Author Archives: Timothy B Lee

On Thursday, the Fed took a dramatic step to try to stabilize the financial system, offering banks trillions of dollars in new short-term loans. The loans would last for up to three months. Banks could only access the money if … Continue reading →

I enjoyed a recent blog post by Jerry Taylor, president of the formerly libertarian Niskanen Center, on the case against ideology. Unsurprisingly, Taylor has gotten rebuttals from thoughtful libertarians like Ilya Somin. Taylor says that signing up for an ideology … Continue reading →

Today Congress is either going to pass a last-minute spending bill to keep the government open, or the government is going to shut down. Either way, the situation is an embarrassment. It has been many years since Congress went through anything … Continue reading →

This past week Anne-Marie Slaughter, President of the New America Foundation, fired Barry Lynn. Lynn was the head of New America’s Open Markets project, which had become Washington’s leading center making the case for stricter enforcement of antitrust laws. New … Continue reading →

Throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries, the world had far more investment opportunities than we had capital available to invest. With the population growing, there was always demand to borrow money to build more homes, offices, and stores. And with … Continue reading →

One of the big questions about the economy right now is whether monetary policy is a significant factor in the sluggish growth of the last five years. Lots of economists think that easy money was important for speeding the recovery … Continue reading →

In a recent Vox post I tried to combine a headline designed to troll my least favorite website — “Pokémon Go is everything that is wrong with late capitalism” — with a serious policy argument. Unfortunately, I think the silly headline overshadowed … Continue reading →

After my last post, reader Joe pointed out the parallels to Fred Hirsch’s classic book the Social Limits to Growth. I hadn’t read Hirsch’s book, but the similarity isn’t entirely a coincidence, since my argument relies heavily on the concept … Continue reading →

Here are some thoughts on economic growth that aren’t yet coherent enough to be a Vox article… 1. Technological progress in a particular industry often has diminishing returns, and it’s possible to reach the point where it’s hard to imagine … Continue reading →

Most of my experience with PR people involves them cluttering my inbox with unwanted pitches. But yesterday I had a PR experience that was so positive that I thought it was worth sharing. In an ideal world, this is how … Continue reading →