Economics Matters by Laurence Kotlikoff
Economics can make a massive difference - collectively and personally.
- Top in Finance
- #45
- Subscribers
- 163K
- Paid subscribers
- 100+ paid
- Badge
- Bestseller 100
- Followers
- 172K
- Paid plan
- $15/mo
- Recommends
- 85
- Podcast
- Yes
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What they write about
An economist's newsletter mixing personal financial planning with public policy. Recurring subjects include Social Security and Medicare decisions, retirement planning software, federal debt and fiscal policy, and interviews with authors and economists, alongside occasional cultural digressions.
- personal finance
- social security
- medicare
- fiscal policy
- retirement planning
- economics
Recent examples: The Tax Man Cometh. Take Shelter from the Storm! · Theo Kocken Is My Candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize
Written from Economics Matters by Laurence Kotlikoff’s own published post titles and openings in Sep 11, 2026. It describes the subjects the newsletter covers, not its views, and is not investment advice.
Growth history
Subscribers (thousands, nightly)
163K on Sep 10, 2026 → 163K on Oct 20, 2026
Followers (thousands, nightly)
Rank in Substack’s finance leaderboard: #45 today · #46 a week ago · #37 a month ago
Stats worth sharing
Tracked since Sep 10, 2026 — 41 daily snapshots so far. The card below is built from what we track and refreshes nightly.
- Percentile
- Top 9%
- Best rank seen
- #31
- Rank, 7 days
- +1 place
- Rank, 30 days
- −8 places
- Followers added
- +574
- Posts
- 6
- Reactions per post
- 18
- Reactions tracked
- 357
of 525 ranked finance newsletters
on Sep 17, 2026
since tracking began
last 30 days
average, recent posts
across 20 posts
Most-reacted post we have seen: The Brilliant and Captivating Justin Wolfers Talks Economics and the Economy — 53 reactions on Jul 31, 2026.
Recent posts
- The Tax Man Cometh. Take Shelter from the Storm!
Economics Matters — Blog/Podcast/Financial Riddler/MaxiFi Puzzler Sign up at larrykotlikoff.substack.com for a free short-term subscription. I’ll immediately make it a free lifetime subscription. Also, pls sign up kids, parents, … — everyone you know. Paid subscriptions come with a monthly Q&A session via Substack Live. I’ll email you the day and time. Submit questions on anything and everything via chat. I’ll be live. Subscribe as a Founding Member - Please help me continue providing high-level economics content and cover the significant podcast costs. Subscribers receive a free, one-hour…
- Theo Kocken Is My Candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize
My great friend Theo Kocken is doing enormous good for the world’s poor by organizing risk sharing across emerging countries. Theo previously appeared on Economics Matters — The Podcast on December 15, 2022, and I am delighted to have him back to describe his numerous highly successful and ingenious efforts to reduce the financial, exchange rate, and real risks facing the poorest nations in the world. These days, when so many successful people are intoxicated by their wealth and interested only in accumulating more, it is deeply reassuring that there are Theo Kockens devoting their…
- TIPS Are Screaming -- Buy Me!
Economics Matters — Blog/Podcast/Financial Riddler/MaxiFi Puzzler Sign up at larrykotlikoff.substack.com for a free short-term subscription. I’ll immediately make it a free lifetime subscription. Also, pls sign up kids, parents, … — everyone you know. Paid subscriptions come with a monthly Q&A session via Substack Live. I’ll email you the day and time. Submit questions on anything and everything via chat. I’ll be live. Subscribe as a Founding Member - Please help me continue providing high-level economics content and cover the significant podcast costs. Subscribers receive a free, one-hour…
- Betsy Stevenson, Former Department of Labor Chief Economist and University of Michigan Professor
Betsy Stevenson lives and breaths economics. Amen to that. She’s one of the best our profession has to offer. Please listen/watch this truly insightful episode of Economics Matters. Betsy’s Bio Betsy is a Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Michigan. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Lyft, Inc and a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London, a fellow of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich, and an elected member of the National Academy of…
- 2013 Oxford Union Debate: “That This House Still Dreams the American Dream.” Yea or Nay?
