“I don’t care who writes a nation’s laws — or crafts its advanced treatises — if I can write its economics textbooks.” — Paul A. Samuelson What is the socially optimal amount of pollution in the ...

Paul Solman: I’ve done numerous interviews with Paul Samuelson over the years. Invariably, he was funny, imaginative and deep. Particularly memorable was a long session on the basics of economics ...

About a month ago, a friend shared with me an article entitled “The Curse of Econ 101” by one James Kwak. It was published by The Atlantic in January. Mr. Kwak’s basic gripe is “the misleading ...

In his latest book, Economism: Bad Economics and the Rise of Inequality, former technology executive and current University of Connecticut business law professor James Kwak argues that the lessons of ...

California is a desirable place to live, regardless of its politics. Primarily it’s the comfortable climate made better by sucking the Colorado River dry. This is demand. On the supply side, there is ...

If you are a Wall Street master of the universe or a billionaire hedge fund manager, you face the same challenge as the aristocrats and industrialists of the past: How do you justify the vast economic ...

James Kwak is the latest to take up the point that Economics 101 isn't all that good as a basis for designing public policy. To which the answer is, well, yes, of course. Why is anyone in the least ...

Now, given that Ocasio-Cortez does apparently have a degree in economics, we might assume that she has come across this basic Econ 101 phrase before. Thus, the congresswoman really should know that ...

Paul Solman: On Tuesday, we posted the first transcript from a series of interviews I’ve done with Paul Samuelson over the years. This installment picks up where the last left off, explaining the most ...