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Our latest virtual event, What Economics is Missing, is now live. Click here to watch Minouche Shafik, Dani Rodrik, Vera Songwe, and others discuss how to achieve inclusivity in economics. 

  1. eeckhout1_Feature ChinaFuture Publishing via Getty Images_digitalrenminbi Feature China/Future Publishing via Getty Images
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    The Simplest Fix for Banking

    Jan Eeckhout

    Following the latest banking crisis, monetary authorities should seriously consider how modern digital technologies could be used to avert such problems in the future. A central bank digital currency would both eliminate many barriers to financial transactions and end the risk of bank runs once and for all.

     explains how central bank digital currencies would end bank runs and banks' excessive risk-taking.
  2. zizek16_ Frank Rumpenhorstpicture alliance via Getty Images_chatbot Frank Rumpenhorst/picture alliance via Getty Images
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    Artificial Idiocy

    Slavoj Žižek

    The problem with the new chatbots is not just that they are often stupid and naive; it is that they are not “stupid” or “naive” enough to pick up on the nuances, ironies, and revealing contradictions that constitute human culture and communication. Worse, by relying on them, we risk succumbing to the same obtuseness.

     fears that the rise of powerful chatbots will spell the death of irony and nuance in human thought.
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    America’s Financial Regulatory System Is Still Broken

    Howard Davies laments that the post-2008 Dodd-Frank reforms left in place a framework riddled with structural shortcomings.
  4. chellaney161_ARUN SANKARAFP via Getty Images_blinken lavrov ARUN SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images
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    America’s Interest in Ending the Ukraine Crisis

    Brahma Chellaney explains why prolonging the conflict risks realizing the West’s worst geopolitical nightmare.
  5. fayolle3_MUNIR UZ ZAMANAFP via Getty Images_drinking water MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP via Getty Images
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    The Water Crisis Is a Vital Investment Opportunity

    Ambroise Fayolle & Henk Ovink calls for new thinking about how we value the planet’s most important natural resource.
  6. krueger61_Tom WilliamsCQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images_Intelsemicronductors Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
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    America’s Industrial Policy Is Counterproductive

    Anne O. Krueger laments that the Biden administration is adding red tape to an inefficient subsidy program.
  7. whatley15_Getty Images Sadik Demiroz/Getty Images
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    What’s Next for Fintech?

    Johanna M. Costigan, et al. consider what recent developments will mean for the future of technological innovation in financial services.
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    Localizing Development Research

    Julia Kaufman & Jane Kabubo-Mariara explain why funders should be providing more long-term resources to researchers in developing countries.
  9. op_haass3_Chris HondrosGetty Images_iraqwar Chris Hondros/Getty Images
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    Revisiting America’s War of Choice in Iraq

    Richard Haass considers the enduring lessons from a foreign intervention that was both ill-conceived and poorly executed.
  10. PS Events: What Economics is Missing
    WEIM_1200x628-Event

    PS Events: What Economics is Missing

    Our latest event, What Economics is Missing, is now live.

    Click the link below for opening remarks from Dani Rodrik, followed by a discussion among Ashwini Deshpande, Raquel Fernández, Minouche Shafik, and Vera Songwe on how to achieve inclusivity in economics.

    Watch Now

Latest

  1. Artificial Idiocy
    zizek16_ Frank Rumpenhorstpicture alliance via Getty Images_chatbot Frank Rumpenhorst/picture alliance via Getty Images

    Artificial Idiocy

    Mar 23, 2023 Slavoj Žižek fears that the rise of powerful chatbots will spell the death of irony and nuance in human thought.

  2. Localizing Development Research
    kabubomariara1_Per-Anders Pettersson Contributor Getty Images_research africa Per-Anders Pettersson / Contributor Getty Images

    Localizing Development Research

    Mar 23, 2023 Julia Kaufman & Jane Kabubo-Mariara explain why funders should be providing more long-term resources to researchers in developing countries.

  3. The Simplest Fix for Banking
    eeckhout1_Feature ChinaFuture Publishing via Getty Images_digitalrenminbi Feature China/Future Publishing via Getty Images

    The Simplest Fix for Banking

    Mar 23, 2023 Jan Eeckhout explains how central bank digital currencies would end bank runs and banks' excessive risk-taking.

  4. America’s Interest in Ending the Ukraine Crisis
    chellaney161_ARUN SANKARAFP via Getty Images_blinken lavrov ARUN SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images

    America’s Interest in Ending the Ukraine Crisis

    Mar 23, 2023 Brahma Chellaney explains why prolonging the conflict risks realizing the West’s worst geopolitical nightmare.

  5. America’s Industrial Policy Is Counterproductive
    krueger61_Tom WilliamsCQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images_Intelsemicronductors Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

    America’s Industrial Policy Is Counterproductive

    Mar 22, 2023 Anne O. Krueger laments that the Biden administration is adding red tape to an inefficient subsidy program.

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    Richard Haass on Russia, Taiwan, and US democracy

    Richard Haass explains what caused the Ukraine war, urges the West to scrutinize its economic dependence on China, proposes ways to reverse the dangerous deterioration of democracy in America, and more.
  2. op_haass3_Chris HondrosGetty Images_iraqwar Chris Hondros/Getty Images
    10

    Revisiting America’s War of Choice in Iraq

    Richard Haass considers the enduring lessons from a foreign intervention that was both ill-conceived and poorly executed.
  3. BQ SVB China News Service / Contributor via Getty Images
    3

    PS Commentators Respond: Is a New Financial Crisis Underway?

