Economy

The Death of Lebanon’s Middle Class

2020-05-23

A country with a proud history of trade and commerce is starting to crumble into permanent poverty.

details

Currency chaos, exploding prices and burning banks

2020-05-18

In Lebanon, the local currency has slumped to a record low, people are losing their jobs and the price of food is skyrocketing. Despite the threat posed by the coronavirus, hundreds are taking to the streets in protest. Julia Neumann reports from Beirut

details

The Misguided War on Global Value Chains

2020-05-13

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought economies around the world to an abrupt halt and highlighted the fragility of existing global value chains. But demolishing these key drivers of international trade and investment would only make a bad situation worse.

details

The Case for Deeply Negative Interest Rates

2020-05-13

Only monetary policy addresses credit throughout the economy. Until inflation and real interest rates rise from the grave, only a policy of effective deep negative interest rates, backed up by measures to prevent cash hoarding by financial firms, can do t

details

Will Crashing Oil Prices Put American Energy in Its Coffin?

2020-04-26

The fundamental reason is that the coronavirus pandemic has suddenly reduced demand by around 30 percent because we are not driving cars, not going to work, not manufacturing things in most factories, here and in much of the world.

details

The Human-Capital Costs of the Crisis

2020-04-16

Unlike a hurricane or earthquake, the coronavirus pandemic has caused no damage to physical capital stock. But firm-specific skills have no value when the firm that uses them goes out of business, which is one reason why US productivity...

details

Will the OPEC Agreement Work and, If So, How Long Will It Last?

2020-04-16

The market appears to doubt that the deal will suffice, and royal family dynamics could push the oil crisis into further rounds.

details

Navigating the Pandemic Trilemma

2020-04-07

The broad consensus of the COVID-19 era holds that measures to protect public health imply hard trade-offs with economic growth and political liberty.

details

Capitalism’s Triple Crisis

2020-04-05

After the 2008 financial crisis, we learned the hard way what happens when governments flood the economy with unconditional liquidity, rather than laying the foundation for a sustainable and inclusive recovery. Now that an even more severe crisis is under

details

Coronavirus: Lebanon banks halt dollar withdrawals after pandemic closes airport

2020-04-01

US currency is imported into the country but Beiruts international airport is to remain closed until at least 12 April

details

The Race Between Economics and COVID-19

2020-03-28

For years, the economics profession has suffered from a stubborn reluctance to adopt a more multidisciplinary approach. But now that the COVID-19

details

Don’t Count Out U.S. Oil Production as a Market-Shaper

2020-03-22

Total U.S. production from all sources will remain the worlds largest no matter how low prices go, leaving Washington (and Texas) with considerable room to help domestic companies and press Riyadh and Moscow on stabilizing prices.

details

The COVID-19 Cash Out

2020-03-22

While Chinese authorities have been destroying banknotes that have potentially come into contact with the coronavirus, Western countries remain woefully behind not just in their response to the pandemic

details

Averting Economic Disaster Is the Easy Part

2020-03-22

Based on Chinas experience with COVID-19, the fiscal cost of comprehensive compensation for lost income could reach 10% of annual GDP, and as much as 25% of GDP in the US and Europe if the epidemic turns out to be worse there, which now looks likely. Thes

details

Policy Action for a Healthy Global Economy

2020-03-18

The case for a coordinated and synchronized global fiscal stimulus is becoming stronger by the hour.

details

The Wealth and Health of Nations

2020-03-16

The COVID-19 outbreaks implications for the global economy are highly uncertain but potentially disastrous.

details

Russia and Saudis in a Knife Fight Over Oil—But We May Be the Victims

2020-03-14

A train wreck is about to occur in the oil market, and there will be casualties. Russia and Saudi Arabia, which previously had cooperated in making the world market well-supplied, no longer can agree on how to share the benefits.

details

he New-Old Threat to Economic Freedom

2020-03-07

With politicians proposing policies that would vastly expand the size of the government and its involvement in the economy, it is clear that too many Americans have forgotten the lessons of the twentieth century. As Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman poi

details

Inequality and Economic Growth

2020-02-03

Economic policymakers can no longer afford to view inequality as an issue separate from boosting employment and incomes. Addressing it through a wealth tax, combined with more effective antitrust policies and enforcement, has become essential to sustainin

details

Is Tech a New Frontier for Sustainability?

2019-12-18

Financial institutions must address the issue of technological sustainability, especially with regard to data, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

details

If Wealth Is Justified, so Is a Wealth Tax

2019-12-17

Not surprisingly, American billionaires have dismissed recent wealth-tax proposals as an affront to the entrepreneurial spirit to which they attribute their massive wealth.

details

Iran’s New Budget Is Tight, But Not Tight Enough

2019-12-17

Rouhani has taken a remarkably austere fiscal approach ahead of the looming parliamentary election, but the countrys economic situation is still not sustainable over the long run.

details

What Kind of Capitalism Do We Want?

2019-12-03

What kind of capitalism do we want? That may be the defining question of our era. If we want to sustain our economic system for future generations, we must answer it correctly.

details

How World Bank Arbitrators Mugged Pakistan

2019-12-01

Wall Street hedge funds and lawyers have turned an arcane procedure of international treaties into a money machine, at the cost of the worlds poorest people.

details