Alex Friedman is the co-founder of Jackson Hole Economics, LLC, a private research organization which provides commentary and analysis on economics, politics, the environment and finance, and develops actionable ideas for how sustainable growth can be achieved. Friedman is a senior business leader with two decades of experience growing and transforming businesses in the financial… Continue Reading
Americans’ desensitization to the pandemic’s skyrocketing death toll vindicates Joseph Stalin’s famous observation: “One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic.” The danger of this approach, of course, is that it relieves government of its obligation to act – opening the way for far more COVID-19 deaths. Continue Reading
The stock market is soaring while small businesses are dying. It can’t go on this way. A K-shaped recovery is a disaster, and would undermine the ‘United’ part of our States. Continue Reading
There were no special effects, no crowds, no band, no balloons. But, none of this was needed. As Joe Biden looked at a blank camera, with a lined face worn by almost eight decades of triumph and tragedy, I saw a man speaking to a country that could now know it was understood. Continue Reading
After four years of a president who has deliberately tried to divide Americans, the United States can and must find common purpose to address its many challenges. The next US president can take a range of early steps to achieve this goal. Continue Reading
The United States was to be a shining city on hill. A nation, rooted in exceptionalism, destined to transform the world for the positive. Continue Reading
At a time when guidance and inspiration from the White House is missing, it is helpful to remind ourselves of what real American moral leadership looks like. Continue Reading
The Big Thing explains the Covid-19 crisis through the eyes of a 5 year old girl, and teaches children about the idea of silver linings and how to find them in their changed lives. Continue Reading
The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed fundamental fault lines in the reigning business model of the past 40 years. Continue Reading
As in past global and national emergencies, the COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis that demands leadership from the highest levels. Continue Reading
Today, our species is in panic. COVID-19 is driving upheaval in every human realm. There can be no doubt that the primary mission is to slow the spread of the disease and develop a vaccine as soon as possible. Continue Reading
Financial markets are in disarray. Indexes are in free-fall one day, bursting upwards the next. Many investors are on the edge of panic. Some of us have been caught in an avalanche, had near-drowning experiences, been in a car crash, or served in the military and seen armed conflict. When panic comes, and it usually… Continue Reading
Few images better capture the Wild West’s by-gone era of adventure and lawlessness than ‘most wanted’ posters adorned with the grimacing miens of bank robbers like Butch Cassidy or Jessie James. Today’s residents of Wyoming might soon fear another ‘heist’, but this time the image may portray the smiling face of the tax collector. Continue Reading
If US Senator Bernie Sanders is the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, he could win in November for any number of reasons. The US electorate is almost evenly divided regardless of candidate, swing voters are unpredictable, electoral math is tricky, Donald Trump has plenty of weaknesses, and a lot can happen between now and then. Continue Reading
In climbing, risk management is everything. Ask any mountaineer who has made it into his or her forties how they did it, and they will invariably say it was a mix of luck and knowing which dangers were the ones to heed. Good judgement in being able to properly assess weather patterns, snowpack, rock quality,… Continue Reading
Yellowstone is America’s first national park. Today, after almost 150 years in existence, it is one of the largest nearly intact ecosystems on the planet. Teams of park rangers and ecologists carefully guard it from damaging invasive species and it is a great example of how humans can draw a boundary around something for its… Continue Reading
DAVOS – The World Economic Forum’s annual flagship meeting this year will focus on how to build a more cohesive and sustainable world. As always, the topic is timely, but also a little abstract. To help give it more concrete form, we have a few proposals to put the prevailing economic model on a better… Continue Reading
Originally published at Project-Syndicate.org | December 31, 2019 Science fiction has a warning about developing mind-reading technology without any proper framework for how to control it. It should be heeded. Continue Reading
Originally published at The Guardian, August 16, 2019 It is time to admit that the “American Dream” is dead. Its underlying conditions – strong, consistent economic growth and a meritocracy structured to keep the rich from gaming the system – no longer hold true. Continue Reading
Originally published to CNN Business | December 9, 2018 Twelve months ago, investors were giddy.Markets were buoyant, supported by synchronous global growth and market-friendly US policies, including freshly minted corporate tax cuts and deregulation.What a difference a year makes. As 2018 draws to a close, investors are unsettled, volatility is spiking and most portfolios are… Continue Reading
Originally published at Bloomberg.com | May 1, 2018 The dollar is staging a comeback. Pundits are out in full force, suggesting this might finally be the end of its recent weakness and the start of a strengthening trend they have been predicting for more than a year. They may be right, but in my career spanning… Continue Reading
Originally published on Project-Syndicate.org, Dec 21, 2017 Sustained unconventional monetary policies in the years after the 2008 global financial crisis created the conditions for the second-longest bull market in history. Continue Reading
Originally Published on Project-Syndicate.org | Nov 11, 2016 The politics of economic anxiety has now driven the electorates of the UK and the US into the hands of populists, and more countries’ voters are sure to follow. Today’s slowing growth and anti-establishment backlash is not some “new normal”; in fact, it harks back to an… Continue Reading
