Economy

How Blockchain Can Win the War Against Plastic Waste

2019-08-15

Start-ups are making incremental use of blockchain to reduce plastic waste, but the technology’s power to drive real change is yet to be realised.

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What About Rochester?

2019-08-06

There is much to be celebrated in the rise of modern megacities, especially in developing countries.

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The Inequality of Nations

2019-08-03

Markets are mechanisms of social choice, in which dollars effectively equal votes. those with more purchasing power thus have more influence over market outcomes

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Lagarde’s ECB Checklist

2019-07-30

After years in which the European Council acted as if there were no qualified women to lead the European Central Bank, it has finally abandoned that ludicrous excuse and appointed Christine Lagarde to the position.

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Iraq plans to launch pipelines to export oil through Jordan, Syria

2019-07-22

Iraq plans to diversify its oil exports via new pipelines through Jordan and Syria

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How an AI Utopia Would Work

2019-07-17

After centuries of industrialism, we are now on the cusp of a technological revolution that has the potential to abolish all necessary work, giving rise to societies built around leisure and a classical ideal of freedom. The biggest hurdle to realizing su

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Can UBI Survive Financialization?

2019-06-17

If a universal basic income is used primarily to service debt and secure new loans, it cannot fulfill its promise as a revolutionary pathway to freedom from the whip of the market

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America’s Illusions of Growth

2019-05-21

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...

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What if Zero Interest Rates Are the New Normal?

2019-04-01

The valid insight behind "modern monetary theory" – that governments and central banks together can always create nominal demand

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Modern Monetary Realism

2019-03-26

Is Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) a potential boon to economic policymakers, or, as Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff recently argued

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Understanding the Fed’s Dovish Turn

2019-03-21

Over the past few years, the US Federal Reserve has been ahead of other major central banks in normalizing monetary policy.

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The Case for a Bold Economics

2019-03-13

Although economists are well positioned to imagine new institutional arrangements, their habit of thinking at the margin and sticking close to the evidence at hand encourages an aversion to radical change...

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Reimagining Davos

2019-02-04

At the recent World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, participants made the same mistake they always do

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Risks to the Global Economy in 2019

2019-01-17

Over the course of this year and next, the biggest economic risks will emerge in those areas where investors think recent patterns are unlikely to change

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Iran pushes Iraq to maintain trade without US dollar

2019-01-06

Iran is exerting considerable pressure on the Iraqi government to compel it not to abide by the US sanctions that have been imposed on Tehran in order for it to change

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The Big Blockchain Lie

2018-10-21

Now that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have plummeted from last years absurdly high valuations, the techno-utopian mystique of so-called distributed-ledger technologies should be next.

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$250 Trillion in Debt: the World’s Post-Lehman Legacy

2018-10-06

Governments are largely responsible for the borrowing binge, with their debt growing not just nominally...

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Will Iran's economy collapse?

2018-06-30

Turbulent developments in the past few months on the foreign exchange and gold markets in Iran

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Can the Euro Be Saved?

2018-06-18

The euro may be approaching another crisis. Italy, the eurozones third largest economy, has chosen what can at best be described as a Euroskeptic government

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Should Economists Make Moral Judgments?

2018-05-31

At least since the days of John Maynard Keynes, professional economists have not had to worry too much about the moral implications of their technical work

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Why Reinvent the Monetary Wheel?

2018-05-25

Cryptocurrencies promise to realize Friedrich Hayek’s dream of a free market in money. But human societies have discovered no better way to keep the value of money roughly constant than by relying on central banks to exercise control over its issue

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Petroleum's Rising Price Depends on Supply and Politics

2018-05-24

There are several factors that have introduced uncertainty into the market, prompting upward pressure on oil prices.

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The Old Allure of New Money

2018-05-23

The cryptocurrency revolution, which started with bitcoin in 2009, claims to be inventing new kinds of money

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