In The News

Will Printing Money Do It?

Nayan Chanda October 9, 2012
Central banks can add to the money supply by lowering interest rates for major financial institutions and purchasing bonds, thus increasing credit and liquidity – and this is what major central banks in the West have set out to do until economic growth and jobs return. The practice amounts to “printing money.” For example, the US vows to insert $40 billion each month into the economy to purchase...

Change in China Hits US Purse

Jon Hilsenrath, Laurie Burkitt, Elizabeth Holmes June 22, 2011
For more than a decade, US shoppers enjoyed low prices on clothing, electronics and other products, thanks to China’s low-cost labor and its government keeping the value of its currency low. But the days of discounted prices are coming to an end as Chinese workers demand higher wages, the value of the Chinese yuan rises and new consumer demand throughout China leads to rising prices for cotton,...

The Eurozone Heads for Breakup

Nouriel Roubini June 16, 2011
Greece, a nation of 11.2 million, owes more than €300 billion. Restructuring the debt is inevitable, notes Nouriel Roubini in a blog posting for the Financial Times. The only unknowns are how and when. Europe united behind the euro as a single currency before enacting structural reforms and streamlining monetary, fiscal and exchange-rate policies, Roubini explains, adding that “early interest...

Debt Plan Ideas Draw Scorn of Liberals and Tea Party

Jackie Calmes November 15, 2010
A debt commission appointed by US President Barack Obama released a deficit-reduction draft plan with a long list of cuts in the federal workforce, defense and entitlement programs – along with simplifying the tax code, lowering tax rates for individuals and corporations while eliminating many tax breaks. The US budget ballooned under Obama's watch: Rescuing the economy from global crisis...

Why the Financial Crisis and What Is the Way Out

Carmen Reinhart October 7, 2010
In an interview with Nayan Chanda, Professor Carmen Reinhart, co-author of This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, discusses the causes behind the current financial crisis and the measures needed to recover and grow. – YaleGlobal

The World Economy Needs Balancing, But How?

David Dapice August 3, 2010
Many nations seek economic relief by promoting exports. But a trade system built on all exports and no imports is an impossible feat to achieve. To lift economies from recession's mire, nations pursue, among other things, domestic rebalancing by curtailing unsustainable, wasteful spending and the borrowing that triggered the global downturn. On the other hand, the target markets for much of...

Unless Two Imbalances Can Be Fixed, Two New Crises Will Follow This One

Irwin Stelzer June 8, 2010
Huge trade imbalances, particularly between China and the US, Germany and the rest of Europe, ensure low interest rates and ongoing bubbles, contends Irwin Stelzer of the Hudson Institute. Ongoing lending at low rates to nations already steeped in debt dulls incentives to increase competitiveness and reduce trade deficits as well. “‘Imbalance’ is the word, and it creates multiple threats to the...