Economics Matters — Blog/Podcast/Financial Riddler/MaxiFi Puzzler Sign up at larrykotlikoff.substack.com for a free short-term subscription. I’ll immediately make it a free lifetime subscription. Also, pls sign up kids, parents, … — everyone you know. Paid subscriptions come with a monthly Q&A session via Substack Live. I’ll email you the day and time. Submit questions on anything and everything via chat. I’ll be live. Subscribe as a Founding Member - Please help me continue providing high-level economics content and cover the significant podcast costs. Subscribers receive a free, one-hour…
- Iran’s Prime Hostage -- Donald Trump
Economics Matters — Blog/Podcast/Financial Riddler/MaxiFi Puzzler Sign up for a free short-term subscription at larrykotlikoff.substack.com. I’ll immediately make it a free lifetime subscription. Also, pls sign up kids, parents, … — everyone you know. Paid subscriptions come with a monthly Q&A session via Substack Live. I’ll email you the day and time. Submit questions on anything and everything via chat. I’ll be live. Subscribe as a Founding Member - Help me provide high-level economics content and break even covering my significant podcast costs. Comes with a one-hour financial therapy…
- Harvard's Pathbreaking Economist, Raj Chetty, Joins Economics Matters to Discuss US Inequality and Mobility and How to Fix Both
Do listen to this podcast. You will learn amazing things about the limits of rational economic choice, the importance of the quality of teachers on children’s lifetime earnings, the extent of US economic mobility and its remarkable dependence on where people grow up, the critical importance of cross-class connections (the nature and extent of your social capital) and exposure to role models to your economic success, and AI’s potential to make tremendous improvements in government job-training and career guidance programs. Raj Chetty’s Bio Raj is the William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at…
- Mr. Fiscal Policy, Eugene Steuerle, is Back to Discuss "Abandoned -- How Democrats and Republicans Have Deserted the Working Class, the Young, and the American Dream"
Worried about $40 trillion in federal debt? Worried about Social Security cutting your benefits by one fifth in six years? Worried that the US is in far worse fiscal shape than Italy? Worried that the American Dream is, for far too many, a vicious nightmare? Worried that the land of opportunity is now the land of inequality? Worried that your kids will have it worse than you? Gene Steuerle, Washington’s fiscal policy aficionado, will take you from worried to terrified. So, grab a drink, an Ativan, or some weed and sidle up to our national horror story. It’s one Gene knows by heart, by mind…
- One Enchanted Evening with Robert Pinsky at Providence’s Marvelous Stewart House Home Décor Shop
Providence, RI’s Stewart House Presents Robert Pinsky Sisters and soulmates, Karen and Ellen, own Stewart House , a fabulous home décor store in Providence, RI. Karen is a former English teacher and, on some nights, she and Ellen transform the Stewart House into a poetry-reading forum. After attending one of those evenings. I was inspired and immediately asked my friend, Robert Pinsky, if he’d come to Providence to appear at Stewart House. I also asked Robert to discuss his two books — The First Two Books of Poems and Democracy, Culture, and the Voice of Poetry , both just-released by…
- Update on Argentina and the Prospects for Dollarization with Brilliant Economist, Emilio Ocampo
Last November I spent a week in B uenos A ires meeting with senior Argentine government officials, key business leaders, including members of the banking community, and leading Argentine economists. My visit led to this Financial Times op-ed entitled, “Here’s How to Make Argentina Grow Again.” Argentina has an amazing collection of brilliant economists. Former Economics Minister, Domingo Cavallo, my lifetime close friend and graduate-school classmate, has done it all and seen it all when it comes to Argentina’s economic history. We spent many hours on my trip discussing President Milei’s…
- Making Optimal Military Career Decisions with MaxiFi Planner
Economics Matters — Blog/Podcast/Financial Riddler/MaxiFi Puzzler Sign up for a free short-term subscription at larrykotlikoff.substack.com. I’ll immediately make it a free lifetime subscription. Also, pls sign up kids, parents, … — everyone you know. Paid subscriptions come with a monthly Q&A session via Substack Live. I’ll email you the day and time. Submit questions on anything and everything via chat. I’ll be live. Subscribe as a Founding Member - Help me provide high-level economics content and break even covering my significant podcast costs. Comes with a one-hour financial therapy…
- Beth Kobliner, Author of the Bestseller, "Get A Financial Life," Provides the Basics for Optimizing Your Financial Future
Please tune in/watch this fun conversation with one of our nation’s top financial journalists. Beth is brilliant in the both the British and American senses of the word. Her advice and insights are for keeps and for posterity, as in your kids and grandkids. Get a Financial Life, Now in its 5th Edition, is the perfect graduation gift. But it’s also one of the best guides going for your own financial future. As NEWSWEEK wrote, “A life’s work of smart financial advice.” Beth’s Bio Beth Kobliner is an American personal finance journalist, commentator, and author, best known for the New York Times…
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