News & Commentary:

Articles/Commentary

Terror must not trample on Tunisian institutions
Claire Spencer (FT) Jul 1, 2015
It is not for the outside world to impose governance and economic reforms on the country.

Tsipras is holding out for debt relief
Martin Sandbu (FT) Jul 1, 2015
Greek PM will try to make bowing to creditors’ demands look like victory.

Keep politics out of infrastructure
Sarah Gordon (FT) Jul 1, 2015
Economic strength depends on independent system to identify national needs and priorities.

Rethink needed for monetary policy role
Alberto Gallo (FT) Jul 1, 2015
Iceland’s reform proposals may go too far but are worth consideration.

Greece’s crisis could be good for Europe
David Ignatius (WP) Jul 1, 2015
The continent’s elites have been dealt a reality check.

Economic Stagnation and the Global Bubble
David Stockman (Mises Daily) Jul 1, 2015
You’d think with all the “stimulus” from Washington over the fifteen years since the dotcom bust, American capitalism would be booming. It’s not. On the measures which count when it comes to sustainable growth and real wealth creation, the trends are slipping backwards — not leaping higher.

Can the Grexit Lemon Be Made into Lemonade?
Joseph E. Gagnon (PIIE) Jul 1, 2015
With a referendum scheduled for Sunday and frantic negotiations spilling onto the front pages, the possibility of a Greek exit from the euro area, or Grexit, looms large. It is hard to see how Grexit could be avoided if the referendum results in a "no" vote. Such an exit is fraught with danger, yet it also holds hope for stronger economic growth in Greece over the next few years.

Benefits of the Greek Crisis
Martin Hüfner (Globalist) Jul 1, 2015
Why the eurozone will become more stable — thanks to the Tsipras episode.

Greece, Puerto Rico and China: Contagion or Quarantine?
Dan Weil (II) Jul 1, 2015
Market crises are reason for caution, but they don’t necessarily signal the spread of an all-out financial crisis. That’s the good news.

A Year After Oil Prices Fell, Supply and Demand Take Charge
Matt Mossman (II) Jul 1, 2015
Now that Saudi Arabia has walked away from its role as the world’s swing oil producer, U.S. output will determine prices.

Europe Wants to Punish Greece With Exit
Clive Crook (Bloomberg View) Jul 1, 2015
A default shouldn't force Greece out of the euro.

Gold Shrugs Off Armageddon
Barry Ritholtz (Bloomberg View) Jul 1, 2015
Why didn't a meltdown in equities drive investors to the traditional refuge?

Reaganomics Won't Save Japan
William Pesek (Bloomberg View) Jul 1, 2015
Shinzo Abe gives voodoo economics a try.

The 'Demerging' Greek Economy
Marc Champion (Bloomberg View) Jul 1, 2015
What happens when growth shifts into reverse?

How About a Global Currency?
Leonid Bershidsky (Bloomberg View) Jul 1, 2015
Don't knock the euro. Its travails may benefit everyone someday.

Why the Greek Bailout Failed
Kenneth Rogoff (Project Syndicate) Jul 1, 2015
As the crisis in Greek demonstrates, imposing structural reforms from outside a country is unlikely to succeed without the willingness of a capable government. If a bailout program requires a wholesale change in a country’s economic model, moving swiftly to write down outstanding debts may be the more sensible option.

The End of Work as We Know It
Jean Pisani-Ferry (Project Syndicate) Jul 1, 2015
Technology in the form of automation and digital intermediaries like Uber are fundamentally transforming the job market. Rather than try to stop the unstoppable, we should think about how to put this new reality at the service of our values and welfare.

The Greek people have paid for their governments’ mistakes – and for the errors of the Troika
Simon Wren-Lewis (New Statesman) Jul 1, 2015
The meltdown in Athens and the mistakes of the IMF.

Procyclical emerging market policy: New evidence
Otaviano Canuto, Francisco Carneiro and Leonardo Garrido (VoxEU) Jul 1, 2015
Industrialised and developing countries have differing fiscal strategies for dealing with the business cycle. But are countries’ strategies different according to whether they are industrialised? This column presents new evidence suggesting that the picture is complex. Procyclical fiscal policies remain the norm amongst most non-industrialised developing countries, but some key developing countries have recently moved toward a counter-cyclical stance as a result of strengthening institutions.

Japan and the Great Divergence, 725 to 1874
Jean-Pascal Bassino, Stephen Broadberry, Kyoji Fukao, Bishnupriya Gupta and Masanori Takashima (VoxEU) Jul 1, 2015
Japan was the first Asian nation to achieve modern economic growth. This column discusses new evidence suggesting that Japan’s growth started from a lower level than Britain’s and grew more slowly until the Meiji Restoration. The key to understanding modern economic growth seems to lie in identifying the forces that dampened growth reversals, rather than the forces responsible for growth itself.

The Robots Are Coming
Daniela Rus (FA) Jul 1, 2015
How technological breakthroughs will transform everyday life.

Will Humans Go the Way of Horses?
Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee (FA) Jul 1, 2015
Labor in the Second Machine Age.

The Plunder of Africa
Howard W. French (FA) Jul 1, 2015
How everybody holds the continent back.

A World Without Work
Derek Thomson (Atlantic) Jul 1, 2015
For centuries, experts have predicted that machines would make workers obsolete. That moment may finally be arriving. What will a society without jobs look like—and how should we prepare?

Why the Saudis Are Going Solar
Jeffrey Ball (Atlantic) Jul 1, 2015
The fate of one of the biggest fossil-fuel producers may now depend on its investment in renewable energy.

Inequality Is Enemy No. 1
Don Peck (Atlantic) Jul 1, 2015
The urgency of fixing income disparities around the world.

Puerto Rico crisis in US back yard
Gillian Tett (FT) Jul 2, 2015
The problem bedevilling the island is not just its $72bn debt but any obvious way to restructure it.

Managing the unmanageable Grexit contagion
Robert Shrimsley (FT) Jul 2, 2015
Market analysts discuss the prognosis of its sick patient.

Why Grexit odds are probably 99% wrong
Ralph Atkins (FT) Jul 2, 2015
Range of estimates reveals markets’ inability to price political risks.

Greece should vote for the rule of law
Philip Stephens (FT) Jul 2, 2015
There remains a conviction that the future belongs to the EU’s model of shared sovereignty

Sharing economy starts to go mainstream
Richard Waters (FT) Jul 2, 2015
Companies that deliver a truly new service have a strong future.

Europe's Many Economic Disasters
Paul Krugman (NYT) Jul 2, 2015
Economic failure extends far beyond Greece.

Weak Power Grids in Africa Stunt Economies and Fire Up Tempers
Norimitsu Onishi (NYT) Jul 2, 2015
Sub-Saharan Africa’s power generating capacity amounts to less than South Korea’s, and a quarter of it is unproductive at any given moment because of the continent’s aging infrastructure.

What’s Driving Bolivia’s Booming Economy
Simon Wilson (Mises Daily) Jul 2, 2015
To the surprise of many, Bolivia is now Latin America’s fastest growing economy

TPP Timeline in Focus as Obama Signs Trade Promotion Authority into Law
Bridges, Volume 19, Number 24 Jul 2, 2015
US President Barack Obama signed Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) into law on Monday, putting an end to the months-long drama in Washington over the controversial legislation's fate. With the TPA debate now in the rear-view mirror, the focus has now turned to the potential timeline for wrapping up the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks.

EU, China Leaders Make Investment, Climate Push
Bridges, Volume 19, Number 24 Jul 2, 2015
The EU and China are aiming to have a joint text for a sweeping bilateral investment pact by year's end, leaders from the two sides said on Monday following a summit in Brussels, in a move that could eventually pave the way for future consideration of a potential trade deal.

UN Negotiators Review "Zero Draft" for Post-2015 Development Agenda
Bridges, Volume 19, Number 24 Jul 2, 2015
UN negotiators meeting in New York last week commented on a "zero draft" for a new global development agenda and engaged in substantive discussions on key sections, including a declaration, a planned set of sustainable development goals (SDGs), means of implementation, and how to monitor progress in the coming years.

A Political and Intellectual Proxy War over Greece
Angel Ubide (PIIE) Jul 2, 2015
The escalation of the conflict over Greece is more than a dispute between the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Greece's international creditors. The conflict is a proxy for two wars—one intellectual and one political—in which the Greek people, especially the poor, have been taken hostage.

