In The News

China, The New Indispensable Nation?

Steven Mufson November 19, 2014
China is adapting to its role as an indispensable nation, argues Steven Mufson in an opinion essay for the Washington Post. The world’s second largest economy, also the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is indispensable on a number of fronts, particularly climate change: “while America still possesses unparalleled military superiority and bears a unique burden in intervening in foreign...

The Economics of Inclusion

Ricardo Hausmann November 17, 2014
Both inequality and slow economic growth result from a particular from of exclusion, argues Ricardo Hausmann, director of the Center for International Development at Harvard University, in an essay for Project Syndicate. Growth varies around the world and also within countries, and Hausmann points to fixed costs, especially those linked to infrastructure for water, transportation and electricity...

Seeds of a Modern Economic Empire

Nayan Chanda November 12, 2014
China is the world’s second largest economic power but lacks comparable voting power in the International Monetary Fund, which bases quotas mostly on GDP but also on openness, economic variability and international reserves. So China is throwing support behind another institution: The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB, could “place China at the hub of a gigantic trade and economic web...

Central Asia Hurting as Russia’s Ruble Sinks

David Trilling and Timur Toktonaliev November 6, 2014
As Russia’s ruble declines in response to western imposed sanctions, Central Asian countries face rising inflation. The economies of countries like Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan rely on remittances from workers in Russia, notes an article originally published by EurasiaNet. As the value of these remittances decreases, prices of imports skyrocket, often by double digits. Turkmenistan,...

Missing the Prime Suspect in the Global Slowdown

George Melloan November 5, 2014
Inflation is a friend to those in long-term debt, especially those with low interest rates, reducing the value of money that is repaid over time. As the United States ends quantitative easing, Japan and the European Central Bank continue the policy tried since the economic crisis of 2008, purchasing debt to combat deflation, reduce interest rates and encourage spending. “Inflation expectations...

Why Taxation Must Go Global

Wolfgang Schäuble November 3, 2014
Citizens and businesses expect their governments to provide many programs – highways and other infrastructure, public health, and defense – but most despise paying taxes. “As a result of the growing pace and intensity of globalization and digitization, more and more economic processes have an international dimension,” notes Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s federal minister of finance. “As a...

Debate Rages on Quantitative Easing’s Effect on Inequality

Chris Giles October 28, 2014
Since the global debt crisis of 2008, central banks in the US, Japan and the UK have embraced policies of quantitative easing, designed to expand currency supplies and keep interest rates low to encourage economic and job growth. But conservatives in the US and liberals in the UK claim the policies have led to rising income inequality for the advanced economies, reports Chris Giles for Financial...