Economics has lost its way and the study has become both impotent and lacking in relevance. It’s easy to see how and why once we recognize that proper economic thinking takes place two steps beyond the apparent. Noneconomists typically take none of these steps, while modern economics has lost the ability to go beyond the first.

This can, I think, be explained by economics’s increasing adoption of and reliance on mathematical and equilibrium models, which typically disallow the second step.

What are the steps?

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Twenty twenty is likely to be a watershed year in the history of public schooling. And things aren’t looking good for the public schools.

The surge in unemployment isn’t over. New jobless claims data released today by the US Department of Labor showed that total claims surged again in the week ending May 9, exceeding 2 million for the eighth week in a row.

Last week there were 2.6 million new claims for unemployment insurance. That was down from 2.8 million the previous week, and down from the peak of 6.2 million on the week of April 4.

Despite the unprecedented increase in the European Central Bank’s asset purchase program, the spread of southern European sovereign bonds versus German ones is rising.

Did you know that Switzerland’s central bank, called the Swiss National Bank (SNB), owns approximately $94 billion of publicly traded US equities such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google? Its top holding is in Apple, with over $4 billion worth of shares in the company. The SNB’s filing statement was released on Friday, showing ownership of 2,480 holdings as of its quarter end.

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As in the rest of the country, life in Pennsylvania has been greatly disturbed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the chaos that has resulted from the state government’s attempts to handle the situation.

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In an article for the LA Times earlier this month, Laura Newberry contends that the COVID-19 panic has “amplified” ageism in the United States. This is likely true, yet the article completely misses the true cause.