Greece's Future Is in Greek Hands
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard (PIIE) Jul 2, 2015
The Greek government has dug itself and its people into a hole over the last week, as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has reversed himself on an ever growing list of key issues. His government is now suddenly in favor of a third bailout from the euro area (though excluding the International Monetary Fund this time), and has more or less accepted the very proposals he labeled an insult to European democracy a few days ago. On the other hand, he is still calling for rejection of the referendum on whether to accept the terms of international creditors in return for a bailout.

The Question for Greek Voters
Marc Champion (Bloomberg View) Jul 2, 2015
Can Greece's current government boost productivity?

No, the U.S. Won't Follow Greece Over the Cliff
Megan McArdle (Bloomberg View) Jul 2, 2015
American fiscal policy is flawed. But it's not that flawed.

China's Boom Has World Bank Worried
William Pesek (Bloomberg View) Jul 2, 2015
A warning that sudden wealth can warp priorities.

Switzerland's Currency Conundrum
Mark Gilbert (Bloomberg View) Jul 2, 2015
An appreciating franc is bad news for exports.

What Energy Shortage?
Jostein Eikeland (Project Syndicate) Jul 2, 2015
We humans are not facing a shortage of energy. We are facing a technical challenge in capturing it and delivering it to consumers; and one of the most efficient ways to meet that challenge is by investing in better ways to store it.

Lessons for Oslo
Julia Gillard (Project Syndicate) Jul 2, 2015
As the world prepares to agree to the Sustainable Development Goals that will guide development efforts for the next 15 years, there is a growing recognition of the degree to which the development agenda depends on education. The upcoming education summit in Oslo reflects that recognition.

Cross-border acquisitions and labour regulations
Ross Levine and Chen Lin (VoxEU) Jul 2, 2015
Labour market regulations have important implications for both the incidence of cross-border acquisitions, and the outcomes for acquiring firms. This column explores how variations in labour regulations between countries affect cross-border acquisitions and subsequent firm performance. For a sample of 50 countries, firms are found to enjoy larger returns when they acquire a target in a country with weaker labour regulations than the acquirer’s home country.

China Spotlight: What Happens When the Music Stops? A Closer Look at the Chinese Equity Market
Sonja Gibbs, Weiwei Chen, Emre Tiftik and Fiona Nguyen (IIF) Jul 2, 2015
The recent drop in Chinese equities is a healthy correction after a sharp sentiment fueled rally. Continued near-term volatility seems likely, but at lower valuations the market should find support from recent policy measures. Longer-term prospects remain promising as the market is opened and its infrastructure improves.

Stock prices and high-frequency news analytics
Bastian von Beschwitz, Donald B. Keim and Massimo Massa (VoxEU) Jul 2, 2015
High-frequency news analytics can increase market efficiency by allowing traders to react faster to new information. One concern about such services is that they might provide a competitive advantage to their users with potential distortionary price effects. This column looks at how high frequency news analytics affect the stock market, net of the informational content that they provide. News analytics improve price efficiency, but at the cost of reducing liquidity and with potentially distortionary price effects.

Greece's Sorry Reckoning
Nikos Konstandaras (NYT) Jul 3, 2015
A lot more is at stake than the only stable currency the nation has had in a history punctuated by bankruptcies.

Billionaires to the Barricades
Aln Feuer (NYT) Jul 3, 2015
Some of the world’s wealthiest are publicly addressing the gap between the working class and the 1 percent.

How Iceland Emerged From Its Deep Freeze
Jenny Anderson (NYT) Jul 3, 2015
Unemployment is 4 percent, the International Monetary Fund is predicting 4.1 percent G.D.P. growth for 2015, and tourism is booming.

Greece: How Long Can Tsipras Cling to Power?
Holger Schmieding (Globalist) Jul 3, 2015
Will Greeks' common sense on the euro trump over the undeniable charisma of Tsipras?

Are Markets Judging the Risk of Grexit Correctly?
Michael Heise (Globalist) Jul 3, 2015
Assessing the impact of a Grexit on financial markets and the Eurozone economy.

Greece Is Doing Democracy Wrong
Noah Feldman (Bloomberg View) Jul 3, 2015
It's a bad idea to let everyone vote in a crisis.

'Neglected Prophet' of Economics Got It Right
Leonid Bershidsky (Bloomberg View) Jul 3, 2015
Negative rates in Europe bring utopian ideas to life.

Reviving Islam’s Enlightenment
Daniel Chirot and Scott L. Montgomery (Project Syndicate) Jul 3, 2015
Panicked attempts to march into Muslim countries and extirpate the threat have been counterproductive, only serving to increase the appeal of Islamic extremism. Western scholars who understand Islam and speak some of the many languages of its practitioners need to support these intellectual movements.

Education in Emergencies
Anthony Lake (Project Syndicate) Jul 3, 2015
Education not only boosts children’s chances of building a better life for themselves and their families; it also instills in them the skills and values they need to end conflicts and help rebuild their societies. That is why global education initiatives should include a focus on schooling in crisis-affected environments.

Europe’s Digital Wrong Turn
Christopher Engman (Project Syndicate) Jul 3, 2015
In May, the European Commission announced that it would create a unified digital market of 500 million consumers that would add €415 billion to the European Union’s GDP and create some 3.8 million jobs. Unfortunately, a recent decision on one key digital issue – data privacy – threatens to derail that effort.

A Way Out for Greece
Jeffrey D. Sachs (Project Syndicate) Jul 3, 2015
Easing Greece’s debt burden while keeping it within the eurozone is the correct and achievable path out of the country's crisis, and it can be achieved easily through a mutual accord between Germany and Greece. The result would be a win not only for the two countries – but also for the world economy.

Achieving Education for All
Irina Bokova (Project Syndicate) Jul 3, 2015
To leave no person or country behind is the ultimate ambition of the development agenda that will be adopted at the United Nations this September. The first step toward achieving that goal is ensuring a high-quality education for all.

An economist explains why the key to a free world lies with China
Miles Kimball (Quartz) Jul 3, 2015
People love freedom, and will never be content for long without it.

9 myths about the Greek crisis
James K. Galbraith (Politico) Jul 3, 2015
An insider’s take on the conventional wisdom to ignore.

Greece is solvent but illiquid: Policy implications
Paul De Grauwe (VoxEU) Jul 3, 2015
Greece’s debt is 180% of GDP, which seems to make it insolvent without large primary surpluses. This column argues that since restructuring lowered the interest burden to just 2% of GDP, Greece is solvent – or would be with nominal GDP growth of just 2%. The ECB’s misdiagnosis has caused an unnecessary banking crisis. The solution is to accept that Greek debt is sustainable, so the austerity programme can be relaxed and liquidity support provided to the Greek banking sector.

The meaning of a referendum: Austerity and sovereignty
Daniel Gros (VoxEU) Jul 4, 2015
Two financial crises at the ‘sub federal’ are currently taking place – one in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the second one in Greece. This column highlights some surprising similarities between them, as well as the main differences. The Eurozone is a voluntary union of states which remain sovereign. But if Greece were part of the US, it could not hold a referendum, and its budget would be drawn up by a federal bankruptcy court. The key political difference is not austerity, but the fact that Greece’s debt is mainly to official creditors, who are ideal targets for political pressure.

Greek Referendum Myths
Mohamed A. El-Erian (Bloomberg View) Jul 4, 2015
A hastily arranged vote won't resolve the crisis. It may make it worse.

Tribalism: Understanding Europe And The Greek Crisis
Jean-Pierre Lehmann (Forbes) Jul 4, 2015
I have been a Europhile all my life. Consequently I have favored most initiatives to deepen and/or expand the European Union.

Europe and Greece on the Brink
Mark Roe (Project Syndicate) Jul 4, 2015
Greece would suffer from an exit from the eurozone, but at least it would regain the ability to devalue its currency. For Europe, however, the risk is all on the downside, with the possibility that the crisis could reverberate through the continent’s real economy.

The market economy’s stability
Paul Beaudry, Dana Galizia and Franck Portier (VoxEU) Jul 4, 2015
Whereas some view the macroeconomy as overall stable and on a smooth long-run growth path, others argue it is unstable with repeated periods of booms and busts. This column suggests that the market economy is inherently unstable and booms and busts arise endogenously as the results of market incentives. Monetary policy is then perhaps not the right tool for addressing macroeconomic fluctuations. Instead, policies aimed at changing the incentives would be more appropriate.

