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

AI, Antitrust, and the Future of the Marketplace of Ideas
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.

Not the Fix—The Tell: The Meaning of a $100,000 H-1B Fee
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.

Drug Price Wars: What Can Really Tame Big Pharma?
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.

Labor Day 2025: The Great Crash (of the Economists)
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.

Economists Warn: Trump’s Intel Move Looks Like Performance, Not Policy
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 Inflation Reduction Act’s Impact on Pharmaceutical Innovation: What Real Evidence Shows
Has the Inflation Reduction Act hindered pharmaceutical innovation? Evidence shows that the pharma industry can strategically manage disruptive change.

Behind the Tariff Dilemma: Kalecki on Structuralist Development Policy
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.
Europe’s Gas Roller Coaster

Distributional and Macroeconomic Effects of Trump 2.0
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.

What the Economy Is Really For — And Why Tariffs Miss the Point
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.
Trade in the Time of Trump

How Climate Denial is Fueling a U.S. Homeowners Insurance Crisis and Risking a 2008-Style Financial Meltdown
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.