THOUGHT LEADERS
Capitalism Then and Now
Harold James
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?
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Back to the Future in Finance
Harold James Series: Capitalism Then and Now 2010-01-27While former US Fed Chairman Paul Volcker provided the central inspiration for Barack Obama’s recent proposal for overhauling banking, he has also been a prominent critic of the dangers of currency volatility. Returning to fixed exchange rates would run counter to almost every argument of modern economics, but, at a moment when we are looking to the past for financial solutions, it is no longer unthinkable.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 2387
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Why Big Banks Will Get Bigger
Harold James Series: Capitalism Then and Now 2010-01-05
From banks’ perspective, the most obvious lesson of the financial crisis was the need for a strong national government to bear the potential costs of a rescue. It is no longer best to be where the most favorable regulatory regime prevails, but to be where the state has the deepest pockets.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 1 Read: 3359
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The Cycles of Economic Discontent
Harold James Series: Capitalism Then and Now 2009-12-04Every ten years or so, we think that a particular model of growth is so broken that it cannot be resurrected. The world needed to be rethought in 1979, 1989, 1998, and 2008, with each wave of collapse breeding a greater degree of disillusion about particular institutions.... read Comments: 3 Recommended: 0 Read: 5217
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The New Monetary Disorder
Harold James Series: Capitalism Then and Now 2009-11-04Currency chaos is back, highlighting demands for a revised international monetary order. The rapid decline of the dollar and the pound, but also of the renminbi – now more firmly tied to the dollar than ever – is fanning tensions, while some ghosts of the 1930’s also have returned, particularly the fear that competitive devaluation is creating unfair trade advantages. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 6442
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Celebrating the German Model
Harold James Series: Capitalism Then and Now 2009-09-28Princeton -- If anyone wanted evidence that we are not in the mental and political world of the interwar Great Depression, the German election result and its outcome – a stable government of the center-right - should be a clincher. In interwar Germany, the Depression destroyed German democracy and led to the rise to power of Hitler and the National Socialists; in today’s Germany, the most severe economic crisis since the Second World War produced the reelection of Frau Merkel. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 4229
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The Coming Age of Financial Automation
Harold James Series: Capitalism Then and Now 2009-09-04
Thanks to automation, the “Monday morning car” – caused by early and error-prone production runs of new models – is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Its equivalent in the financial world should, and will, meet the same fate.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 5483
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How to Waste a Crisis
Harold James Series: Capitalism Then and Now 2009-08-04The global financial crisis is reaching a bottom, and yet political frustration is growing, because the low point of the collapse seems to offer a last opportunity to promote dramatic change, and that opportunity may be missed. In fact, missing the opportunity may well be more likely than not.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 6141
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Germany’s Fiscal Follies
Harold James Series: Capitalism Then and Now 2009-07-03German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has taken a peculiarly aggressive line in attacking budget deficits and loose monetary policy worldwide and repudiating them at home. But, while that stance resonates deeply with German voters, it makes no sense economically, particularly given Germany's commitment to European integration.... read Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 6905
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Who is to Blame?
Harold James Series: Capitalism Then and Now 2009-06-04
Now that the economic crisis looks less threatening (at least for the moment), an ever more encompassing blame game is unfolding. But, because we are not sure quite who and what should be unmasked, the search for culprits has become like the late medieval and early modern search for witches: a way of making sense of a disorderly and hostile universe.... read Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 8423
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