Well, 2025 has already come and gone. Hard to believe, isn’t it? It was not a great year for the US economy, but it was a very good year for The Daily Economy.
More than a million readers have enjoyed TheDailyEconomy.org since it spun off from AIER.org in 2024, where our headlines previously appeared. Visitors are greeted with the latest on economic ideas shaping everyday life in America: inflation, interest rates, government spending, monetary policy, and more. Along the way, we expanded our roster with 50 new contributors and contributing fellows, sharpened our editorial focus, and reached a broader audience than ever before.
We’d like to thank our many authors and you, our readers. And before 2025 is over, we’d like to leave you with a sampling of our most-read articles of 2025 (in no particular order).
1. How Congress Created the Doctor Shortage by Laura Williams
Laura Williams explores the artificial scarcity of doctors in the US, which drives up health care costs. Why, with demand rising and hospitals desperate for staff, are thousands of “perfectly qualified doctors-in-waiting” locked out of the system? What created this massive bottleneck of healing potential, which is expected to result in a shortage of at least 86,000 physicians by 2036?
The answer is depressingly simple and mind-bogglingly shortsighted: in 1995, Congress made it illegal to train more doctors.
2. How Germany Became the World’s Worst-Performing Economy by Mohamed Moutii
Mohamed Moutii breaks down how a one-time economic powerhouse slid into stagnation. Germany’s economy — once the engine of Europe — is now struggling with slow growth, high labor costs, and a bloated welfare burden that saps competitiveness.
“The welfare state as we know it today can no longer be financed by our economy,” declared Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
So what sank the German miracle? Mohamed traces the decline to policy choices that expanded welfare faster than wealth creation — and the political reluctance to confront these decisions.
3. Delistings Surge as Housing Market Teeters Toward Correction by Pete Earle
As the spring housing market should’ve been heating up, Pete Earle dug into a troubling shift: a rising tide of home delistings.
“Sellers are holding out, but buyers aren’t showing up,” Pete wrote. “The standoff signals a dramatic drop in prices might be closer than you think.”
What’s driving this stalemate between buyers and sellers? Pete traces the trend to a mix of stubborn price expectations, high borrowing costs, and broader economic strain. Even ten months later, this is a juicy read on where the housing market is swiftly heading.
4. Milei’s Economic Miracle: How Argentina Slashed Inflation to 1.5% by Emmanuel Rincon
Emmanuel Rincon breaks down Argentina’s “economic miracle”: how President Javier Milei dramatically brought inflation under control after years of runaway price increases. Under Milei’s free market reforms, monthly inflation fell to just 1.5 percent, the lowest in five years, after peaking at hyperinflation levels above 200 percent when he took office.
So how did he do it? Emmanuel points to sweeping spending cuts, fiscal discipline, deregulation, and ending monetary expansion — moves that slashed inflation, strengthened the peso, and even helped reduce poverty as prices stabilized. Don’t miss this story, which explores one of the most overlooked economic reversals in modern history.
5. DEI: Five Hallmarks of a Hustle by Paul Mueller
Paul Mueller takes aim at what he calls the biggest “hustle” in academia and corporate America: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs that have expanded into costly bureaucracies with little to show for it. Paul says that while corporations and universities are publicly backing away from DEI, the underlying systems and incentives that support it are still deeply entrenched and expensive.
“Corporations and universities are distancing themselves from social virtue‑signaling,” he writes. “But behind new branding, the grift is alive and well.”
Paul documents how DEI initiatives became lucrative sinecures and consulting gigs siphoning money from students and taxpayers, while encouraging counterproductive attitudes and failing to address genuine abuses on campus.
6. There’s a New Sheriff at the Fed by Bryan Cutsinger
In June, Bryan Cutsinger highlighted a noticeable shift at the Federal Reserve, as Michelle Bowman stepped into her role as Vice Chair for Supervision.
So what’s actually changing at the Fed? Bryan examined Bowman’s first public speech for clues on how she plans to oversee banks and how her approach could reshape the Fed’s regulatory priorities.
7. The Economics of Divorce: A New Paper Examines the Harm to Children by Peter Jacobsen
Peter Jacobsen explores an important but often overlooked cost of family breakdown: the economic harm divorce can inflict on children. Drawing on new research, he shows that children from broken homes tend to face lower educational attainment, reduced lifetime earnings, and higher chances of poverty compared with those from intact families.
“These results shouldn’t be surprising. Parenting is a long-term, team project. Early in childhood, parents make plans and establish routines. These plans and routines lay the foundation for the rest of the child’s life. Like any joint project, whether in family, business, or politics, plans are made because the planning process adds value. Scrapping plans is akin to removing an essential part of the foundation.”
