Human behaviour during Covid has upended one of the most fundamental assumptions of economics, even if economists haven’t yet come around to admitting it. In sum: People are worse at big, important decisions than previously thought, and better at small, trivial ones. Standard economics theory holds that people make relatively good decisions when there is a lot at stake. At ...

As Britain basked in a mini-heatwave over the long weekend, you could have almost forgotten there were any remaining Covid-19 restrictions on restaurants. But social distancing, mandatory table service and a ban on groups larger than six are still in place in England until June 21, limiting the amount of people venues can squeeze in and crimping their profits. Keeping ...

The US housing market is on fire, with the supply of available homes falling drastically short of pandemic-stoked demand. Worrywarts are calling it a “crisis” and circulating weird tales of buyer desperation — including one about a supplicant in Bethesda, Maryland who apparently offered to name her first-born child after a seller — and warnings of stunted recoveries. Or maybe ...