Jeffrey Frankel, a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, previously served as a member of President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers. He directs the Program in International Finance and Macroeconomics at the US National Bureau of Economic Research, where he is a member of the Business Cycle Dating Committee, the official US arbiter of recession and recovery.
As the US, Mexico, and Canada prepare to renegotiate NAFTA, much attention is being devoted to sugar. Indeed, the negotiations will probably produce a sweet deal for the US sugar industry, highlightin… read more
Advocates of an “ownership society” argue that homeowners take better care of their properties than renters, with positive externalities for communities. But there is also an argument against public p… read more
With US President Donald Trump’s administration seemingly committed to its campaign promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, it is worth asking how the 23-year-old deal could b… read more
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has so far avoided fulfilling one of Trump’s irrational promises: to label China a currency manipulator. Mnuchin should kill that promise once and for all, by acqu… read more
Although debates about financial regulation tend to focus on quantity, not quality, “more versus less” isn’t the issue; the details are. And when it comes to financial reform in the US, President Dona… read more
Upon entering office in 2009, US President Barack Obama confronted conditions more adverse than any incoming president had faced in many decades. Yet, despite his opponents' obstructionism, Obama achi… read more
Around the world, several countries are currently undergoing demonetization, or currency reforms in which the government removes banknotes of a certain denomination from circulation and replaces them … read more
The US has never had a president-elect as inexperienced, untruthful, and mercurial as Donald Trump, so it is almost impossible to know how he will govern. But the looming Trump presidency does have on… read more
In the US and elsewhere nowadays, populist politicians often claim that easy monetary policy is hurting ordinary workers, thereby exacerbating income inequality. But while inequality is a problem, rai… read more
