Nathan Tankus is the director of research at the Modern Money Network, and a research fellow at the Global Institut| Mercatus Center
Striving to realize a world where markets operate at their full potential to increase abundance, civility, and well-being| Mercatus Center
With no relief from high home prices and rents, more and more state legislators are interested in pursuing housing reform. As a result, state legislatures set new records for the number and strength of new laws intended to unlock homebuilding.| Mercatus Center
Abstract: Many policymakers and economists are surprised by the recent high and persistent inflation. This naturally raises questions about what caused it and why it was so unexpected. This paper argues that the quantity theory of money provides a useful framework for forecasting inflation. Anyone equipped with the rather crude forecasting model would have predicted the high and persistent inflation in 2021 and 2022. The failure to foresee such an occurrence was due to the lack of money in mo...| Mercatus Center
The Texas legislature is currently considering reforms to its valid petition law. Valid petitions are an obscure zoning procedure that have been used to try to obstruct a Dallas hospital expansion, student housing in Bryan, and Habitat for Humanity houses in Austin. The law has come under scrutiny as a potential contributor to the scarcity of housing—and thus its high cost. Legislators ought to either reform the valid petition process to be less onerous and more democratic or do away with i...| Mercatus Center
Companies, such as gig economy firms and for-profit colleges, sometimes solicit consumers by promising a certain income or lifestyle. According to the Consumer Federation of America, “these promises frequently turn out to be false and unsubstantiated.” [1] In response to this problem, in May 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) Regarding Deceptive or Unfair Marketing Using Earnings Claims.| Mercatus Center
Arlington, Va.| Mercatus Center
Launched in 2018, Emergent Ventures is a low-overhead fellowship and grant program that supports entrepreneurs and brilliant minds with highly scalable, "zero to one" ideas for meaningfully improving society. Mercatus Center faculty director Tyler Cowen administers the program. Grants are awarded to thinkers and doers around the world, with dedicated support available for projects with a focus on India, Africa and the Caribbean, or Ukraine. Applicants with a specific geographic focus should s...| Mercatus Center
Medicaid’s complex federal-state financing structure has long created perverse incentives that discourage efficient care. Key to the problem is the federal government’s uncapped reimbursement of state Medicaid expenditures, which encourages states to artificially inflate their Medicaid spending. Such schemes have significantly increased over the past several years and they likely add tens of billions in generally low-value Medicaid spending each year.| Mercatus Center