United States Gross Domestic Product increased 3.0 percent in 2003, a pretty satisfactory performance even allowing for the approximately 0.9 percent increase in population. Yet Census Bureau figures released Thursday showed that real median per capita income declined by $63, to $43,318. So where’s the growth going, and why aren’t we having more fun?

Earnings restatements by both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and Wednesday a “Wells notice” from the Securities and Exchange Commission to Freddie Mac suggest that all is not well in the world of housing finance. That may be putting it mildly.

If you’re thinking of studying computer science in college, don’t waste your time. The great tech boom of 1965-2004 is coming to an end, and it’s not going to return. On a 40 year view, the length of your future career, there will be better opportunities.

Anthony Trollope’s 1875 masterpiece “The way we live now” is an astonishingly accurate early portrayal of the peak of a speculative bubble “the Melmotte era.” It missed in only one respect: the Melmotte Era lasted only nine weeks. Our own generation’s speculative “Melmotte Era” has lasted almost a decade, but it is in the process […]

The claim by hospital chains and pharmaceutical companies that their pricing reflects the free market is pure fiction. The alternative touted by their opponents, of transferring the whole business to the government, would undoubtedly make matters worse. So what’s a poor free market economist to believe?