Exclusive Opinion, Commentary and Op-ed from today's Top Economists and Public Intellectuals

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Reinvigorating Egypt’s Economy

Mohamed A. El-Erian May 20, 2013

While blaming the revolution is not a persuasive explanation for Egypt’s current economic woes, its appeal to many Egyptians is understandable. Over the last few months, their economic situation has gone from bad to worse.
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America by Proxy?

Dominique Moisi May 20, 2013

The demise of the Roman Empire resulted from a combination of strategic overreach and excessive delegation of security responsibilities to newcomers. The question for the US today is whether it can remain the world’s leading power while delegating to others or to technological tools the task of protecting its global influence.
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Managing Syria’s Meltdown

Christopher R. Hill May 21, 2013

As Russian and American diplomats prepare for a Syrian peace conference, the Middle East is experiencing convulsions not seen since the Arab Spring two years ago. Indeed, in historical terms, the Syrian crisis, not the Arab Spring, will most likely be regarded as the region's seminal event in this decade.
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Learning About Growth from Austerity

Michael Spence May 18, 2013

All countries face complex choices with respect to the timing of austerity, perceived sovereign credit risk, and growth-oriented reforms. Today, advanced countries' previous emphasis on austerity may be giving way to a more balanced approach to boosting economic growth and employment.
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The Flawed Origins of Expansionary Austerity

Jeffrey Frankel May 20, 2013

As the case for austerity in a time of recession has weakened under the continuing onslaught of facts (most notably the recessions in Europe), advocates of fiscal stimulus have found the missteps of their opponents Carmen Reinhart, Ken Rogoff, and Niall Ferguson to be convenient weapons. But they are the wrong weapons.
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Nationalism, Madness, and Terrorism

Liah Greenfeld May 17, 2013

If we want to understand what drove the Boston Marathon bombing suspects to terrorism, the answer almost certainly does not lie in Dagestan, where the brothers lived before moving to the US, or in Chechnya's two wars in the last 20 years. Instead, the key to the Tsarnaevs’ behavior lies in developments in England 500 years ago.
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The Resistible Fall of Europe: An Interview with George Soros

George Soros May 15, 2013

The politics of the eurozone countries is European politics, and European politics is not serving these countries well. In an extended interview, George Soros explains why – and what should be done about it.
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Harnessing the Remittance Boom

Kanayo F. Nwanze May 18, 2013

In Asia’s developing countries, the importance of remittances – the money that migrant workers send home to their families (many of whom live in poor and remote areas) – is immense. But, while remittances to these countries are five times higher than official aid, their potential economic-development benefits have not been reali…

Barry Eichengreen May 17

Open-Access Economics

CANBERRA – The brouhaha over Carmen Reinhart’s and Kenneth Rogoff’s article “Growth in a Time of Debt” may be the most conspi…
Richard Cooper and… May 14

China’s E-Tail Revolution

SHANGHAI – When you think about centers of technological innovation, Silicon Valley, Seattle, and Seoul are probably the firs…
Emmanuel Guerin May 13

Green Sovereign Wealth

PARIS – At the end of 2011, sovereign-wealth funds’ assets under management amounted to $3 trillion, following 237 direct inv…
Kemal Derviş May 10

Balancing the Technocrats

ISTANBUL – A simplistic (actually, naive) view of markets is that they exist almost in a “state of nature,” and that the best…
Dani Rodrik May 10

What Use Are Economists?

CAMBRIDGE – When the stakes are high, it is no surprise that battling political opponents use whatever support they can garne…
Jomo Kwame Sundaram May 10

The Mismeasure of Poverty

ROME – In early 2012, outgoing World Bank President Robert Zoellick announced that the Millennium Development Goal of halving…
Paul De Grauwe May 9

Debt Without Drowning

LONDON – Since the 1970’s, economists have warned that a monetary union could not be sustained without a fiscal union. But th…
Daniel Gros May 8

Europe’s Irrelevant Austerity Debate

BRUSSELS – The most visible symptom of the crisis in the eurozone has been the high and variable risk premiums that its perip…
George Soros and… May 6

Soros versus Sinn: The German Question

"Germany's Choice" by George SorosFRANKFURT – The euro crisis has already transformed the European Union from a voluntary ass…
Bill Gates May 6

The Problem with Poor Countries’ GDP

SEATTLE – Even in good financial times, development aid budgets are hardly overflowing. Government leaders and donors must ma…

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Erik Solheim May 16

A New Deal for Fragile States

PARIS – Today, roughly one-quarter of the world’s population lives in conflict-affected and fra…
Ana Palacio May 16

The Importance of Doing Business

MADRID – This month, an independent review panel is expec…
Randall Morck May 15

Oily Dirt

EDMONTON – Calm discussion of the environment nowadays is about as plausible as reasoned dialog…
Bjørn Lomborg May 15

Hugging a Burning Tree

PRAGUE – We are all brought up to recycle paper to save trees. We get countless e-mail admoniti…
Christopher Lane May 14

The Distortion of Grief

CHICAGO – How long does it take to mourn the death of a loved one? The question is peculiar, ev…
Bernard Haykel May 14

Syria’s Sectarian Stalemate

PRINCETON – What began in Syria as a revolt against an oppressive regime has evolved into a sec…
Shashi Tharoor May 13

The Resurrection of Congress

NEW DELHI – The overwhelming victory of the Indian National Congress in elections in the import…
Fiorello Provera May 13

The Endangered Arab Christian

BRUSSELS – The recent abductions of Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim and his Greek Or…
Tamara Wittes and… May 10

The Egypt-Israel Peace Test

WASHINGTON, DC – The rocket strikes that a militant Islamist group recently fired from the Egyp…
Peter Singer May 9

Why Pay More?

PRINCETON – When Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, went to Ukraine for talks last m…