Anna Karina

Articles by Anna Karina

• The ECB Hiked Into a Supply Shock. The Price of Oil Did Not Notice. September 10, 2026

  Rates to 2.5 percent to fight a price rise the rate cannot touch.

• The Collapse That Was Revised Away: How to Read a Jobs Report September 10, 2026

  The collapse was revised away; the layoff wave is real. How to read both.

• What Is Socialism? September 9, 2026

  The believers named it. The rulers imposed it. The wall kept it in.

• What Is Feudalism? September 2, 2026

  The word came later. The system needed castles, oaths, and serfs.

• The Second Inflation Wave, Part II: The Wave Is Here August 26, 2026

  The October cap heads to a three-year high. The relief was the false dawn.

• The Tariff Shell Game, Part III: The Expiration Date That Never Comes August 24, 2026

  The China tariffs were supposed to expire. The date passed. Nobody noticed.

• The Bank Windfall Tax: Who Pays When We Tax the Banks? August 20, 2026

  Tax the banks, the slogan says. The mechanism has a different answer.

• Trade and the Merchants: The Road Nobody Built August 19, 2026

  The road had no builder. Trade was born before the state.

• Banking and Credit August 18, 2026

  The vault wears a license. Credit was born before the state.

• The 90% Tax Rate Myth: We Used to Tax the Rich 90% - and It Was Fine August 18, 2026

  The 90% rate was marginal, not effective. The rich paid far less.

• The Problems of Capitalism (and How to Fix Them) August 18, 2026

  Capitalism has real problems. The usual fixes make them worse.

• The Profit That Can't Stand Still - Why 'Just Take a Sustainable Profit' Is Not an Option August 17, 2026

  Why a firm can't settle for a 'fair' profit - and who pays when it stops.

• The Invention of Money August 17, 2026

  The coin carries a king's face. Money was born before the state.

• The Pension Tax Raid: Your Pension Is Next August 14, 2026

  The Budget is 75 days away. The demand says tax the rich. Your pension is next.

• Before Money: Where Exchange Comes From August 12, 2026

  Trade is older than every government. Nobody taught you to do it.

• The Great Escape: How Nine in Ten Humans Left Extreme Poverty August 9, 2026

  In 1820, about nine in ten humans lived in extreme poverty. Today, under 10% do.

• The Name Is the First Argument August 6, 2026

  Capitalism was named by its enemies - the name is the first argument.

• The Luddites Were Half Right August 6, 2026

  Why AI will not zero out GDP - the Luddites were half right.

• The 78% Tax on the North Sea: A Tax on Investment August 5, 2026

  At 78 cents on the dollar, the windfall tax is a tax on investment itself.

• The 63 Billion Reckoning - The Budget Countdown, 84 Days Out August 5, 2026

  120 millionaires want a wealth tax. The Treasury already accepts their checks.

• The Mayor's Share: What the Power Grab Actually Changes August 5, 2026

  Mayors get a share of income tax revenue, but not the power to set the rate.

• The Ban That Can't Work - The Last Grievance Without a Deep-Dive August 5, 2026

  Australia's under-16 ban removed accounts, not users. The teens never left.

• The Tariff Shell Game, Part II: 25 States in the Audience August 5, 2026

  Why a policy that needs a new legal costume every few months is not a policy.

• The Deepest and Most Beautiful Insight in Economics August 5, 2026

  Why countries that are better at everything still gain from trade.

• The Second Inflation Wave: The Good News Is Over August 4, 2026

  UK inflation hit a 15-month low. The Bank of England says the good news is over.

• The Cost of Pretending We Know What We're Doing August 4, 2026

  Regulators who cannot meet their own deadlines are setting everyone else's.

• The Laffer Curve, Alive and Well in Scotland July 31, 2026

  Scotland's 48p rate may be costing more than it collects.

• The Cantillon Effect - Who Gets the New Money First July 29, 2026

  Inflation does not hit everyone at once. The first receiver gets the benefit. The last receiver pays the price.

