The HHEI Fall Roundtable featured a discussion on wealth taxation with leading experts, HHEI Director Professor Kjetil Storesletten and Professor Florian Scheuer from the University of Zurich.

Heller Hurwicz students go beyond textbooks, tackling projects on poverty, climate change, and more. Meet our alumni and see where their work has taken them.

Should we tax wealth? Join HHEI's Fall 2025 Roundtable to hear leading experts tackle one of today's most controversial economic policy debates. Register today.

Economists say firing a top official for revisions to a jobs report sends a bad message and could destroy trust in data that's central to the economy.

Economists say firing a top official for revisions to a jobs report sends a bad message and could destroy trust in data that's central to the economy.

"Firing the labor statistician delivering the data is akin to breaking the thermometer because of a heat wave," John Rash writes.

The growth of the private equity in recent years has raised concerns about its consequences. This column matches 2.5 million workers who were employed by 3,600 firms in the US that underwent leveraged buyouts with workers at firms that were not acquired to explore the effects of private equity on labour market outcomes. The authors find that unemployment for workers at bought-out firms rises and wages fall substantially after buyouts, with wage losses concentrated among those who leave the bought-out firm. These dynamics appear to be the result of private equity acting to increase efficiency rather than exploiting labour market power.

From columnist John Rash: Fiscal think tanks have sounded the alarm on the impact President Donald Trump's budget bill will have on the national debt.

Heller-Hurwicz Office Hours · Episode

Follow along with the Johnsons, who, like many farm families, are trying to navigate an unpredictable trade war.

The four-episode series delves into the policy priorities of Trump's second term, from Federal Reserve independence to inflation, foreign trade, and the U.S. relationship with China.

Public spending programmes, once established, become entrenched, making it hard for the next administration to cut them. For many, this inertia leads to bloated spending and makes debt unsustainable. This column argues that the link between budget inertia and fiscal sustainability is surprisingly not straightforward. It examines when fiscal reforms might be ineffective, showing that inertia may improve fiscal sustainability – especially when coupled with more consensual legislative decision-making. In the case of the US, it argues that enforcing the Senate’s 60% supermajority rule would lower US debt.

YouTube video by Heller-Hurwicz Economics Institute

YouTube video by Heller-Hurwicz Economics Institute

Trillions estimated to be added to a federal debt that’s already unsustainable.