Fortunately, laying a positive new foundation is not impossible, Peter writes, but it can be difficult and costly. Read Peter’s analysis to learn more about the hidden economic costs of divorce, an under-discussed element of poverty and inequality.
8. How Did 108 Economists Predict Milei’s Results Exactly Wrong? by Jon Miltimore
In February, Jon Miltimore looked at (yet another) striking forecasting failure: before Argentina’s economic turnaround, a group of 108 economists predicted outcomes that ended up being almost the exact opposite of what actually happened under President Javier Milei’s policies.
“…we believe that these proposals, rooted in laissez-faire economics and involving contentious ideas like dollarization and significant reductions in government spending, are fraught with risks,” the economists warned.
Despite these dark predictions, Milei’s fiscal and monetary changes slashed inflation and grew the economy far beyond what experts expected. How did these 108 economists get things so wrong? Read Jon’s analysis to learn more.
9. Saudi Arabia Didn’t Learn Anything From China’s ‘Ghost Cities’ by Stefan Bartl
Saudi Arabia’s futuristic megaproject The Line — a state-driven, top-down attempt to engineer an ideal city — exemplifies how grand government planning fails to respond to real economic signals and human preferences.
Stefan Bartl explains how true urban success stems from voluntary economic activity, market forces, and individual incentives, not utopian design. As a bonus, Stefan reviews what Aristotle taught: a city requires three things — a citizenry, their economic means, and a shared concept of “the good life.” Without those, all you’ve got is empty buildings.
10. The Penny Problem Has a Third Option: Buy Them Back (With Interest) by Mike Munger
Mike Munger asked back in July why, instead of wastefully minting new coins at a loss, the government shouldn’t “offer to buy back existing pennies from the public at a small premium.” The minting has since been ended (the penny, like the dollar, has lost 97 percent of its purchasing power since 1913) but we could put many back into circulation if we wished to. Let individuals decide whether to turn in their coins — a pragmatic, voluntary solution.
11. Soros and USAID Have Been a Match Made in Hell by Matt Palumbo
Amid media controversy about cuts to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Matt Palumbo argued the organization had strayed too far from its humanitarian mission. Instead, USAID had become a siphon to divert taxpayer money into politically driven, ideological projects rather than genuine economic development. He provided significant examples of USAID’s meddling around the globe, including attempts at outright regime change.
12. NIH: The $47-Billion Sacred Cow Is Scared by Walter Donway
If there’s nothing more permanent than a temporary government program, there’s nothing more predictable than special interests holding tight to their sources of funding. Walter Donway profiled some of the major institutions and leading laboratories that capture much of the National Institutes of Health’s $47 billion annual budget.
No surprise, the pattern of funding rewards prestige and politics, and neglects genuine innovation. One quoted scientist said, “The current NIH funding mechanism discourages innovative research and perpetuates a cycle where only established investigators receive grants.” That’s pretty backwards for anyone hoping to make real scientific progress.
13. $42 Billion Broadband Boondoggle Brought Internet to Zero Homes by Joel Griffith
Joel Griffith detailed the absurdity of the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which spent $42 billion without actually connecting a single home to the internet.
“Even if we presume all the 24 million households currently without access will benefit from increased access and affordability, this comes to $1750 per household,” Joel pointed out.
Mandates and bureaucratic requirements deter private investment and distort incentives. Meanwhile, private markets have steadily expanded internet access and lowered prices without subsidies, including by expanding alternatives like satellite broadband.
14. BRICS 2025: Expansion, De-Dollarization, and the Shift Toward a Multipolar World by Pete Earle
Pete Earle has been among the foremost commentators on the trend toward de-dollarization, and on the rise of an alternative international currency.
Originally composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, BRICS has since expanded to include ten countries. The bloc now accounts for a substantial portion of global GDP and represents over half of the world’s population. By expanding its membership, Pete writes, “BRICS is positioning itself as a more inclusive and powerful alternative to Western-led financial institutions.”
America’s economic bullying has motivated many global players to seek alternatives to trading in dollars, accelerating the geopolitical shift toward a multipolar world. But true prosperity arises from open competition and voluntary use of currency and financial systems — outcomes unlikely to be consistently achieved by political blocs engineered by governments, regardless of how many countries join.
—
From all of us at The Daily Economy, we wish you a new year full of every good thing: health, happiness, cherished civil liberties, and sound ideas. We hope you’ll keep coming back for plenty of smart, readable economics in the year ahead.