The New Rules

Exploring the policies, people, and ideas reshaping the global economy

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Illustration of brains in bubbles drifting upward
Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Sean Gladwell / Getty; Flavio Coelho / Getty.

Just How Bad Would an AI Bubble Be?

The entire U.S. economy is being propped up by the promise of productivity gains that seem very far from materializing.

A collage juxtaposing images of Donald Trump and Juan Perón
Photo-illustration by Allison Zaucha / The Atlantic*

America’s Perón

Decades of personalist rule turned Argentina into a global economic laughingstock. Donald Trump seems to have misunderstood the lesson.

Illustration of a bar chart with bars falling off the graph
Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic

The Damage to Economic Data May Already Be Done

Donald Trump’s pick to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t have to manipulate any numbers to undermine the reliability of the government’s jobs reports.

Photo-illustration of Donald Trump and the Federal Reserve
Photo-illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Allison Robbert / AFP / Getty; Michael M. Santiago / Getty.

Meddling With the Fed Could Backfire on Trump

Slashing government interest rates could have the paradoxical effect of raising the interest rates paid in the real world.