The periodic chaos and exceptional measures associated with the US federal debt ceiling are costly, unnecessary, and could well end in catastrophe.
Eliminate the Debt Ceiling
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Theme of the Week
How Not to Fight Inflation
A careful look at US economic conditions supports the view that inflation was driven mainly by supply-side disruptions and shifts in the pattern
The Second Green Revolution Will Be Digitized
Six decades after the Green Revolution began, the rise of robotics and artificial intelligence may usher in another agricultural transformation.
China and the Sovereign-Debt Bomb
A failure to get ahead of the developing world’s looming debt crises would represent a moral failure, and would also greatly dampen world
China’s Brutal COVID Winter
As most developed economies learned almost three years ago, reducing COVID-19 infection rates in high-risk populations requires self-distancing
The Climate Crisis Is Also a Health Crisis
The interplay between climate change and the spread of deadly pathogens could herald an era of global devastation and disruption. To avert
Tangled Up in Blue
Last month, scientists at Trinity College Dublin published research that the human brain may be a kind of quantum computer, rather than a classical one. This is a big, big deal. Good science requires cautious and critical thinking. So it is no surprise that the...
Deglobalization Is a Climate Threat
Globalization may have fallen out of favor in recent years, but preserving it is an environmental imperative. Effective, coordinated responses
An Antidote to Climate Despair
For four decades after World War II, climate change and job-displacing artificial intelligence were not on anyone’s mind, and terms like
The Age of Megathreats
For four decades after World War II, climate change and job-displacing artificial intelligence were not on anyone’s mind, and terms like
The Bond Vigilantes are Back
Governments are beholden to both the public via their representatives in parliamen and the financial markets. Sometimes those ‘constituents’
The Global Recovery Winds Down
The severity of the global downturn is compounded by policy error. Avoiding a deeper slump will require a course correction.
When the Fed Stops Trying
One can debate whether there is still a narrow path by which the United States could avoid both secular stagnation and stagflation in the
Geopolitical Davids and Goliaths
The world’s largest and most well-established powers are all stuck in traps created by their own historical obsessions – be it memories
Is the Pound Close to the Breaking Point?
While the pound’s recent declines may evoke memories of the 1992 “Black Wednesday” crisis, sterling’s weakness does not
Requiem for an Empire
Since World War II, Britain’s influence in the world has relied on its “special relationship” with the United States, its position as
How Much Has the Ukraine War Changed Germany?
Germany faces no shortage of crises, from the Russian security threat and political instability among Western allies to democratic backsliding
Economics in the New Age of National Security
In an era of strategic competition, economics may have to rethink core principles, including comparative advantage and the gains from trade.
False Advertising for the Inflation Reduction Act
Listen to US President Joe Biden and other proponents of the recently signed Inflation Reduction Act, and you would think that America has
American CHIPS Off the Chinese Block
America’s world-leading semiconductor industry is a testament to the advantages a competitive market economy has over a command economy
Blame the Economists
Science has long recognized the dynamics of climate change. To our detriment, economics has been slower to adapt.
From Great Moderation to Great Stagflation
For decades, relative global stability, sound economic-policy management, and the steady expansion of trade to and from emerging markets combined
Fiscal Policy Should Return to Fundamentals
The longstanding argument that go-go Keynesian fiscal stimulus is the answer to every imaginable economic shock has been exposed as bankrupt.
A New Test for EU Solidarity
The Europe’s unity, and perhaps its union, is facing a grave challenge in the forms of war, energy and inflation.