Currency is not destiny
Stephen Kinsella, Hamid Raza and Gylfi Zoega (VoxEU) Jul 4, 2015
Iceland and Ireland were both rocked by the fallout of the Global Crisis. This column argues that differences in currency arrangements affected the mechanisms of the boom and the collapse. Iceland’s banks collapsed because they did not have a lender of last resort in euros. Ireland did. But Iceland’s collapse and ensuing capital controls shifted the burden of debt restructuring onto foreign creditors to a much greater extent than in Ireland.

Determinants of banks’ home bias
Tamon Asonuma, Said Bakhache and Heiko Hesse (VoxEU) Jul 4, 2015
Home bias in banks’ holdings of domestic government debt could pose problems for financial stability and crisis management. This column discusses some of the determinants of this bias. Factors that increase macroeconomic instability are associated with higher home bias, while better investment opportunities in the private sector and better institutional quality reduce home bias.

The corporate debt bias and the cost of banking crises
Sven Langedijk, Gaëtan Nicodème, Andrea Pagano and Alessandro Rossi (VoxEU) Jul 4, 2015
Strengthening the banking sector through higher equity capital is one of the key elements of policies aiming to reduce the probability of crises. However, the ‘corporate debt bias’ – the tendency of corporate tax systems to favour debt over equity – is at odds with this objective. This column estimates the benefits for financial stability of eliminating the corporate debt bias. Fully removing the debt bias is estimated to reduce potential public finance losses by between 25 and 55% for the six large EU countries sampled.

The US is a helpless bystander on Greece
Edward Luce (FT) Jul 5, 2015
Washington has urged EU to write off Athens’ debts in return for restructuring, to no avail.

China’s credit and stock market party
George Magnus (FT) Jul 5, 2015
Debt growth has fallen but is still rising at twice the rate of nominal GDP.

The Greeks deserve more than threats
Nick Malkoutzis (FT) Jul 5, 2015
People need something more hopeful than talk of further cuts and tax rises.

No vote will widen fissures
Tony Barber (FT) Jul 5, 2015
Alexis Tsipras and his colleagues have brought catastrophe to their nation.

Greek battle will go on post referendum
Hugo Dixon (FT) Jul 5, 2015
Greece’s pro-Europeans risk losing political battle after Sunday’s referendum.

The Democrats’ Fractured Views on Trade
Vikas Bajaj (NYT) Jul 5, 2015
It is hard to assess conflicting arguments over trade deals, because both sides assign far too much importance to individual deals.

Ending Greece’s Bleeding
Paul Krugman (NYT) Jul 5, 2015
If Greece can’t live with the euro, it will be because the currency offers no respite for countries in trouble.

India’s Leader Maps Out a More Robust Digital Future
Nida Najar (NYT) Jul 5, 2015
With the country lagging behind much of the world in digital infrastructure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing for greater Internet connectivity and services as well as electronics manufacturing.

China’s Market Rout Is a Double Threat
Keith Bradsher and Chris Buckley (NYT) Jul 5, 2015
A failure to halt the sell-off in stocks in the last three weeks has shaken Beijing’s aura of invincibility and imperils the global economy.

Greece and global debt
Robert J. Samuelson (WP) Jul 5, 2015
Its troubles offer a tutorial for the world.

Still a long way to go for China’s new normal
Ross Garnaut (EAF) Jul 5, 2015
China’s old model of growth produced the strongest, most resource-intensive economic growth the world has ever seen.

Independence Day for Greece
Uwe Bott (Globalist) Jul 5, 2015
Should Greece follow the U.S. example — and issue its own Declaration of Independence?

“Oxi”: A Historic Greek Vote Against Austerity
John Cassidy (New Yorker) Jul 5, 2015
The “Oxi” vote was a political victory, not an economic one. Greece is still broke, and its banks are still closed.

Ex-Im Bank's Bad Rap for Crony Capitalism
Albert R. Hunt (Bloomberg View) Jul 5, 2015
Why deny funding to an engine of U.S. exports and job creator?

10 Consequences of Greece's 'No'
Mohamed A. El-Erian (Bloomberg View) Jul 5, 2015
Greeks are mad as hell and won't take it anymore.

Greece Should Vote Yes and Europe Should Be Ashamed
Clive Crook (Bloomberg View) Jul 5, 2015
Resolving this crisis required statesmen. If Europe still has any, they kept quiet.

Fragile Europe, Exposed and Unmoored
Paola Subacchi (FP) Jul 5, 2015
The fig leaf that was covering up the flaws in the single currency has finally fallen off. Where do we go from here?

De-industrialisation, ‘new Speenhamland’ and neo-liberalism
Jim Tomlinson (VoxEU) Jul 5, 2015
In Britain today, a majority of those in poverty live in working, rather than non-working, households. This challenges the long-held notion that paid work offers a route out of poverty. This column argues that structural changes in the labour market have brought about profound changes in the social security system. A failure to acknowledge these underlying changes means that dialogues about the political direction of the British economy can be problematic and potentially misleading.

Determinants of fluctuations in the financial system
Gert Peersman and Wolf Wagner (VoxEU) Jul 5, 2015
The events of recent years have made it all too clear that we need to better understand the links between the financial sector and the real economy. This column explores financial sector shocks and real economy shocks and presents new evidence suggesting that financial shocks are a significant source of macroeconomic fluctuations. Policymakers need to better take into account the role of the financial system when predicting the future and when readying remedies.

De-industrialisation, ‘new Speenhamland’ and neo-liberalism
Jim Tomlinson (VoxEU) Jul 5, 2015
In Britain today, a majority of those in poverty live in working, rather than non-working, households. This challenges the long-held notion that paid work offers a route out of poverty. This column argues that structural changes in the labour market have brought about profound changes in the social security system. A failure to acknowledge these underlying changes means that dialogues about the political direction of the British economy can be problematic and potentially misleading.

Market sell-off tests Xi’s reform agenda
Tom Mitchell (FT) Jul 6, 2015
Turbulence challenges president’s image as transformative strongman.

US markets not immune from Greek turmoil
Mohamed El-Erian (FT) Jul 6, 2015
Equities and corporate bonds vulnerable to risk aversion.

Japan: Women in the workforce
Leo Lewis (FT) Jul 6, 2015
New legislation is designed to get more females into work but, argue critics, corporate Japan needs wholesale change.

How to Undo the Damage in Greece
Gikas Hardouvelis (NYT) Jul 6, 2015
A former Greek finance minister argues that the next few days are crucial. Lenders must compromise and Tsipras must stop gambling with the livelihood of future generations.

How to Make Sense of China’s Plummeting Stock Market
Neil Irwin (NYT) Jul 6, 2015
Four charts show why the sharp drop in Chinese markets was more predictable than you might expect.

An Econ Lesson in a Shanghai Market
Craig Richardson (WSJ) Jul 6, 2015
I sent my students on a mission to haggle for a souvenir statue. Best negotiator wins a prize.

Greek Political Contagion
WSJ Jul 6, 2015
Parties of the left across Europe are looking to Syriza as an anti-reform model.

It Is Up To Alexis Tsipras to Avoid Disaster Now
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard (PIIE) Jul 6, 2015
Greek voters yesterday overwhelmingly rejected further tax increases and spending cuts in a referendum on austerity measures demanded by Greece's international creditors. While the "no" vote greatly strengthens the Greek government's position domestically, it essentially has no value outside the country.

Worry but also Relief among Greece's Neighbors
Simeon Djankov (PIIE) Jul 6, 2015
The rapidly escalating financial troubles that Greece faces worry its neighbors for three main reasons. First, Greek banks account for a significant share of corporate lending in Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia.

Greek Taxpayers Facing a Future of Debt Slavery
Ian Daily (Mises Daily) Jul 6, 2015
Greece has defaulted on its debt to the International Monetary Fund, the first “developed” country to do so. But is Greece merely a casualty of a flawed eurozone or a canary in the coal mine?

Greece: The Franco-German Split Over "Solidarity" in Europe
Stephan Richter (Globalist) Jul 6, 2015
Why are Europe's two key economies so deeply divided over this issue?

