From time to time, coverage of China rises to a crescendo in the popular media. China coverage reflects some of the same schizophrenia that afflicts much of the media’s output. At many points in the past several years, accord-ing to the media, China has been a tot-tering giant whose economy

Sometimes, academic economists are worth paying attention to. A recent paper published by the Hoover Insti-tution provided one of the best sum-maries we have read of the current state of the U.S. economy, its recent history, its troubles and the reasons behind them, its future prospects, and the policy changes

Consumers who use credit and debit cards are typically aware only of the card they’re using and the merchant they’re buying from; the payment pro-cess is a “black box” from a consumer’s perspective.   But as the first image below shows, the black box hides a complex ecosys-tem of firms