The Department of Agriculture estimates that in 1960 it cost middle-income families $259,711 (in 2025 dollars) to raise a child. In 2015, it cost $414,000 (again, in 2025 dollars), an increase of over 50 percent—substantially more than median household income increased over this time period. As a result, women are having fewer children. During the 1950s and early 1960s, the…Read More

Affordability is Donald Trump’s Achilles Heel. Running for President in 2024 he vowed to reduce prices. This dumb promise lacks even the most basic understanding of the US economy. Average prices rarely fall. Over the past century, inflation went negative only during the Great Depression. Another depression would be needed to bring prices down to 2020 levels. Even dumber, Trump…Read More

When it comes to economics, we know two things about Donald Trump. He is obsessed with the US trade deficit. And he thinks tariffs, or import taxes, will solve the trade deficit problem. Trump is wrong on both counts. The trade deficit is not a pressing problem facing the US economy. And to the extent it is a problem, tariffs…Read More