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Alex Friedman

Alex Friedman

25 commentaries

Alex Friedman, a former chief financial officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is Co-Founder and CEO of Novata.

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  1. Private Equity’s ESG Generation
    dibosco1_GETTY_ESG STANDARDS private equity Getty Images

    Private Equity’s ESG Generation

    Jul 12, 2022 Sébastien Mazella di Bosco & Alex Friedman argue that an often-maligned industry could take environmental, social, and governance investing mainstream.

  2. Hacking the Tragedy of the Commons
    afriedman25_Teera Konakan Getty Images_ green investment Teera Konakan Getty Images

    Hacking the Tragedy of the Commons

    Dec 7, 2021 Alex Friedman is bullish about new consortiums designed to mobilize privately held companies behind climate efforts.

  3. The US and China Are Not Destined for War
    krulak5_Forrest AndersonGetty Images_USChinaflags Forrest Anderson/Getty Images

    The US and China Are Not Destined for War

    Aug 17, 2021 Charles C. Krulak & Alex Friedman list four reasons to believe that the so-called Thucydides Trap can be avoided this time around.

  4. How to Fix the Gates Foundation
    afriedman23_ David RyderGetty Images_bill gates foundation David Ryder/Getty Images

    How to Fix the Gates Foundation

    May 28, 2021 Alex Friedman & Julie Sunderland identify three ways to boost charitable organizations' impact – including by making them divorce-proof.

  5. The Meaning of 200,000 COVID-19 Deaths
    afriedman22_ANGELA WEISSAFP via Getty Images_covid-19 deaths Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

    The Meaning of 200,000 COVID-19 Deaths

    Sep 22, 2020 Alex Friedman puts a deplorable US milestone into perspective – and urges action to prevent further tragedy.

  1. khrushcheva171_MIKHAIL METZELPOOLAFP via Getty Images_putinkim Mikhail Metzel/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

    Putin and Kim’s Cartoon Summit

    Nina L. Khrushcheva thinks that Russia's recent meeting with North Korea was intended primarily as a warning to the South.
  2. haykel18_MANDEL NGANAFP via Getty Images_mbs Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

    Saudi Arabia’s New Nationalism

    Bernard Haykel explains the reasoning behind the Kingdom's ongoing domestic- and foreign-policy transformation.
  3. wagner22_Lukas SchulzeGetty Images_pollution Lukas Schulze/Getty Images

    The Green Growth Mindset

    Gernot Wagner sees doctrinaire debates about capitalism as irrelevant or even deleterious to the decarbonization effort.
  4. mallochbrown17_GIANLUIGI GUERCIAAFP via Getty Images_africawomenpolitics Gianluigi Guercia/AFP via Getty Images

    Africa Is the Future of Multilateralism

    Mark Malloch-Brown explains why the continent should be at the forefront of efforts to bring about international reforms.
  5. op_yi2_PEDRO PARDOAFP via Getty Images_chinahousing Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

    A Chinese Bubble Long in the Making

    Yi Fuxian

    The Chinese government is very good at covering up small problems, but these often pile up into much bigger ones that can no longer be ignored. The current real-estate bubble is a case in point, casting serious doubts not just on the wisdom of past policies but also on China's long-term economic future.

    traces the long roots of the country's mounting economic and financial problems.
  6. bp industrial policy Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

    Industrial Policy Is Back

    From semiconductors to electric vehicles, governments are identifying the strategic industries of the future and intervening to support them – abandoning decades of neoliberal orthodoxy in the process. Are industrial policies the key to tackling twenty-first-century economic challenges or a recipe for market distortions and lower efficiency?

  7. fischer208_DrAfter123Getty Images_AIhuman DrAfter123/Getty Images

    Is AI a Master or Slave?

    Joschka Fischer wonders whether humanity can even hope to maintain control in an era of “mega-crisis.”
  8. haldar25_BettmannGetty Images_friedmanreagan Bettmann/Getty Images

    Laying Chicago Economics to Rest

    Antara Haldar

    From breakthroughs in behavioral economics to mounting evidence in the real world, there is good reason to think that the economic orthodoxy of the past 50 years now has one foot in the grave. The question is whether the mainstream economics profession has gotten the memo.

    looks back on 50 years of neoclassical economic orthodoxy and the damage it has wrought.
  9. delong254_ Samuel CorumGetty Images_january6riot Samuel Corum/Getty Images

    America’s Broken Civic Bargain

    J. Bradford DeLong worries that Republicans have abandoned one of the core principles that sustains a democracy over time.

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