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

Trade in the Time of Trump
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?

How Shareholder Activism Became Toxic—and How to Fix It
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?

How Diversity and Pluralism Build Knowledge: The Case of Economics
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

How the Wall Street Journal Blew the Story of the Democrats and Inflation
The firehose of affluent consumption continues to drive inflation, not the stimulus package

Time to Stop Rolling Dice: Why Bigger is Better in Climate Investments
Earlier investments make large-scale emission reductions easier to do over time because their unit costs drop

What Is a “Fair” Drug Price?
Medicare Needs a Perspective on “Collective and Cumulative Learning” in Inflation Reduction Act Negotiations

Elon Musk and Tesla Shape America’s Future. But Problems Run Deeper Than Tweets.
The financialization of U.S. firms making critical products endangers both American global leadership and, in Tesla’s case, climate change progress.

A New Era of Endless Labor Shortages? A Critical Analysis of McKinsey's New Report
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.

How Do Tech Innovations Really Spread? New Evidence
New technologies appear to yield long-lasting benefits for the pioneer locations where they were originally developed.

The Second Coming? Trump vs. Biden
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?