Beijing Versus the Stock Market
Bloomberg View Jul 6, 2015
Markets that are only allowed to rise keep rising -- until they crash, hard.

China's Bull Market in Conspiracy Theories
William Pesek (Bloomberg View) Jul 6, 2015
Blaming foreigners won't stop stocks from falling.

The (Inadequate) Case for Economic Pessimism
A. Gary Shilling (Bloomberg View) Jul 6, 2015
Economists who say the U.S. is stuck with slow growth are misguided.

Why the Euro Is Failing
Ramesh Ponnuru (Bloomberg View) Jul 6, 2015
Everyone in Europe's currency union has resisted making hard choices.

Greeks Have Voted, Now Kick Them Out
Leonid Bershidsky (Bloomberg View) Jul 6, 2015
A new deal with Greece would set a bad example for aspiring EU members.

Greek Referendum Wasn't What You Think
Marc Champion (Bloomberg View) Jul 6, 2015
Voters only said they'd like to feel less pain.

The Catharsis of a Greek Exit
Mark Gilbert (Bloomberg View) Jul 6, 2015
Kicking Greece out of the euro is the better of two bad options.

Stock Market Misadventures, Chinese-Style
Justin Fox (Bloomberg View) Jul 6, 2015
Chinese officials' interventions aren't so foreign.

Greeks Stand Up to 'Lemon Socialism'
Barry Ritholtz (Bloomberg View) Jul 6, 2015
The EU demands private profits and public losses.

Help Greece Leave the Euro
Eric Beinhocker (Bloomberg View) Jul 6, 2015
A managed exit could give Greece hope and restore European unity.

China Steers Toward a Subprime Economy
William Pesek (Bloomberg View) Jul 6, 2015
A risky plan to buttress equities markets.

Greece Hits the Self-Destruct Button
Megan McArdle (Bloomberg View) Jul 6, 2015
Greeks squared off against Germans, and neither won.

Knowledge for Progress
Kevin Watkins (Project Syndicate) Jul 6, 2015
It has been suggested that the world is overestimating the role of education in economic development. But, while education is not a quick fix for slow growth, it is virtually impossible to name a country that has sustained an economic transformation without advances in education.

No Education, No Development
Erna Solberg and Børge Brende (Project Syndicate) Jul 6, 2015
The 121 million young people who are out of school today are not only being denied their basic right to education; they are being denied a fair chance to escape poverty, support their families, and develop their communities. This year, so crucial for global development, we must change this by making education a top priority.

A Way Out For Greece After The 'No' Vote
Charles W. Calomiris (Forbes) Jul 6, 2015
The “no” vote in Athens shows that Greek voters want other Europeans to continue to pay for their unsustainable high living – no news there. The more interesting story is that Greeks want to leave the euro by way of a public choice rather than a market shove.

Why China's Stock Markets Matter
Stratfor Jul 6, 2015
China's stock markets on July 8 continued the precipitous three-week slide that began on June 12.

G(reece)2K
Brendan Simms (FA) Jul 6, 2015
How to contain Athens' economic problems.

Athens on the Caribbean
Deepak Lamba-Nieves and Andrew Schrank (FA) Jul 6, 2015
Puerto Rico's own financial crisis.

Germans Forget Postwar History Lesson on Debt Relief in Greece Crisis
Eduardo Porter (NYT) Jul 7, 2015
The main creditor demanding that Greeks be made to pay for past profligacy benefited not so long ago from more lenient terms than it is now prepared to offer.

Someone needed to speak truth to Europe
Takatoshi Ito (FT) Jul 7, 2015
In the eurozone the IMF has let itself to be used by leaders as political cover.

IMF could play its part to save Greece
Shawn Donnan (FT) Jul 7, 2015
It may be time for fund to look at rule book and consider following its own advice.

Currency skirmishes become pitched battles
John Plender (FT) Jul 7, 2015
Competitive devaluations raise threat of full-blown protectionism.

India: Land in demand
Amy Kazmin (FT) Jul 7, 2015
As the country shifts from an agrarian to an industrialised economy, selling farmland fairly is a priority.

China’s Stock Plunge Is Scarier Than Greece
Ruchir Sharma (WSJ) Jul 7, 2015
There are four basic signs of a bubble, and the Chinese stock market is on the extreme end of all four.

Argentina’s Debt
Cecilia Nahon (NYT) Jul 7, 2015
The ambassador of Argentina blames a court ruling for interfering with the country’s efforts to pay off its debt.

It's Time for Greece to Leave the Euro
Jochen Bittner (NYT) Jul 7, 2015
The euro zone is only hurting itself by trying to keep Greece as a member.

Greece is trapped by the euro
David Ignatius (WP) Jul 7, 2015
It’s time for the monetary equivalent of a divorce lawyer who can help reckon the costs of a breakup.

Twilight of the Euro Welfare State?
Holman Jenkins (WSJ) Jul 7, 2015
It’s not from charitable impulse that Germany is reluctant to let Greece leave the common currency.

Cutting Greece Loose Might Be a Win-Win
William Galston (WSJ) Jul 7, 2015
The EU could blame the balky Greeks, who would be freed of the euro yoke.

Greece: What Lies Ahead?
Meghnad Desai (Globalist) Jul 7, 2015
To protect the weak, Syriza has to extend a hand to the powerful, especially foreign investors.

Greece should default on its IMF loans
Bodo Ellmers (Bretton Woods Project) Jul 7, 2015
The IMF loan should not be repaid, not just for Greece’s benefit but for the Fund’s own long-term good.

Brazil's Fiscal Adjustment: Chronicle of a Death Foretold?
Monica de Bolle (PIIE) Jul 7, 2015
Is a Brazil heading into a full-fledged fiscal crisis? Government officials say no, noting that President Dilma Rousseff, who has just completed a visit to Washington to try to repair ties with the United States, appointed an appropriately orthodox finance minister, Joaquim Levy, after winning re-election in 2014.

After the Greek Referendum: A Democracy Mismatch in Public Debt Crises
Anna Gelpern (PIIE) Jul 7, 2015
Yesterday's Greek referendum might look like a high point for democratic accountability, but it was not. When Greek citizens rejected the demands of their government's international creditors, the outcome bound Greek politicians but not the creditors that have prescribed economic policy for Greece since 2010.

Returning to the drachma won't save Greece
Tomas Hirst (Pieria) Jul 7, 2015
The tough road ahead for Greeks keeps getting made more difficult.

China Tries Japan's Approach to a Stock Bubble
William Pesek (Bloomberg View) Jul 7, 2015
If Beijing doesn't change course, it's heading for a lost decade or two.

Only 'Pragmatic Compromise' Can Save Greece
Mohamed A. El-Erian (Bloomberg View) Jul 7, 2015
The burden of restarting the economy must be shared.

The 'Wisdom of Crowds' Is Not That Wise
Barry Ritholtz (Bloomberg View) Jul 7, 2015
Some markets are smarter than others. Witness the Greek debacle.

The next chapter in the Greek crisis
Carlos A. Primo Braga (IMD) Jul 7, 2015
The Greek political and economic crises have entered a harrowing new chapter.

Slow-Growth Pessimists Miss the Mark
A. Gary Shilling (Bloomberg View) Jul 7, 2015
Once U.S. consumers deleverage, rapid growth will resume.

Reinvent the Export-Import Bank
Noah Smith (Bloomberg View) Jul 7, 2015
Have it act like a venture capitalist.

Debt Relief Should Be Greece's Parting Gift
Mark Gilbert (Bloomberg View) Jul 7, 2015
Europe should help Athens on its way out the door.

How Greece's Bank Bailout Benefited Greeks
Leonid Bershidsky (Bloomberg View) Jul 7, 2015
The bank run took the bailout money away.

Statesmanship and the Greek Crisis
Jeffrey D. Sachs (Project Syndicate) Jul 7, 2015
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have the opportunity to go down in history as great European statesmen. Rapprochement between their two countries, combined with the promise of debt relief, will restore economic confidence and save Greece and the euro.

Greece’s “No” is No Victory for Democracy
Bernard-Henri Lévy (Project Syndicate) Jul 7, 2015
Despite what many are saying – especially those who do not have to bear the consequences of their words – Greek voters’ rejection on Sunday of the latest bailout offer from their country’s creditors did not represent a “victory for democracy.” In fact, it is quite the opposite.

