Economics

Free exchange

Our economics correspondents consider the fluctuations in the world economy, in theory and practice

Toil and trouble

Religious competition was to blame for Europe’s witch hunts

Many children are still persecuted as alleged witches in Africa for similar reasons

Cementing relations

Has BRICS lived up to expectations?

The bloc of big emerging economies is surprisingly good at keeping its promises

Crash course

How to interpret a market plunge

Whether a sudden sharp decline in asset prices amounts to a meaningless blip or something more depends on mass psychology

Dynamic do-over

Republicans grouse about tax models they once supported

When the experts say tax reform will not pay for itself, the party ignores the experts

Job-stealing robots

Why scan-reading artificial intelligence is bad news for radiologists

Good news for patients is bad news for medical professionals

The Nobel prize in economic sciences

Richard Thaler’s work demonstrates why economics is hard

It is difficult to model the behaviour of creatures as irrepressibly social as humans

The 2017 Nobel prizes

The Nobel in economics rewards a pioneer of “nudges”

Richard Thaler becomes one of very few behavioural economists to receive the discipline’s highest honour

Not so novel

Bitcoin is fiat money, too

What Charles Kindleberger has to say about cryptocurrencies

Unwinding QE

The case against shrinking the Fed’s balance-sheet

The Fed has announced it will shed assets, but not how many

America’s labour market

Is there a wage growth puzzle in America?

Weak wage growth suggests the economy is not at full employment

Budgetary crystal balls

The hubris of ten-year budgets

No policymaker can accurately predict the future