Economy

The Benefits of a Progressive Consumption Tax

2019-09-17

Many economists already favor a consumption-based tax system for raising revenue on grounds of efficiency and simplicity.

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Amid Global Economic Uncertainty, What Do You Anticipate Will Be the Trend in Oil Prices in the Coming Year?

2019-09-15

A regular survey of experts on matters relating to Middle Eastern and North African politics and security.

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Two Systems, One World

2019-09-04

Like the twentieth-century Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the new rivalry between China and the West is a contest between fundamentally incompatible political systems.

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Whither Central Banking?

2019-09-02

In an environment of secular stagnation in the developed economies, central bankers ingenuity in loosening monetary policy is exactly what is not needed. What is needed are admissions of impotence, in order to spur efforts by governments to promote demand

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Is Stakeholder Capitalism Really Back?

2019-08-31

We will have to wait and see whether the US Business Roundtables recent statement renouncing corporate governance based on shareholder primacy is merely a publicity stunt.

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The Anatomy of the Coming Recession

2019-08-25

Unlike the 2008 global financial crisis, which was mostly a large negative aggregate demand shock, the next recession is likely to be caused by permanent negative supply shocks

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IMF Executive Board Concludes 2019 Article IV Consultation with Iraq

2019-08-21

An improved security situation and the recovery in oil prices have improved near-term vulnerabilities

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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?

2019-08-05

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

2019-05-20

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

2019-03-20

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

2019-02-03

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

2019-01-16

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

2018-10-20

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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