Why Ukraine Deserves a Haircut
Erik Berglöf (Project Syndicate) Jul 7, 2015
The battle in Ukraine over the future of reform is far from won, but real progress has been made. The country's private creditors must now do their part and join the international community and the IMF in taking a haircut on their debts.

International Taxation and Global Development
José Antonio Ocampo (Project Syndicate) Jul 7, 2015
When it comes to funding development, taxes are perhaps the most critical piece of the puzzle. But the system for taxing multinational companies’ global profits is broken – and it is exacerbating inequality both within and across countries.

Greece’s Vote for Sovereignty
Dani Rodrik (Project Syndicate) Jul 7, 2015
When the Greeks voted “no” in the July 5 referendum they asserted the priority of their democracy over those in other eurozone countries. If the Greek vote is a victory for anything, it is a victory for national sovereignty.

China Peak Oil: 2015 Is the Year
Gave Collins (Diplomat) Jul 7, 2015
Domestic production looks set to peak, with some profound implications for the world market.

Greece - A Mess With Consequences
David Dapice (YaleGlobal) Jul 7, 2015
Greek voters soundly rejected a set of reforms from the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund. The “no” vote may mark the beginning of Greece’s exit from the eurozone, and the uncertainty of what happens next comes at a bad time for the global economy, warns economist David Dapice.

The Greek Vote and the EU Miscalculation
George Friedman (Stratfor) Jul 7, 2015
In a result that should surprise no one, the Greeks voted to reject European demands for additional austerity measures as the price for providing funds to allow Greek banks to operate.

Why growth in finance is a drag on the real economy
Stephen Cecchetti and Enisse Kharroubi (VoxEU) Jul 7, 2015
A booming financial sector means economic growth. Or does it? This column presents new evidence showing that when the financial sector grows more quickly, productivity tends to grow disproportionately slower in industries with either lower asset tangibility or in industries with higher research and development intensity. It turns out that financial booms are not, in general, growth-enhancing.

Effects of income inequality on economic growth
Markus Brückner and Daniel Lederman (VoxEU) Jul 7, 2015
The relationship between aggregate output and income inequality is central in macroeconomics. This column argues that greater income inequality raises the economic growth of poor countries and decreases the growth of high- and middle-income countries. Human capital accumulation is an important channel through which income inequality affects growth.

A Pain in the Athens
Mark Blyth (FA) Jul 7, 2015
Why Greece isn't to blame for the crisis.

BRICS Trade Strategy: Time for a Rethink
Simon J Evenett (VoxEU) Jul 7, 2015
At a time when each of the BRICS’ exports are falling and when only India is expected to see faster economic growth in 2015 and 2016, the 17th GTA Report argues that the trade strategy of the BRICS should be rethought.

Why growth in finance is a drag on the real economy
Stephen Cecchetti and Enisse Kharroubi (VoxEU) Jul 7, 2015
A booming financial sector means economic growth. Or does it? This column presents new evidence showing that when the financial sector grows more quickly, productivity tends to grow disproportionately slower in industries with either lower asset tangibility or in industries with higher research and development intensity. It turns out that financial booms are not, in general, growth-enhancing.

Effects of income inequality on economic growth
Markus Brückner and Daniel Lederman (VoxEU) Jul 7, 2015
The relationship between aggregate output and income inequality is central in macroeconomics. This column argues that greater income inequality raises the economic growth of poor countries and decreases the growth of high- and middle-income countries. Human capital accumulation is an important channel through which income inequality affects growth.

The Problem With China’s Efforts to Prop Up Its Stock Market
Neil Irwin (NYT) Jul 8, 2015
When a government tries to intervene in these cases, it can mean pouring money down a sinkhole and merely delaying an inevitable correction.

Germany's Failure of Vision
Bruce Ackerman (NYT) Jul 8, 2015
The European project rejects the consolidation of power in one country's hands. Does Angela Merkel understand that?

Greek crisis a reminder the European Union was a terrible idea to begin with
George F. Will (WP) Jul 8, 2015
Voters tell creditors to send more money with fewer conditions.

Greece’s Biggest Problem Is Its Anti-Capitalist Culture
Russell Lamberti (Mises Daily) Jul 8, 2015
It’s considered politically incorrect to criticize culture these days, but whether using euros or drachmas, in or out of the European Union, Greece really has to, somehow, sort out its cultural dysfunction.

Greece Needs Debt Relief
James Surowiecki (New Yorker) Jul 8, 2015
The country needs to borrow money just to keep the lights on.

Chinese Stocks: What's Behind the Great Market Tumble?
Jacques deLisle and Ann Lee (Knowledge@Wharton) Jul 8, 2015
The Chinese stock market rout is raising global worries. What are the impications for the world's second-largest economy, and for investors elsewhere?

No Should Mean No to Protect the Euro From Greece
Mark Gilbert (Bloomberg View) Jul 8, 2015
The euro needs to be freed from 'grimbo.'

China's 'Dow 36,000' Moment
Justin Fox (Bloomberg View) Jul 8, 2015
Officials tried to control a complex system. It backfired.

Greeks, Germans and These So-Called Deadlines
Leonid Bershidsky (Bloomberg View) Jul 8, 2015
Blame different perceptions of time and contracts for chaotic debt negotiations.

Why Russia encourages Greek defiance of the EU
Pavel K. Baev (Brookings) Jul 8, 2015
Russia has encouraged Greek defiance of the EU not because of a historic affinity with Greece, but because of its own issues with Europe.

Syriza’s German Fixation?
Nikolaos Papadogiannis (Project Syndicate) Jul 8, 2015
The Greek people have spoken, decisively rejecting their creditors’ latest bailout terms in the recent referendum. With anti-German discourse on the rise in Greece, including among some elements of the ruling Syriza party, it is difficult to imagine how Greece’s government will reach a “dignified compromise” with its creditors.

Modernizing the IMF
Harold James and Domenico Lombardi (Project Syndicate) Jul 8, 2015
If the IMF is to remain relevant at a time of rapid economic transformation, it must adapt. By adding the Chinese renminbi to the basket of currencies that determines the value of its reserve asset, the Special Drawing Right, the IMF would demonstrate its willingness and ability to do just that.

Beijing Shifts into Higher Gear: Assessing the Macro and Market Impact of the Stock Market's Fall
Charles Collyns, Sonja Gibbs, Jean-Charles Sambor, Feng Guo, Emre Tiftik, Weiwei Chen and Fiona Nguyen (IIF) Jul 8, 2015
Stock market bubbles rarely deflate gradually. In our last China Spotlight, we focused on the drivers of the rally and the ongoing selloff. This piece covers recent policy actions to support the market and their potential consequences, the risk of a systemic financial crisis and the impact on the macro outlook. We acknowledge the risks that the equity market might continue to sell off in the short term despite aggressive policy moves, but risks of a broad-based financial crisis are low and the overall macro impact should be contained.

Capital requirements and loss absorption capacity for large banks
Giorgio Barba Navaretti, Giacomo Calzolari and Alberto Franco Pozzolo (VoxEU) Jul 8, 2015
Capital requirements for banks have been raised since the Global Crisis in order to increase their resilience during periods of distress. This column introduces a new online journal, the first issue of which publishes a set of articles that studies the trade-off between hedging systemic risk and expanding lending to the real economy.

Trade agreements and trans-Pacific competition
Dale W. Jorgenson, Koji Nomura and Jon D. Samuels (VoxEU) Jul 8, 2015
The two lost decades in Japan and the Global Crisis of 2007–2009 have created new opportunities for economic growth. This column describes the evolution of productivity across sectors in Japan and the US and suggests that the greatest payoffs for Japan would come from combining the Trans-Pacific Partnership with domestic reforms and encouraging foreign direct investment.

Europe will pay the price for Greece
Philip Stephens (FT) Jul 9, 2015
The rest of the EU should take no pleasure in Tsipras’s discomfort.

This crisis is not Greece’s alone
Norbert Röttgen (FT) Jul 9, 2015
Germany and other EU members must see the problem in European terms.

Eurozone market calm clouds ‘Grexit’ risks
Ralph Atkins (FT) Jul 9, 2015
Beijing’s inability to stifle rout provides grim counsel for ECB.

