http://www.project-syndicate.org/series/capitalism_then_and_now <p><em>Is globalization reversible? Do currencies rise and fall like empires? How does culture influence economic development and performance? Is “authoritarian capitalism” in China and Russia viable? Can international institutions like the IMF really shape the world economy? Is globalization reversible? Do currencies rise and fall like empires? How does culture influence economic development and performance? Is “authoritarian capitalism” in China and Russia viable? Can international institutions like the IMF really shape the world economy?</em></p> en 2012-02-10T06:00:38+01:00 webmaster@project-syndicate.org Harold James 1994-01-01T00:00:00+01:00 4 hourly http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james63/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james63/English>JAMES: Schadenfreude Capitalism</a> The protracted financial and economic crisis discredited first the American model of capitalism, then the European version, and now could undermine the Asian approach, too. Coming after the failure of state socialism, does this mean that there is no correct way of organizing an economy? Harold James 2012-01-04T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james62/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james62/English>JAMES: The British “Non”</a> At the just-concluded EU summit, British Prime Minister David Cameron vented decades of accumulated resentment stemming from his country’s relationship with Europe. It wasn't the first time a UK leader has adopted a stance of heroic resistance to Europe – only to be remembered as irrelevant and discredited. Harold James 2011-12-11T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james61/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james61/English>JAMES: The Poetry of the Euro</a> The euro was not just the outcome of an idiosyncratic quest to reduce the wear on pockets stuffed with odd national coins, or to facilitate intra-European trade. The bold European experiment reflected a new attitude about what money should do, as well as how it should be managed. Harold James 2011-12-05T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james60/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james60/English>JAMES: Striking Euro Gold (and Silver)</a> The alternatives for Europe’s currency, the euro, seem increasingly limited to a desperate muddling through or a chaotic collapse. But there is a bolder and more productive approach that relies on past experience with multiple currencies. Harold James 2011-11-01T00:00:00+01:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james59/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james59/English>JAMES: Bleed the Foreigner</a> The economists’ commonplace that a monetary union demands a fiscal union is only part of a much deeper truth about debt and obligation. Debt is rarely sustainable if there is not some sense of communal or collective responsibility. Harold James 2011-10-04T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james58/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james58/English>JAMES: The Eurozone’s Strength in Disunity</a> For months, an increasingly frenetic, even apocalyptic, debate about the fate of the euro has been the major driver of global instability. And yet the euro's exchange rate has remained remarkably stable, because, paradoxically, the governance weaknesses that skeptics criticize are what makes the common currency attractive. Harold James 2011-09-05T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james57/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james57/English>JAMES: All in the Family</a> Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is a model of the modern global enterprise – a model that is now threatened by the fallout from the scandal that started with phone hacking in Murdoch’s British press operations. But the Murdochs' problems reflect the underlying weaknesses of "family capitalism." Harold James 2011-07-26T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james56/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james56/English>JAMES: Learning from Crises</a> Crises are often learning opportunities. Unfortunately, so far the world seems to have learned very little from the recent financial crisis: with the US worried by its anemic economic recovery, Europe paralyzed by fears for the euro's survival, and emerging markets wrestling with asset-price bubbles, the situation today is as dangerous as it was in 2007. Harold James 2011-07-11T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james55/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james55/English>JAMES: Food for Revolution</a> Participants at this year's G-8 summit in Deauville are talking about interesting but peripheral issues, such as the economic impact of the Internet. Worse, they are talking about important issues, like food security, in a peripheral way. Harold James 2011-06-02T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james54/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james54/English>JAMES: The IMF after DSK</a> One unanticipated result of the lurid sex scandal involving IMF ex-Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn is that the question of his successor is attracting considerable public interest and concern. Indeed, the scandal has exposed some fundamental problems about the IMF’s governance, and even about its existence. Harold James 2011-05-17T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james53/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james53/English>JAMES: The Seven-Year Ditch</a> The most obvious parallel to Europe’s current woes is the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980’s. Unfortunately, there appears to be no way for southern European debtors to avoid the seven years of misery that Latin American countries suffered before returning to economic vigor and dynamism. Harold James 2011-05-04T00:00:00+02:00 http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james52/English <a href=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/james52/English>JAMES: Inflationary Angst</a> Over the past 20 years, central banks around the world pursued price stability with rather remarkable success. But now, in the wake of the financial crisis, a tide of distrust is sweeping the world – including a new and widespread fear that central banks are incapable of controlling inflation. Harold James 2011-04-05T00:00:00+02:00