President Trump is considering paying mothers $5000 per childbirth. The rationale behind this proposal is obvious. Paying mother’s for giving birth incentivizes higher birth rate. A higher birth rate may reverse the projected decline in the US population. Of course, $5000 covers only a small part of the expense of raising a child. However, the marginal effect of an extra $5K would nudge couples who are close to affording an additional child.

Democrats claim that USAID provides life saving funding to impoverished people all over the world. Republicans claim that USAID is a corrupt and criminal organization, which has failed to alleviate global poverty. What does evidence tell us about foreign aid, generally?

The gold price kissed $3,500 last week before backing off. The yellow metal’s price has churned violently up and down $50 to $100 daily. For some gold bugs, this price level seemed unimaginable without there being shooting in the streets. It’s the central banks that are violently depreciating the value of their currencies.

Most economists use correlations among the various pieces of unique historical data to empirically estimate the future direction of an economy. For instance, it was observed that the lagged changes in money supply were positively correlated with the growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP). Based on the correlation, some economists mistakenly attempt to assess the prospects for economic growth in terms of GDP via past changes in money supply. According to this line of thinking, it would appear that the lagged money supply growth causes economic growth.

Lower income countries like the D.R. often face much higher relative costs than rich countries when it comes to dealing with waves of migrants. 

US airstrikes on Yemen killed 95 civilians and injured 192 last week. Very little US trade requires the Suez Canal, so this is about subsidizing the State of Israel.