Archive - The Power and the Money

Canada was poorer than Italy and richer than Britain? Yes

How could 19th-century Canada be as poor as Italy and richer than Britain at the same time?

Jul 27 • Noel Maurer

The World Where China Pays Interest

Keynes’s lost plan for Bretton Woods and the alternate history it might have created

Jul 17 • Noel Maurer

Unitary, Except at the Fed

The Supreme Court’s logic is defensible, its Fed exception is not, and Congress is the real problem

Jul 2 • Noel Maurer

June 2026

Economic history week

The World Cup is great, the Venezuelan earthquake is tragic, and American politics is depressing, so here is something completely different

Jun 28 • Noel Maurer

America, Reviewed as Fiction

In honor of America’s upcoming 250th anniversary

Jun 9 • Noel Maurer

Javier Milei’s Free-the-Machines Bill Gets Limited Liability Backwards

Limited liability worked because states built accountability around it; Milei's A.I. proposal starts by removing human responsibility

Jun 6 • Noel Maurer

April 2026

Fracking will not save the Mexican oil industry

Growth is good, but there’s a reason why the U.S. dominates the technology

Apr 22 • Noel Maurer

What happened to the Afro-Argentines?

Probably nothing bad

Apr 3 • Noel Maurer

How is Argentina like Puerto Rico?

Argentina is less European than it thinks it is

Apr 1 • Noel Maurer

March 2026

How to Fail Like Puerto Rico

Stagnation at Italian living standards is actually a phenomenal economic success

Mar 26 • Noel Maurer

Our Cuban Colony, Part IIIb: The Opposite of Dollar Diplomacy

That time we overthrew a government because it refused to stiff our bankers

Mar 13 • Noel Maurer

T̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ Our Cuban Colony, Part IIIa: American Cuba

Venecuba was never going to be a real country, and nobody even considered turning Cuba into the 16th republic of the USSR, but the place genuinely could…

Mar 11 • Noel Maurer

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