In modern economies, people may have jobs, but they still harbor major concerns in a wide range of areas, including security, health and work-life balance, income and distribution, training, mobility, and opportunity. By focusing solely on the unemployment rate, policymakers are … | Continue reading
Back in the 1980s, Japan was portrayed as the greatest economic threat to the United States, and allegations of intellectual property theft were only part of Americans' vilification. Thirty years later, Americans have made China the villain, when, just like three decades ago, the … | Continue reading
For all the talk of Modern Monetary Theory representing a brave new frontier, it is easy to forget that the United States has gone down this road before, when the US Federal Reserve financed the war effort in the 1940s. Then, as now, the question is not about government debt, bu … | Continue reading
Germany has made a noble effort to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and replace conventional energy sources with wind and solar power. But now it is time to face reality: the country cannot possibly play a role in combating climate change until it first reverses its decision to ph … | Continue reading
Many commentators have interpreted buoyant GDP and unemployment data in the United States as vindicating President Donald Trump’s economic policies, and some suggest that his re-election chances have improved as a result. But these indicators fail to measure what really counts fo … | Continue reading
Globalization, digital technologies, and other factors have allowed competitive US corporations to achieve market dominance. If the past is any guide, it is only right that these "superstar" firms should now be challenged by grassroots political movements protesting against an un … | Continue reading
The conflict between the United States and China over trade and technology is an increasingly high-stakes zero-sum affair. And it is not just about amassing data and talent to achieve economic and geostrategic primacy; like the original Cold War, it is also about the future of li … | Continue reading
As the maladies of modern capitalism have multiplied, fundamental questions about the future of the world’s dominant economic model have become impossible to ignore. But in the absence of viable alternatives, the question is how to reform a system that is increasingly at odds wit … | Continue reading
Mike Pompeo, Trump’s first CIA director and now US Secretary of State, once described WikiLeaks as “a non-state hostile intelligence service.” That is exactly right, and it is an equally accurate description of what every self-respecting news outlet ought to be. | Continue reading
A decade after the 2008 financial crisis, faith in markets' self-regulating abilities once again lies in tatters. There simply is no single real interest rate that would spur investors to funnel all existing savings into productive investments, and employers to hire all who wish … | Continue reading
Data released in January paint a bleak picture of advanced-economy prospects. Even if some emerging economies – which face serious challenges of their own – manage to pick up some of the slack, the world economy will remain encumbered by the combination of economic interconnected … | Continue reading
The right way to think about cryptocurrency coins is as lottery tickets that pay off in a dystopian future where they are used in rogue and failed states, or perhaps in countries where citizens have already lost all semblance of privacy. That means that cryptocurrencies are not e … | Continue reading
In an age of populist nationalism, open societies have increasingly come under strain. But the threat of atavistic ideological movements pales in comparison to that posed by powerful new technologies in the hands of authoritarians. | Continue reading
The rise of Big Tech has ushered in broad structural economic changes that academics and policymakers are only just beginning to understand. Still, some trends are already discernible, and they raise urgent questions about the future of competition, innovation, and inequality in … | Continue reading
It is not hard to understand why political commentators have become increasingly fixated on the “f” word as an explanation for the success of populist and nationalist parties across Western democracies. But to focus on the threat of fascism is to miss what is really afflicting th … | Continue reading
The Trump administration's conflict with China has little to do with US external imbalances, closed Chinese markets, or even China’s alleged theft of intellectual property. It has everything to do with containing China by limiting its access to foreign markets, advanced technolog … | Continue reading
For the past decade, China’s strategy for internationalizing the renminbi has involved greater reliance on the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights as an alternative international reserve currency. But the launch of renminbi-denominated oil trading this year suggests that China will now … | Continue reading
At one time, it seemed that computers would sound the death knell for chess, not to mention all human mind games. Yet for followers of the game, the just-concluded world championship in London, won by the 27-year-old Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, was as exciting as any great soccer m … | Continue reading
Leading economic policymakers are now considering whether central banks should issue their own digital currencies, to be made available to everyone, rather than just to licensed commercial banks. The idea deserves serious consideration, as it would replace an inherently crisis-pr … | Continue reading
