It takes economics students a couple of classes to understand why price caps are generally a bad idea. The Italian government has nonetheless chosen to set one for face masks — and it’s learning the lesson the hard way. The problem with picking a price that’s artificially low is that it will cause shortages. Consumers will want to buy too ...

How big is India’s anti-viral package, and how effective will it be? The flashy $265 billion figure Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in his televised address wasn’t all new spending. It included the $22.5 billion of fiscal support — mainly cash payments for the poor — announced in March as the country was entering total lockdown. The central bank’s funding-for-lending ...

Ever since Michael Flynn resigned as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser three years ago, the president and his allies have taken a keen interest in the practice of “unmasking.” Now his administration has revealed the names of the Obama officials who learned Flynn’s name in intelligence reports — but the information is hardly a smoking gun. Unmasking is a ...