    Featured in this Big Question

    Harold James, Simon Johnson, Stephen S. Roach, Kenneth Rogoff, Anne C. Sibert

    The US government’s pledge to do “whatever is needed” to protect the banking system after Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse last week did little to reassure markets, which have continued to slide. At a time when the US Federal Reserve is considering further interest-rate hikes to tame inflation, we asked PS commentators how bad things are likely to get, for the US and the world.

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    The Sense of an Ending

    James Livingston surveys the intellectual terrain created by the transition from capitalism as we have come to know it.
  5. BQ - big tech Anna Moneymaker / Staff via Getty Images
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    PS Commentators Respond: Can the US Rein in Big Tech?

    Featured in this Big Question

    Anu Bradford, Tim O'Reilly, Ilan Strauss, Mariana Mazzucato, Tommaso Valletti

    While the European Union has gradually tightened the screws on tech giants, America’s regulatory bark has so far been bigger than its bite. With Big Tech’s competition-crushing market power continuing to grow, we asked PS commentators why the US continues to lag, and what it would take to make real progress.

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    William H. Janeway on state-sponsored innovation, greentech, asset bubbles, and more

    William H. Janeway proposes a better approach to innovation-boosting state procurement, explains why financial speculation is vital to technological progress, highlights three recent developments that could transform capitalism, and more.
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Global ructions have put an end to the long era of price stability and low interest rates, forcing a reconsideration of many business models and economic growth strategies. Whether old orthodoxies can be replaced by something genuinely new and better is now the trillion-dollar question.

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  1. fayolle3_MUNIR UZ ZAMANAFP via Getty Images_drinking water MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP via Getty Images
    0

    The Water Crisis Is a Vital Investment Opportunity

    Ambroise Fayolle & Henk Ovink calls for new thinking about how we value the planet’s most important natural resource.
  2. grafton2_ SIMON MAINAAFP via Getty Images_water SIMON MAINA/AFP via Getty Images
    0

    Waking Up to the World’s Water Crisis

    Quentin Grafton, et al. see three overarching priorities for the first global water conference in almost a half-century.
  3. willoughby2_WILLIAM WESTAFP via Getty Images_farms WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images
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    The Food-System Revolution Is Coming

    Robin Willoughby & Nico Muzi see three big sources of industry-wide disruption that will be beneficial if properly managed.

Opinion that Moves

  1. Julia Kaufman, et al. Localizing Development Research
  2. Jan Eeckhout The Simplest Fix for Banking
  3. Anne O. Krueger America’s Industrial Policy Is Counterproductive
  4. Howard Davies America’s Financial Regulatory System Is Still Broken

  1. Brahma Chellaney America’s Interest in Ending the Ukraine Crisis
  2. Carl Bildt Hell in the Holy Land
  3. Kent Harrington What Do America’s Spies Really Think About China?
  4. Shlomo Ben-Ami Peace Requires Betrayal

  1. William A. Haseltine A Path Out of the Pandemic
  2. Miriam Mutebi Winning the Cancer War in Sub-Saharan Africa
  3. Ifeanyi M. Nsofor Decolonizing Global Health Leadership
  4. Koketso Moeti Protecting Public Health from Big Food

  1. Ambroise Fayolle, et al. The Water Crisis Is a Vital Investment Opportunity
  2. Quentin Grafton, et al. Waking Up to the World’s Water Crisis
  3. Mariana Mazzucato, et al. Confronting the Global Water Crisis
  4. Jayati Ghosh The High Cost of Carbon Pricing

  1. Daron Acemoglu, et al. How to Fix the Platform Economy
  2. Olivia White, et al. Reimagining Global Integration
  3. Robert Muggah, et al. AI and the Global South
  4. Brian Callaci Curbing Merger Mania

  1. Slavoj Žižek Artificial Idiocy
  2. Christy Braham Who Gets Squeezed by Austerity?
  3. Claire Hutchings How Governments Can Reach Those Furthest Behind First
  4. Peter Singer Will the Catholic Church Rethink Contraception?

Africa’s economic rise is a world-changing development, but the sources of its emerging strength – and lingering weaknesses – are little understood. W…

  1. Miriam Mutebi Winning the Cancer War in Sub-Saharan Africa
  2. Kingsley Moghalu Nigeria’s Make-or-Break Election
  3. Safia Boly, et al. How to Transform African Agriculture

Today’s media landscape is littered with landmines: open hostility from illiberal and autocratic regimes, mounting censorship in countries such as Hungary, Turkey,…

  1. Arzu Geybulla Facebook Is Failing Journalists
  2. Anne-Marie Slaughter, et al. Defending Democracies’ Information Infrastructure
  3. Alexander Schallenberg, et al. Defending Democracy’s Defenders

As the COVID-19 crisis escalates, PS commentators assess its implications for the economy, propose policy responses, and consider what might – and sho…

  1. William A. Haseltine A Path Out of the Pandemic
  2. Ifeanyi M. Nsofor Decolonizing Global Health Leadership
  3. Nicholas B. Dirks Rebuilding Trust in Science