• The Billionaire Tax Test: Why California's Prop 40 Fails July 28, 2026

  Public Choice Theory predicts wealth taxes fail. The global evidence agrees.

• Argentina's Lesson: What Happens When You Actually Fix an Economy July 28, 2026

  Inflation from 211% to ~30%. Country risk from 2,000bp to 500bp. What the critics miss.

• Public Choice Theory: Why Government Fails July 28, 2026

  Buchanan won a Nobel Prize for applying economics to politics itself.

• Incentives Matter: Who Gets the First Rung? July 27, 2026

  Finland has no minimum wage and 23% youth unemployment. The two facts are connected.

• Incentives Matter: The Price of Good Intentions July 27, 2026

  A 19% interest rate and a 23% youth unemployment rate are the same story.

• Incentives Matter: The Economics of Obvious July 27, 2026

  People respond to incentives. The rest is detail. Why does every government pretend otherwise?

• The Usefulness of Billionaires July 25, 2026

  The US leads in risky investment and the US has billionaires. That is not a coincidence.

• The Fastest Way to Destroy a City - Except for Bombing July 24, 2026

  Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck said it best fifty years ago. The evidence has only gotten stronger since.

• The Wealth Tax Video That Got Everything Right (Until It Didn't) July 23, 2026

  A good critique of wealth taxes undercuts itself at the end.

• The Relative Poverty Trap July 23, 2026

  The poverty statistic you keep hearing is not measuring what you think.

• The Regulation Tax: The Cost You Never See July 23, 2026

  Every regulation is a tax. The poor pay the most. Nobody adds up the total.

• The Credential Con: When Everyone Has a Degree, Nobody Does July 23, 2026

  Pushing everyone into university created a credential arms race - not opportunity.

• Greedflation: What the Theory Misses July 23, 2026

  If corporations can set any price they want, why does Aldi exist?

• Hyperinflation July 22, 2026

  The one thing every monetary theory fears - and what actually causes it.

• The Seen and the Unseen July 22, 2026

  The most important economic question is the one nobody asks: what don't we see?

• The Tariff Shell Game: A Policy That Keeps Failing July 21, 2026

  The Supreme Court blocked one tariff authority. The administration found three more. At some point, you have to ask: what are we actually trying to achieve?

• Marginal Analysis July 20, 2026

  Economics happens at the margin - the difference between one choice and the next, not the average or the total.

• Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) July 20, 2026

  What MMT actually says about how sovereign currency works - and what it does not say.

• Interest Rates July 20, 2026

  The price of time - how interest coordinates borrowing, saving, and investment across the economy.

• Money & Currency July 20, 2026

  What money actually is - not wealth, but a tool. And the seven attributes that make something useful as money.

• International Trade July 20, 2026

  Why both sides win when countries trade - and why it looks like one side is losing.

• Opportunity Cost July 20, 2026

  The real cost of any choice is not what you spend. It is what you give up.

• Prices July 20, 2026

  Prices are not random numbers. They are messages that coordinate what gets produced and who gets it.

• Supply & Demand July 20, 2026

  The pattern behind nearly every price: when something is scarce relative to demand, the price rises. When it is plentiful, the price falls.

• Elastic and Inelastic Demand July 20, 2026

  How much does quantity change when the price changes? The answer determines who pays a tax and whether a price hike kills sales.

• Veblen Goods July 20, 2026

  Goods for which demand rises as the price rises - because the high price is the point.

• Poverty July 20, 2026

  What poverty is, how it is measured, and why it has collapsed in the modern era - but not everywhere.

• Macroeconomics July 20, 2026

  The study of the economy as a whole - growth, inflation, unemployment, and the policies that influence them.

• Microeconomics July 20, 2026

  The study of individual choices - how people decide what to buy, firms decide what to produce, and markets coordinate both.

