles P. Kindleberger and the Dollar System, including how some of his key ideas have been borne out.

~ Today’s Water Cooler: Politics, Syndemics Court filing: DOGE website claims another victim; : Myopia epidemic: literally!; Pseudo-science in machine learning. ~ ~

Donald Shoup, a professor of urban studies whose provocative and occasionally amusing 734-page treatise on the economics of parking sparked reforms in thousands of cities, helping reduce traffic, create green…

President Trump recently ordered the U.S. Mint to stop producing pennies, for a simple-sounding reason. Each penny, he said, has “literally cost us more than 2 cents.” He’s right. Since…

Thousands of tourists have stormed the snowy slopes of Sicily’s Mount Etna in recent weeks, congesting roads and obstructing the paths of rescue crews, the Italian authorities said, despite their…

Delta Air Lines said on Wednesday that it was offering $30,000 to each passenger who was aboard the flight from Minneapolis that crashed and flipped upside down this week while…

Chinese government workers have a lot to worry about these days. Cash-strapped local governments are struggling to pay their salaries. Political controls are tightening in the name of national security.…