Most recent

Christopher T. Mahoney Jun. 18, 2013

Stop Worrying About China

The media is once again banging on the “China Bubble” story. This happens about once a year. Today’s China scare has to do with debt build-u…
Michael Heller Jun. 18, 2013

21st Century Risk and Danger

It seems inevitable that any system set up to deal with risk in the end becomes a source of danger. Or risk. Or danger. What’s the differenc…
Steven Strauss Jun. 17, 2013

Why Let a Bank Write U.S. Financial Reform Legislation?

Particularly when that bank has a history of involvement with fraud and mismanagement.The proper level of financial regulation is a complex …
Christopher T. Mahoney Jun. 16, 2013

The U.S. Fiscal Crisis Is Not Over

President Obama and his party are what I call Kindergarten Keynesians because, whatever the problem and whatever the stage of the business c…
Michael Heller Jun. 14, 2013

The Structural Problem of Depression

In 1934, shortly after Keynes’s breezy and confident letter to President Roosevelt which demanded the United States (a) control the dollar e…
Christopher T. Mahoney Jun. 13, 2013

The Impending Failure Of Ben Bernanke

There is a recurring theme among the Fed’s critics (and its dissidents) which runs like this: “The economy has been living on extraordinary …
Dean Baker Jun. 13, 2013

The Reemergence of Housing Bubbles: Should We Be Worried?

Since the economic collapse of 2008 there has been considerable effort devoted to redrawing regulatory rules to protect th…
William White Jun. 12, 2013

Overt Monetary Financing (OMF) and Crisis Management

IntroductionIn a recent lecture at the Cass Business School, Lord Adair Turner suggested that the economies of many advanced countries are i…

Most recent

Fabrizio Tassinari, Ivan Vejvoda Jun. 10, 2013

The EU’s Forgotten Foundations

COPENHAGEN – Twenty years ago this month, in Copenhagen, the European Council established the eligibility requirements for joining the Europ…
Barry W. Poulson Jun. 5, 2013

The Silent Run on the Yen

BOULDER – Nearly three decades ago, as a visiting professor at Konan University in Kobe, Japan, I learned to live in a cash society. Rather …
Pingfan Hong May 31, 2013

Selfless Seigniorage

NEW YORK – As the central banks of major developed economies have intensified quantitative easing (QE, or large-scale purchases of governmen…
Alexander Klimburg, Franz-Stefan Gady May 26, 2013

Shaky Cyber Trigger Fingers

VIENNA – A media storm centered on the “emerging cyber threat” has turbocharged the public debate on cyber security in the United States – a…
Sylvester Eijffinger, Edin Mujagic May 23, 2013

OMT’s German Trial

TILBURG – On June 12, the eyes of politicians, economists, analysts, and investors will alight briefly on the leafy German town of Karlsruhe…
Wasif Syed May 22, 2013

Saved by the Diaspora

WASHINGTON, DC – President Bashar al-Assad’s fall is inevitable, but Syria’s subsequent collapse need not be. Syria’s sizable émigré communi…
Michael Pettis May 22, 2013

The Debt-Ratio Distraction

BEIJING – A 2010 paper by Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart suggesting that a country’s economy will slow when public debt exceeds 90% of G…
Frank Schäffler May 16, 2013

In Defense of Cyprus

BERLIN – Greece is said not to have one. Cyprus does, but needs to change it. Luxembourg’s is similar to Cyprus’s, but apparently it is just…
Sylvester Eijffinger, Edin Mujagic Apr. 13, 2013

The Eurozone’s Uncertainty Principle

TILBURG – If there is one thing that financial markets detest, it is prolonged uncertainty. But, since the eurozone crisis began, policymaki…
Andrew Billo Mar. 31, 2013

Dialogue and the Deep Blue Sea

NEW YORK – A Chinese patrol vessel’s attack on a Vietnamese fishing boat last week is just the latest incident demonstrating Asia’s urgent n…