In today’s interconnected global economy, tariffs produce outcomes that are very different from what traditional economic models would predict. Rather than causing only limited and temporary distortions, tariffs can generate persistent inflation, significant output losses, and damaging international spillovers.

The traditional rhetoric of the World Economic Forum centered on global integration, climate change and international cooperation. Not anymore.

To ensure that Greenland remains a territory of Denmark, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other European leaders must put pressure on NATO’s most powerful member. Given the US president’s love of royalty, one way to do that would be to organize a public meeting between British King Charles III and Danish King Frederik X.

If the Trump administration exerts more influence on the US central bank, global swap lines could become more politicized.

The US Federal Reserve’s independence is widely understood to be vital to the economy’s well-being, by insulating monetary policy from political imperatives. But, following the launch of a criminal investigation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell by President Donald Trump’s minions at the Department of Justice, it is hanging on by a thread.

The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation against the Federal Reserve and its chairman. On this week’s On the Media, hear how the Trump administration’s pressure campaign plays into a larger trend chipping away at central banks. Plus, how a teacher in Russia stood up to Putin’s propaganda.

From attacks on the Federal Reserve's independence to high and unpredictable tariffs, Donald Trump has pursued a slew of misguided policies that threaten to fuel stagflation, trigger financial instability, and end US dollar dominance. Emerging-market and developing economies must take action to protect themselves.

The great Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter argued that you could spot a fundamental economic transition by the arrival of new types of goods, new production methods, and new forms of industrial organization. The spread of cheap drones, phones, and solar checks all of these boxes.

Mark Blyth told the A Book with Legs podcast that inflation reflects broad economic shifts driven by modern forces beyond rising prices, as discussed in his new book Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers.

Despite the Trump administration’s systematic erosion of America’s capacity to create wealth over the long term, bond markets and investors seem to have fallen asleep at the wheel. But their complacency is not the result of ignorance; it is a highly profitable – and extremely risky – choice.

There is strong evidence to support the case for interest-rate cuts in the United States, given the disproportionate impact of higher rates on the most vulnerable. Yet with Donald Trump loudly demanding that the US Federal Reserve lower borrowing costs, the situation has become more complicated than it needed to be.

The short-term popularity of populist policies can help win elections even as they undermine long-term economic growth. Since this approach inevitably delivers bad economic outcomes over time, populist leaders need low interest rates to prevent their supporters from recognizing how misguided their policies are until it is too late.

The inflationary surge of the 1970s has long served as a cautionary tale, and that episode has shaped how central banks have carried out their mandates ever since. Two recent books revisit the standard narrative about that period in light of the 2021–23 inflation, offering sharply contrasting lessons for the future.

The Trump administration is doing everything it can to ensure that fossil fuels remain dominant in the energy mix of the twenty-first century. If it succeeds, the short-term returns to the US will be huge; but the long-term damage to the planet will be orders of magnitude larger.

Capitalism’s operating system is due for a major upgrade. How that turns out depends on enormously consequential political choices.

In these unusual times, Congress and the White House should be clear what they plan to do about a loss.

Who are the winners and losers when it comes to inflation? NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Mark Blyth, a political economist at Brown University, about the impact of President Trump's tariffs.

Ten years ago, trillions of dollars of advanced-economy government debt traded at a negative real interest rate. Deflation, not inflation, was the euro zone’s main problem, and central bank researchers wondered where all the inflation had gone. They found it again in Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. Inflation had merely been dormant, not dead, we discovered. Now President Donald Trump’s tariffs augur still-higher prices.

It is delusional to think that the Trump administration will devise a viable, let alone sensible, trade policy before its 90-day pause on “reciprocal” tariffs ends. Before prices spike and the economy starts shrinking, legislators and business leaders must recognize that there is no strategy and respond accordingly.

As temperatures rise and countries back off their decarbonization efforts, we must confront a reality central banks can’t correct

Mark Blyth comments for The New York Times, “The whole world has decided that the U.S. government has no idea what it’s doing."

In an interview with The New Yorker’s The Political Scene podcast, Mark Blyth discussed how the bond market forced Donald Trump to retreat on some tariffs and the risks of the president’s escalating trade war with China.

Mark Blyth discusses the economic impact of Trump’s tariffs.