China’s Stock Crash Raises New Fears
NYT Jul 9, 2015
The government should be trying to strengthen the foundations of its economy and financial system.

To Each Age Its Inequality
Ian Morris (NYT) Jul 9, 2015
We can find deep insights on this issue by looking all the way back to the end of the last Ice Age, 15,000 years ago.

The Lesson Greece’s Lenders Forgot
John B. Taylor (WSJ) Jul 9, 2015
To avoid bailouts and foster stability, the IMF used to refuse loans to countries with unsustainable public debt. It worked, until Greece got an exemption.

Greece is a turning point for the E.U.
Anne Applebaum (WP) Jul 9, 2015
The crisis has shown what the Eurozone must become.

TPP Countries Gear Up for High Stakes Ministerial Meeting
Bridges, Volume 19, Number 25 Jul 9, 2015
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries are gearing up for a highly-awaited ministerial meeting at the end of July, in a gathering that many officials predict could bring the talks to a close.

EU Parliament Adopts TTIP Resolution, ISDS Compromise Language
Bridges, Volume 19, Number 25 Jul 9, 2015
EU parliamentarians adopted a series of recommendations regarding how the European Commission should approach the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on Wednesday afternoon, just weeks after a previous attempt to vote on the resolution was aborted.

UNCTAD: Higher Foreign Investment Growth Expected in 2015
Bridges, Volume 19, Number 25 Jul 9, 2015
Global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows are set to see a rebound this year and the two following, a new UN report has said, after a general decline of investment globally in 2014.

Hold Your Nose and Offer Greece Debt Relief Conditioned on Reform
Paolo Mauro (PIIE) Jul 9, 2015
The ominous rise in debt-to-GDP ratios in Greece since 2010, and in the advanced economies after the global crisis of 2008–09, has rekindled interest in the historical experience of large samples of countries.

Growth Slows in Emerging Markets, Picks Up in Advanced Economies
IMF Survey Jul 9, 2015
Moderate growth continues, with global growth forecast to be slightly down for 2015, reflecting an unexpected setback to economic activity in the first quarter of 2015, mostly in North America, says the IMF’s latest WEO Update.

Targeted Debt Relief: Humanitarian Action Plan for Greece
Guy Pfeffermann (Globalist) Jul 9, 2015
A Social Solidarity Program focused on Greece's poor is a deal Germany may suggest.

China's Casino Moment
Holger Schmieding (Globalist) Jul 9, 2015
Will the trouble with China's stock market cause contagion in emerging markets far away?

Germany and France: Stick Together on Greece
Holger Schmieding (Globalist) Jul 9, 2015
How will the end game on Greece's proposals play out?

Winning the War on World Poverty
Bloomberg View Jul 9, 2015
This is an age of remarkable progress.

Angel Investing, Government-Style
Noah Smith (Bloomberg View) Jul 9, 2015
How the 'entrepreneurial state' can help startups succeed.

Africa Should Lure Bangladesh's Garment Industry
Megan McArdle (Bloomberg View) Jul 9, 2015
Low-paying jobs are the first step to higher wages and more development.

5 Reasons China Matters
Mohamed A. El-Erian (Bloomberg View) Jul 9, 2015
Market rout could be far more disruptive than the Greek crisis.

China Shows How to Destroy a Market
Barry Ritholtz (Bloomberg View) Jul 9, 2015
Suspending share sales won't help.

Greece Is Merkel's Failure Too
Clive Crook (Bloomberg View) Jul 9, 2015
Greece's creditors blew their chance to collect 70 percent of what they were owed.

China's Illness Is Contagious for Asia
William Pesek (Bloomberg View) Jul 9, 2015
The region wants to know if Beijing has a crisis strategy.

Stock Slide Ruins China's Illusion of Control
Noah Feldman (Bloomberg View) Jul 9, 2015
Public learns the hard way that the president can't guarantee market success.

What Greece Can Expect
Carmen M. Reinhart (Bloomberg View) Jul 9, 2015
History suggests leaving the euro would bring deep and lasting trauma.

Europe’s Greek Failure
Daniel Gros (Project Syndicate) Jul 9, 2015
Narratives matter, especially when they are intertwined with hard interests. As Greece and its creditors court catastrophe, we are getting a clear picture of how conflicting narratives can lead to a lose-lose result.

Russia’s War on Ukraine’s Economy
Anders Åslund (Project Syndicate) Jul 9, 2015
Ukraine’s primary economic problems are not homegrown but the result of Russian aggression. The international community, with the EU in the lead, must provide substantial humanitarian assistance and help stabilize the country's economy.

A Strategic Rallying Cry for Europe
Ana Palacio (Project Syndicate) Jul 9, 2015
The EU’s move to create a new security strategy could not be more important. Not only will it help Europe to address the security challenges that it faces; it also has the potential to give the EU the sense of purpose that it so badly needs.

The U.S. Must Save Greece
Joseph E. Stiglitz (Time) Jul 9, 2015
If Greece continues with austerity, it would be depression without end.

Lessons for Greece: Forcible currency conversions from 1982 to 2015
Carmen M Reinhart (VoxEU) Jul 9, 2015
Contrary to the intent of the designers of what was to be an irreversible currency union, Greece may well exit the Eurozone. This column argues that default does not inevitably trigger the introduction of a new currency (or the re-activation of an old one). However, if ‘de-euroisation’ is the end game, then a forcible (or compulsory) currency conversion is likely to be a central part of that process, along with more broad-based capital controls.

Monetary spillovers and the trilemma in the new normal
Joshua Aizenman, Menzie D. Chinn and Hiro Ito (VoxEU) Jul 9, 2015
Monetary policies of financial centre countries could have large spillover effects on smaller economies. This column argues that the strength of the links with the centre economies has been the major factor affecting financial conditions in emerging and developing countries. Open macro policies such as the exchange rate regime and financial openness are also important. An economy that pursues greater exchange rate stability and financial openness has a stronger link with the centre economies.

LSE letter on Greece crisis
Francesco Caselli, Camille Landais, Christopher Pissarides, Silvana Tenreyro and Wouter den Haan (VoxEU) Jul 9, 2015
Greek exit from the Eurozone has uncertain and potentially dangerous implications for all involved. This column, signed by 25 LSE economists, urges the Greek government and its creditors to act more responsibly. The first priority is to get Greece on a path of sustainable growth by relaxing austerity in the near term and linking debt restructuring to essential structural improvements.

The Age of Global Value Chains: Maps and Policy Issues
João Amador and Filippo di Mauro (VoxEU) Jul 9, 2015
Global value chains (GVCs) - referring to the cross-border flows of goods, investment, services, know-how and people associated with international production networks - have transformed the world. Their emergence has resulted in a complete reconfiguration of world trade, bearing a strong impact on the assessment of competitiveness and economic policy. The contributions to this eBook are based on research carried out within the scope of the Eurosystem Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet), bringing together participants from EU national central banks, universities and international organisations interested in competitiveness issues. The mapping of GVCs and full awareness about their implications are essential to informed public debate and improved economic policy.

What’s Giving the World Oil Market the Jitters
Daniel Yergin (WSJ) Jul 10, 2015
Topping the list are Greece, Iran, China—and, strange as it may seem, the U.S.

Has Tsipras Delivered?
Stephan Richter (Globalist) Jul 10, 2015
The French bureaucracy's fingerprints are all over Greece's new proposal. Growth remains an afterthought

Tsipras: A Turnaround Artist?
Denis MacShane (Globalist) Jul 10, 2015
The Greek prime minister's U-turn shows politics dominates economics.

The European Project Reimagined
André Reichel (Globalist) Jul 10, 2015
Rethinking "ever closer union," based on a eurozone core.

France Takes Greece's Side Against Germany
Clive Crook (Bloomberg View) Jul 10, 2015
Does Berlin still care about its alliance with Paris?

Chile's Soccer Victory Won't Bring Back Its Mojo
Mac Margolis (Bloomberg View) Jul 10, 2015
Latin America's wealthiest nation should rediscover the centrism that made it great.

Is Alexis Tsipras Brilliant or Just Lucky?
Mohamed A. El-Erian (Bloomberg View) Jul 10, 2015
Greek prime minister's political maneuvering has been dazzling, but the biggest challenge is ahead.

