Economy & Markets
Macroeconomics, capital expenditure and market conditions.
Oil Glut Lets Nations Stockpile Cheaply as Iran’s Leverage Fades
Cheaper, more plentiful crude gives nations a chance to refill strategic stockpiles faster and blunt Tehran's ability to weaponize the Strait of Hormuz — even as OPEC+ keeps raising output and U.S.-Iran talks remain fragile.
Why Obama’s Approval Held While the Economy Sank
A deep dive into the 2009–2010 disconnect between presidential popularity and public economic despair, grounded in Gallup and UCSB data.
James Freeman's Double Life: Editor, Columnist, Economic Historian
James Freeman serves as assistant editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page, writes the weekday Best of the Web column, and co-authored a book tracing two centuries of financial booms, busts, and bailouts at Citibank.
Uncompromising Shock Therapy: Javier Milei's High-Stakes Plan to Dismantle Argentina's State Economy
An analytical breakdown of Argentine President Javier Milei's shock economic reforms, exploring the aggressive devaluations, subsidy slashes, labor strikes, and the legislative compromises that forced state oil giant YPF off the privatization block.
How Fintech Is Turning the Underbanked Into Economic Participants
A former microfinance officer's perspective on how fintech partnerships and programs like the Visa Everywhere Initiative are bringing real financial access to unbanked farmers and entrepreneurs in Africa and the Middle East.
Nasdaq Slumps 2% Amid Oil Crash: AI Investment Reckoning
The Nasdaq's 2% drop on June 23, 2026 coincides with Brent crude hitting war-era lows, revealing a paradoxical market moment that signals deeper structural shifts in AI investment and energy-dependent valuations.
The $252 Billion Creator Economy That Pays Almost Nobody
The creator economy has exploded to $252 billion, but structural barriers in platform algorithms and monetization systems prevent most creators from sharing in the wealth.
The Hidden Gig Economy Feeding AI — And Why It Matters More Than You Think
A rapidly expanding category of gig work is emerging as AI companies outsource the human labor needed to train, evaluate, and improve their systems — from data labeling to RLHF. New research shows AI is simultaneously destroying traditional freelance jobs while creating a parallel economy of workers who feed the machines. This article explores the double-edged nature of AI’s labor impact: displacement on one side, and entirely new gig categories on the other — with real data from Brookings, UNU/Harvard Business School, Forbes, and WSJ.
Sanders Targets AI Giants With Wealth Fund Backed by 50% Stock Tax
Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation to create a $7 trillion sovereign wealth fund financed by a one-time 50% tax on the stock of the largest AI companies, with annual dividends flowing directly to Americans and a new bipartisan commission wielding voting shares over corporate decisions.
Establishing an Anchor Priority: Reclaiming Control Over a Post-Concussion Life
How survivors of traumatic brain injury can build structure and identify their primary objective when managing competing demands under severe cognitive limits.
The CapEx Conundrum: Markets Retreat as Wall Street Realizes AI's Long Horizon
Explore the growing market skepticism surrounding generative AI investments. We analyze why U.S. stock indexes are retreating as investors demand tangible ROI on massive data center and infrastructure spending, highlighting the transition from AI hype to architectural discipline.
Metabolic Sunrise: Gold-Standard Study Isolates Circadian Peak in Caloric Cost of Digesting Food
A highly controlled clinical study utilizing the constant-routine protocol has isolated a true endogenous circadian rhythm in diet-induced thermogenesis, showing that metabolic response to food peaks in the morning and drops in the evening, independent of behavioral factors.