Category: Economics & Business
A Tale of Two Tech Keynotes
Last week, the tech industry was flooded with hype and anticipation from two of the biggest companies in the AI space, Google and OpenAI. In November 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a watershed moment for the new era of AI that ...
Politics Express: The Debt Ceiling
Politics Editor Lars Emerson is joined by Chris Choban to discuss the debt ceiling — what it is, why it exists, why it’s dangerous, and how can America get out of the pattern of debt ceiling impasses (yes, the trillion ...
The SALT Deduction is Bad Policy — and Bad Politics
One of the best things that the Republican trifecta in 2017 did was buried in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Some Democrats are trying to reverse it, despite the fact it is a clear tax cut for the wealthy.
For Inflation’s Sake, It’s Time to Let New Jerseyans and Oregonians Pump Their Own Gas
New Jersey and Oregon are the only states in the nation that bar drivers from pumping their own gas. In New Jersey, it’s a local idiosyncracy that’s as ingrained in the state’s culture as Taylor ham (or pork roll… if ...
Who Was the Best Fed Chair? And How Does Jerome Powell Compare?
Unless he’s renominated by President Biden, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s term will expire in February of 2022. Historically speaking, every modern chair of the Federal Reserve has been renominated by the successive president of a different party (often several ...
Politics Express: “…In Our Lifetime?”
Politics Express kicks off its new recurring segment called “…In Our Lifetime?” — discussions on the big political and global questions of the 21st century. To start what will be a recurring segment on the show, host Lars Emerson dedicates ...
Washington’s Invented Crisis: The Debt Ceiling
It was nice while it lasted. In 2019, Democrats, Republicans, and President Trump agreed to legislation suspending the debt ceiling through the 2020 election, kicking the can on a showdown over one of Washington’s most notorious and most dangerous sticking ...
Coastal Centrality, Conservatism, and Premature Death Rates
This is part two of a series of pieces on premature deaths in America and the role our distance from the centers of power in this country have on that. Click here to read part one. Last week, we examined ...
Is East Coast Centrality Killing Us?
It’s probably an understatement to say that, out of all of America’s regions, its coasts receive the most attention. Media, economic, political, and soft power is concentrated in metropolises along America’s shorelines. Eight coastal cities — New York, Los Angeles, ...
Riding the GameStop Wave
The fundamentals of GameStop do not merit a market capitalization of $17 billion. It’s a retail store selling physical video games in the year 2021. I should probably end the article right there, but there’s so much more to this ...
An Obituary for NAFTA
This week, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will resolve into the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), ending a 26-year-old pact that was once the largest free trade agreement of its time. In these 26 years — and in ...
The Economics of the COVID-19 Rebate
You will probably be receiving a check from the federal government in the next few months. If you are a single filer and make under $75,000, you will receive the maximum rebate of $1,200. If you make over $75,000, this ...
Christine Lagarde is a Good Pick to Run the ECB, and Mark Carney Should Get Her Current Job
Christine Lagarde is to head the European Central Bank In the last few weeks, a consensus finally emerged over who will head perhaps the second-most-important financial institution in the world, the European Central Bank. Though her name was not ...
How Game Theory Dooms the Challenger in Presidential Elections
Assuming the incumbent president runs for reelection, roughly every eight years there is an election in the United States that pits an incumbent president against the other party. In the upcoming 2020 election, that other party will be the Democrats, ...
What an Emergency Fund Really Means
The median amount Americans hold in a savings account is about $5000, 57% of Americans could not afford a $500 surprise expense, and only 39% of Americans could pay for a $1000 surprise expense. Most folks know that having savings ...
On State and Science
Welcome to the inaugural piece of The Postrider’s State & Science vertical. As your State & Science Editor I wanted to introduce this section, outline our vision, explain why these two very broad and important subjects have been combined, and how The Postrider will ...