Given that economic forecasters are so often caught out by shocks, one might reasonably ask why they bother. The short answer is that they have no choice, even when they are well aware of the imperfection of their analyses, because people simply cannot live without predictions. | Continue reading
With unemployment at a 50-year low, wages starting to pick up, and the stock market booming, the US economy has defied expectations since the 2016 election. Nobel laureates Angus Deaton and Edmund Phelps, along with Barry Eichengreen, Rana Foroohar, and Glenn Hubbard, ask why, an … | Continue reading
Recent proposals to grant workers equity in the economy have been met with skepticism by those who fear that radical intervention in the market inevitably paves the road to serfdom. But profit-sharing schemes, if designed properly, could be an ideal response to today's dangerousl … | Continue reading
Getting to net zero carbon emissions in just four decades is both necessary and a huge challenge. But the good news is that it is undoubtedly technically feasible – and at an acceptably low cost to the global economy. | Continue reading
Now that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have plummeted from last year's absurdly high valuations, the techno-utopian mystique of so-called distributed-ledger technologies should be next. The promise to cure the world's ills through "decentralization" was just a ruse to separate … | Continue reading
Markets can be good, but they are also profoundly susceptible to abusive practices, including by prominent private-sector people. This is not a theoretical concern; it is central to our current policy debates, including important new US legislation that has just been put forward. | Continue reading
Will 21 young plaintiffs ultimately be able to persuade a conservative-dominated US Supreme Court that the federal government is violating their constitutional right to a livable planet? It depends on whether the Court is willing to heed the scientific evidence. | Continue reading
Although the global economy has been undergoing a sustained period of synchronized growth, it will inevitably lose steam as unsustainable fiscal policies in the US start to phase out. Come 2020, the stage will be set for another downturn – and, unlike in 2008, governments will la … | Continue reading
With the tenth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers approaching, the unresolved controversy surrounding the causes of, and responses to, the 2008 financial crisis has returned to the fore. Joseph Stiglitz and Lawrence Summers differ on whether the slow recovery was a st … | Continue reading
Donald Trump’s trade war is an international tragedy. But it could have a happy ending if it eventually reminds us of the risks that free trade imposes on people, and if we improve our insurance mechanisms to help them. | Continue reading
Property rights have protected and empowered individuals for millennia, evolving as technology does. Just as the printing revolution brought intellectual property rights and the Industrial Revolution popularized the patent system, the digital revolution must bring the right to pe … | Continue reading
The prosperity of the US has always depended on its ability to harness economic growth to technology-driven innovation. But right now Big Tech is as much a part of the problem as it is a part of the solution. | Continue reading
In a world where technological progress promises large benefits, the capacity to supply the necessary conditions may determine which economies are positioned for success, and which are bound to go the way of the Spanish, Portuguese, or Ottoman Empires. That should worry today's W … | Continue reading
For the past two centuries, governments have approached demographic issues with the assumption that calendar years are an objective indicator of age. But with a rapid increase in lifespans over the past few decades, age is not what it used to be, and unless public policy reflects … | Continue reading
Practically no one, outside of computer science departments, can explain how cryptocurrencies work, and that mystery creates an aura of exclusivity, gives the new money glamour, and fills devotees with revolutionary zeal. None of this is new, and, as with past monetary innovation … | Continue reading
The view that AI-driven machines will outsmart humanity, take over the world, and kill us all – a staple of dystopian science fiction – is easy enough to dismiss, given that humans remain firmly in control. But many AI experts take the apocalyptic perspective seriously, and … | Continue reading
On the occasion of Karl Marx's 200th birthday, the co-founder of communism has received more than a few positive reappraisals, even from Western leaders. But those arguing that Marx cannot be blamed for the atrocities that his ideas inspired should reexamine his ideas. | Continue reading
There are now nearly 1,600 cryptocurrencies, and the number continues to rise. It is time to start recognizing their issuers' utopian rhetoric for what it is: self-serving nonsense meant to separate credulous investors from their hard-earned savings. | Continue reading
After a half-century of occupying Palestinian territory, Israel is succumbing to its deepest ethno-centrist impulses, and increasingly rejecting recognized boundaries. Israel is now joining the growing club of illiberal democracies, and it has Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to … | Continue reading