• Markets July 20, 2026

  What markets are - not a place, but a process of voluntary exchange that coordinates the plans of strangers.

• Giffen Goods July 20, 2026

  The rare case where a price increase leads people to buy more - because the good absorbs so much of their budget.

• Schumpeterian Profits July 20, 2026

  The temporary surplus earned by innovators who introduce something new - and why it disappears.

• The Invisible Hand July 20, 2026

  How self-interest, without central direction, coordinates production to meet the needs of millions of strangers.

• The Grievance Machine, Part I: The Greatest Story Never Told July 19, 2026

  Six grievances, six crises, one solution every time - more power for the people who made you angry in the first place.

• California's Wealth Tax - a Case Study in Wishful Thinking July 18, 2026

  California wants to tax billionaires. The problem is that wealth taxes don't work the way proponents imagine.

• Why You Shouldn't Care About Billionaires July 15, 2026

  The inequality panic misses what matters - not whether someone has a billion dollars, but whether ordinary people can get what they need.

• Don't Call Them Technocrats July 15, 2026

  The people writing tech policy don't understand tech. They are not experts. They are bureaucrats with a printing press.

• Where Does Money Come From? July 9, 2026

  What MMT actually says and why the conventional wisdom is wrong.

• Eighty Percent of Something July 7, 2026

  Respectful pushback on a viral video about foreign investment and poverty.

• Who Actually Helps the Poor? July 5, 2026

  Politicians fight for credit. Entrepreneurs create jobs. The poor need the latter, not the former.

• What Price Controls Make Invisible July 5, 2026

  Why capping rents and raising wages create shortages and surpluses you never see.

• Creative Destruction - Why Lost Jobs Make Us Richer July 5, 2026

  The uncomfortable truth: progress destroys old jobs faster than it creates new ones. But the new ones are better.

• Externalities - When the Price Is Wrong July 5, 2026

  When you pay the cost but someone else enjoys the benefit - or vice versa - markets need help to work properly.

• Taxes - Who Actually Pays July 5, 2026

  The person who writes the check to the government is not always the person who bears the cost. This changes how you should think about every tax debate.

• Interest Rates - The Price of Time July 5, 2026

  Interest is not a punishment. It is the signal that coordinates when things get built and who gets to use them.

• Property Rights - The Foundation You Never Notice July 5, 2026

  Before you can trade, you need to own. Clear property rights are the invisible foundation everything else rests on.

• What You Give Up - A Gentle Introduction to Opportunity Cost July 1, 2026

  What you give up - explained with meals, careers, and government budgets.

• Money & Inflation - What They Actually Are June 26, 2026

  Money is not wealth. Inflation is not just prices going up. Here is what is happening to your money and why.

• Trade - Why Both Sides Win June 26, 2026

  Most people think trade is one person winning and the other losing. The reality is stranger and more wonderful.

• The Information Problem - Why Central Planning Fails June 26, 2026

  The single most important economic insight of the 20th century is that a central planner cannot know what everyone wants. Here is why.

• How Prices Work - The Information Machine Nobody Built June 26, 2026

  Prices are not random numbers. They are messages sent by millions of people to each other, coordinating what gets made and who gets it.

• Supply & Demand - The Most Powerful Idea You Already Know June 26, 2026

  You already understand supply and demand. You just do not know you understand it. Here is the pattern behind nearly every price you see.

• The Walmart Question June 24, 2026

  Sam Walton took real risks and captured billions. His customers kept hundreds of billions. The poor won.

• The 2% Rule June 24, 2026

  Entrepreneurs capture ~2% of the value they create. Consumers, especially the poor, get the other 98%.

• Competition and Co-operation June 1, 2026

  Why the most misunderstood idea about free markets is that they are only about competition.

• The Cracked Screen June 1, 2026

  A simple story that changes how you see every economic argument you hear.

• The One Lesson June 1, 2026

  The single idea that separates clear economic thinking from confusion.