Tsipras Wants Money to Forget Democracy
Leonid Bershidsky (Bloomberg View) Jul 10, 2015
Greece's new offer is like the deal voters rejected -- except for the size of the bailout.

Would You Lend Greece $60 Billion?
Leonid Bershidsky (Bloomberg View) Jul 10, 2015
If Europe were a bank, it would cut its losses.

The Limits of Chinese Soft Power
Joseph S. Nye (Project Syndicate) Jul 10, 2015
China has been making major efforts to increase its ability to influence others without force or coercion. But as long as the government fans the flames of nationalism and holds tight the reins of party control, China's soft power will remain limited.

Plugging the Leaks in Africa’s Economies
Abdul Tejan-Cole (Project Syndicate) Jul 10, 2015
Africa is usually perceived as a net beneficiary of the global financial system, with aid and investment flowing to the continent from richer parts of the world, but this is simply not true. Illicit capital flight is draining Africa dry – having cost the continent about one trillion dollars over the last 50 years.

The Age of Megaprojects
Nancy Alexander (Project Syndicate) Jul 10, 2015
Spending on megaprojects already amounts to some $6-9 trillion a year, roughly 8% of global GDP, making them “biggest investment boom in human history, and that number is expected to grow. But unless the explosion in megaprojects is carefully managed, the effort is likely to be counterproductive and unsustainable.

Greece: Past critiques and the path forward
Olivier Blanchard (VoxEU) Jul 10, 2015
The Greek crisis is in a critical phase. This column, by the IMF’s Chief Economist, reflects on the various critiques of the handling to date of Greece’s problems.

French comeback exposes eurozone rift
Daniela Schwarzer (FT) Jul 11, 2015
Unresolved tensions remain between France and Germany.

Greece needs Tsipras the statesman
Aristides Hatzis (FT) Jul 11, 2015
The extremists within Syriza must be sidelined.

Journey of a towel
Economist Jul 11, 2015
We trace the steps of an Indian export, starting with a seed in an Indian cotton field and ending with a towel in an American store

Greece: The way ahead
Economist Jul 11, 2015
A deal between Greece and its creditors would be best. But if there has to be a Grexit, here is how to do it

Stocks in China: China embraces the markets
Economist Jul 11, 2015
A panicked response to tumbling stocks casts doubt on the pace of reform.

Down and Out in Athens and Brussels
Jeffrey D. Sachs (Project Syndicate) Jul 11, 2015
In the next several days, decisions taken by Europe on the Greek crisis – particularly whether to reverse the shutdown of the country's banking sector and embrace deep debt relief – will determine Greece's economic fate. Wittingly or not, these decisions will determine the EU’s fate as well.

Quantitative macro models of wealth inequality: A survey
Mariacristina De Nardi (VoxEU) Jul 11, 2015
Wealth inequality is back in the spotlight, but its determinants and the saving behaviour generating it are less clear. This column discusses the mechanisms in dynamic quantitative macro models that give rise to wealth inequality. Different mechanisms give rise to similar observed wealth concentrations, but have very different policy implications. A combination of better empirical analysis and richer models is needed to guide policy.

Innovative firms and resilience to Chinese import competition
Johan Hombert and Adrien Matray (VoxEU) Jul 11, 2015
The rise of China has been identified as a major source of disruption for the manufacturing sector in high-income economies. This column argues that innovation helps firms to escape import competition from low-wage countries. It uses variation in R&D tax credits across years and US states to show that firms' R&D capital stock has a causal effect on their resilience to trade shocks.

The economic traps to avoid
Lawrence Summers (FT) Jul 12, 2015
Clear-eyed, bold action is what the world requires if the financial drama is to subside.

Digital revolution liberating Latin America
Luis Alberto Moreno (FT) Jul 12, 2015
Region harnesses technology to modernise and improve quality of life

Devolution throws up citizenship challenge
Vernon Bogdanor (FT) Jul 12, 2015
The welfare state was founded so benefits are distributed on need, not geography.

Mexico: the big oil sell off
Jude Webber, Christopher Adams and Ed Crooks (FT) Jul 12, 2015
Parts of the hydrocarbons industry are to be sold off to private investors. But at what cost?

Service labour market: The engine of growth and inequality
Alexandra Lopez-Cermeño (VoxEU) Jul 12, 2015
Economic historians tend to explain US geographical development gaps in terms of industrialisation. But by the end of the 20th century, the richest counties had become specialised in services, rather than in manufacturing. This column evaluates how the service economy triggered this evident contrast between the urban and rural US. Market size causes localisation of non-agricultural activity, with the effect being stronger for services, especially knowledge services. Local policymakers can thus foster growth by attracting high-skilled workers to a region, with the multiplier effect eventually increasing the local market.

Premature deindustrialisation in the developing world
Dani Rodrik (VoxEU) Feb 12, 2015
As developed economies have substituted away from manufacturing towards services, so too have developing countries – to an even greater extent. Such sectoral change may be premature for economies that never fully industrialised in the first place. This column presents evidence that countries with smaller manufacturing sectors substitute away from manufacturing to a larger extent, suggesting a trade channel through which falling international relative prices of manufacturing lead price-taking developing economies to substitute accordingly.

Debt sustainability puzzles: Implications for Greece
Julian Schumacher and Beatrice Weder di Mauro (VoxEU) Jul 12, 2015
The sustainability of Greek debt is central to the negotiations. To date the sustainability calculations have been based on the IMF’s standard models for calculating sustainability for countries with market access. This column argues that these are not appropriate for Greece – a middle-income country with highly concessionary financing. The ESM should develop a new, appropriate analytic tool to reflect Greece’s special situation.

It’s Not Just Debt: Government Spending and Easy Money Fuel the Greek Crisis
Frank Shostak (Mises Daily) Jul 13, 2015
The Greek government continues to negotiate with international creditors following its recent default on its 1.6 billion euro loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Regulatory Rollback Is Wrong for Financial Markets
Antonio Wiss (WSJ) Jul 12, 2015
Complaints about illiquidity are prompting talk about reforms that are simplistic and even dangerous.

The danger of China’s crash
Robert J. Samuelson (WP) Jul 12, 2015
The stock collapse could cause Communist leaders to lose their appetite for overhauling the economy.

Europe's False Hope Moment?
Stephan Richter (Globalist) Jul 12, 2015
Even if there is a deal with Greece it may very well not last.

Failing on Inflation, Japan Fudges the Numbers
William Pesek (Bloomberg View) Jul 12, 2015
QE hasn't worked, but the Bank of Japan is pretending otherwise.

Two Scary Charts About China
Mark Whitehouse (Bloomberg View) Jul 12, 2015
Chinese companies keep piling on debt, and foreign banks are exposed.

India still needs to enter the market for reform
Alok Sheel (EAF) Jul 12, 2015
There appears to be growing euphoria that it is India’s ‘manifest destiny’ to overtake China and become the fastest growing major economy and a major world power. But unless India successfully introduces productivity reforms and opens its markets, this ‘destiny’ will remain a pipe dream.

Service labour market: The engine of growth and inequality
Alexandra Lopez-Cermeño (VoxEU) Jul 12, 2015
Economic historians tend to explain US geographical development gaps in terms of industrialisation. But by the end of the 20th century, the richest counties had become specialised in services, rather than in manufacturing. This column evaluates how the service economy triggered this evident contrast between the urban and rural US. Market size is causes localisation of non-agricultural activity, with the effect being stronger for services, especially knowledge services. Local policymakers can thus foster growth by attracting high-skilled workers to a region, with the multiplier effect eventually increasing the local market.

Three unedifying lessons of Greek deal
Martin Sandbu (FT) Jul 13, 2015
Gasp at hubris of EU leaders who think they can overrule domestic politics.

Greece’s creditors demolish euro project
Wolfgang Munchau (FT) Jul 13, 2015
Stripped of ambitions for a political and economic union, the bloc changes into a utilitarian project.

China stock bust good for global markets
Trevor Greetham (FT) Jul 13, 2015
Liquidity-driven boom was always built on shaky ground.

EU: Taxing times for multinationals
Christian Oliver (FT) Jul 13, 2015
Test case rulings will cut to the heart of corporations’ arrangements and could lead to fines worth billions.

Deal on Greek Debt Crisis Exposes Europe's Deepening Fissures
Steven Erlanger (NYT) Jul 13, 2015
In the name of preserving European solidarity, the ultimatum put to Athens over the weekend required something close to the surrender of the nation's sovereignty.

