Articles

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

Article

The Real Driver of Rising Inequality

May 1, 2018

Wage suppression—not monopoly power—is fueling corporate profits and the growing gap between rich and poor

Article

The Forgotten Economic Vision of Martin Luther King

Apr 4, 2018

In the last years of his life, King was boldly forging a radical, multi-racial movement for economic justice

Article

How Cuba Became a Biopharma Juggernaut

Mar 5, 2018

Cuba’s entirely state-owned biopharmaceutical industry has been remarkably successful, and can serve as a model for other nations

Article

What Piketty Missed in Measuring Wealth

Mar 1, 2018

Despite assembling a formidable data set and leveling a bold argument, Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century has theoretical and accounting flaws that distort its central findings

Article

Should You Buy Bitcoin?

Feb 8, 2018

Over the next year, the Bitcoin price could double, soar tenfold, or collapse by 95% or more, and no economic analysis can help predict where in that range it will lie. Like other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin serves no useful economic purpose, though in macroeconomic terms, such currencies probably also do little harm.

Article

The Path to an African Economic Boom

Feb 2, 2018

The African Development Bank has laid out a plan for economic prosperity in the continent. But to get there, African countries must first confront jobless growth and underfunded infrastructure projects.

Article

How Public Spending Creates Jobs and Growth—Without Inflation

Dec 21, 2017

Contrary to conventional wisdom, government stimulus can improve the health of the economy for years after, without inflationary side effects 

Article

What Mainstream Economists Get Wrong About Secular Stagnation

Dec 21, 2017

Forget the myth of a savings glut causing near-zero interest rates. We have a shortage of aggregate demand, and only public spending and raising wages will change that.