Humans are narrative-driven animals; we evolved to synthesize information through sharing and re-sharing of stories. That applies to economics as well—the first instinct for many commentators is to dust off the history books in order to explain today’s economics. Think tanks compared 2020’s jump in unemployment to the Great Depression, some academics compared the surge in wages last year to the rise in workers’ fortunes in the aftermath of the Bubonic plague, and Biden’s White House Council of Economic Advisors compared the original surge of inflation to the immediate post-WWII period. With energy prices rising, ... (full story)