How central banks weigh the risk of inflation against the risk of slowing growth
Interest-rate decisions are a judgement about which mistake would be more costly. Here is how policymakers frame that choice.
Economy
Inflation, employment, trade, monetary policy and economic research.
When countries cannot pay: how sovereign debt restructurings work
There is no bankruptcy court for nations. Debt crises are instead resolved through slow, often painful negotiations shaped by contract terms, creditor diversity and the threat of lost market access.
How economic sanctions are designed, and why they so often leak
Sanctions are meant to impose costs without firing a shot. Their effect depends less on the headline measures than on the plumbing of trade and finance beneath them.
Reading the bond market: what the yield curve does and does not tell investors
The gap between short- and long-term interest rates is one of the most watched signals in finance. It is also one of the most misunderstood.
Why advanced chipmaking is so hard to copy
How compounding works for savers and against borrowers, often in the same household
The case for boring infrastructure
Latest in Economy
Podcast
The Briefing: a sample episode
Our daily conversation about the stories shaping the world economy. This is a demonstration episode.
Video
Video: how companies map their supply chains
Tracing every supplier behind a product is harder than it sounds. A visual guide to the process.
Video
Video: why economies move in cycles
Expansions and slowdowns follow one another. A visual primer on the forces that drive the rhythm.
Podcast
The Briefing: why central banks talk so much
Forward guidance, explained in a short conversation. This is a demonstration episode.
Analysis
How companies are redrawing their supply chains
Efficiency once trumped everything. Now businesses are paying for resilience — and discovering how hard it is to buy.
Explainer
How health systems decide which treatments to pay for when budgets are finite
Every health budget involves rationing, whether openly or not. Formal assessment methods try to make those choices consistent, transparent and defensible.
Opinion
Central bank independence is worth defending, even when it is inconvenient
Insulating monetary policy from day-to-day politics has costs. Abandoning it would cost more.
Podcast
The Briefing: the quiet work of trade negotiators
What happens in the rooms where trade agreements are drafted. This is a demonstration episode.
Explainer
How to read a national budget without getting lost
Government budgets run to hundreds of pages. A few questions cut through to what actually matters.
Analysis
Why productivity growth, the root of rising living standards, is so hard to measure
Over the long run, almost nothing matters more for prosperity than producing more from the same effort. Yet statisticians struggle to capture what is actually being produced.
Analysis
Why house prices are so sensitive to interest rates, and why the effect is uneven
For most buyers, the price of a home is really the price of a loan. That link explains why property markets react sharply when borrowing costs change.
Analysis
What makes a currency strong — and why a strong currency is not always good news
Exchange rates reflect interest rates, trade and confidence. A rising currency helps some parts of an economy and hurts others.