The Eurozone's Damaging Deal for Greece
NYT Jul 13, 2015
The agreement doesn't resolve the country's debt crisis or its moribund economy.

The Greek Deal Poses Dangers for Greece, and for Europe
Neil Irwin (NYT) Jul 13, 2015
Germany’s conditions put Greece’s stability at risk and could tear at the eurozone’s fabric.

The Healthy Turn From Aid to Investment
Grete Faremo (WSJ) Jul 13, 2015
Africa received $42 billion in development assistance in 2013, well behind foreign direct investment: $57 billion.

The Price of Greek Rejection
WSJ Jul 13, 2015
The latest deal avoids a crisis but doesn’t do enough for growth.

Greece vs European federalism
Tomas Hirst (Piera) Jul 13, 2015
The Greek crisis could put an end to the dream of the United States of Europe...for now.

Greece and Europe reach a deal after all
Douglas J. Elliott (Brookings) Jul 13, 2015
How did Greece end up with a deal that appears on the surface to be worse than the one rejected so recently?

Europe's Insane Deal With Greece
Eric Beinhocker (Bloomberg View) Jul 13, 2015
Latest bailout agreement does nothing to address euro's fundamental flaws.

Why Does Europe Still Want Greece?
Megan McArdle (Bloomberg View) Jul 13, 2015
Costs may be more than euro-zone members want to bear.

Greece Should Just Quit
Bloomberg View Jul 13, 2015
A deal imposed under duress and bitterly resented by most Greeks won't succeed.

Europe Owns This Disaster
Clive Crook (Bloomberg View) Jul 13, 2015
Forced deal solves nothing and gravely undermines the EU.

Hong Kong, China's Real Stock Market, Remains Calm
William Pesek (Bloomberg View) Jul 13, 2015
There's only one Chinese city where investors don't have to worry about government interference.

Want the Euro? Be More Like the Germans
Leonid Bershidsky (Bloomberg View) Jul 13, 2015
The common currency has a low tolerance for democracy's wilder extremes.

Hard-Won Greek Deal Was the Easy Part
Mohamed A. El-Erian (Bloomberg View) Jul 13, 2015
Making the agreement stick is fraught with peril.

Greece Blinks
Mark Gilbert (Bloomberg View) Jul 13, 2015
The only voice that matters in Europe speaks from Berlin, not Paris.

A Plunge Protection Team for China's Markets?
Barry Ritholtz (Bloomberg View) Jul 13, 2015
China may do no better at propping up markets than the U.S.

Algorithms Had Themselves a Treasury Flash Crash
Matt Levine (Bloomberg View) Jul 13, 2015
Algorithms were selling to other algorithms -- sometimes their algorithmic colleagues.

The Land Battle for Sustainable Development
Monique Barbut, Christiana Figueres and Achim Steiner (Project Syndicate) Jul 13, 2015
As officials gather in Addis Ababa this week to identify the best ways to secure the resources needed to maintain the health of our planet and boost its inhabitants’ wellbeing, they would be wise to look down. Improved land management holds huge, largely untapped potential in the effort to achieve sustainable development.

Saving Greece, Saving Europe
Barry Eichengreen (Project Syndicate) Jul 13, 2015
Germany wants Greece to choose between economic collapse and leaving the eurozone. Both options would mean economic disaster; the first, if not both, would be politically disastrous as well.

Greece for Grownups
Adair Turner (Project Syndicate) Jul 13, 2015
While no one knows how the Greek economic tragedy will actually end, one thing is certain: Greece’s creditors will have to write off a large proportion of their loans to the country. Their refusal to recognize this reality has increased the losses they will suffer.

Africa’s Opportunity in Addis
Macky Sall (Project Syndicate) Jul 13, 2015
For most African countries, the key challenge nowadays is structural economic transformation: Simply put, their economies must be able to create enough good jobs to employ growing populations. This week’s Third International Conference on Financing for Development represents a crucial step toward achieving that goal.

Winning the Fight For Global Education
Julia Gillard (Project Syndicate) Jul 13, 2015
In 2000, when the world adopted the Millennium Development Goals, a promise was made: education is a universal right that will be upheld for every child. Last week’s Oslo Summit on Education for Development confirmed the growing consensus within the global education community about what must be done to honor that pledge.

Euro area money market funds: turning the corner?
Heike Mai (DB Research) Jul 13, 2015
Euro area money market funds have returned to growth, according to the latest ECB data. By March 2015, they managed EUR 1,032 bn in assets, up by EUR 120 bn from a year earlier. A similar surge in assets was last seen before the financial crisis, which marked the beginning of a prolonged decline. Amazingly, the upward trend in assets occurred while money market yields hit record lows, especially for the euro. So what is really behind MMF asset growth?

Beijing will slip if it strains to catch a bubble
Giles Wilkes (FT) Jul 14, 2015
Setting policy according to the whims of the stock market is like steering an oil tanker after a school of dolphins.

Imperial ambitions push Europe to limits
John Kay (FT) Jul 14, 2015
Ukraine crisis tests credibility of implied promises of political, economic and military support.

Greece sets the EU a crisis stress test
Tony Barber (FT) Jul 14, 2015
The choice is between the defence of founding principles and acceptance of a need to change direction.

China share shock has lasting impact
Henny Sender (FT) Jul 14, 2015
Falling renminbi puts pressure on exporters to the country.

Investors in China not allowed to jump
Tom Mitchell (FT) Jul 14, 2015
In a crisis, shares are controlled by the Chinese Communist party.

Another Greek Can-Kicking
Holman W. Jenkins (WSJ) Jul 14, 2015
There won’t be light at the tunnel’s end until Germany kicks itself out of the eurozone.

The Empire Strikes Back

Germany and Greece: In Victory, Magnanimity?
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard (PIIE) Jul 14, 2015
The agreement between Greece and its international creditors announced on Monday represents a predictable capitulation by the Greek government from a position advanced for weeks by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Faced with the dire repercussions of an exit from euro area institutions—including a collapse of its banking system and a broader economic disaster—Tsipras accepted harsher terms than those he had asked voters to reject on July 5.

Foreign Capital Returns to Brazil. Will Growth Follow?
Georgina Hurst (II) Jul 14, 2015
As Brazil battles a recession under President Dilma Rousseff’s leadership, many are hoping for an economic boost from foreign investors.

Germany Charts a Steady Course
IMF Survey Jul 14, 2015
The economic outlook appears promising for Germany, which is reaping the benefits of euro depreciation and lower energy prices, according to the latest IMF economic assessment.

Global Implications of Lower Oil Prices
IMF Survey Jul 14, 2015
While lower oil prices can mean significant losses in revenue for some oil exporting countries, consumers should be paying less for fuel and have more money to spend. IMF’s Aasim Husain says the higher spending will be good for global growth.

Why Single Out China?
Kenneth S. Courtis (Globalist) Jul 14, 2015
Governments responding to market turmoil happens everywhere.

Europe Needs to Cross Its Red Lines on Greece
Mohamed A. El-Erian (Bloomberg View) Jul 14, 2015
Deal will fail without flexibility from creditors.

China's Economic Troubles Start to Spread
William Pesek (Bloomberg View) Jul 14, 2015
The world's second-biggest economy could cause a global recession.

China's Tamed Stock Market Might Bite Its Economy
Noah Smith (Bloomberg View) Jul 14, 2015
Controlling market forces by diktat doesn't always work.

Greece and Europe: An Unhealthy Affair
Mark Gilbert (Bloomberg View) Jul 14, 2015
When you're stuck in a bad relationship, it's time to move on.

Today’s Dark Lords of Finance
Alexander Friedman (Project Syndicate) Jul 14, 2015
The unprecedented period of coordinated loose monetary policy since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008 could have large unintended consequences. In particular, institutional investors, such as pension funds, have responded to near-zero interest rates by making riskier investments – leaving them dangerously exposed.

China’s Brittle Development Model
Shashi Tharoor (Project Syndicate) Jul 14, 2015
After decades of broad consensus that India’s democratic governance model was superior, many now are claiming that China's authoritarian model is actually more conducive to development. They are wrong.

Getting Personal With the Greek Crisis
Lucy P. Marcus and Stefan Wolff (Project Syndicate) Jul 14, 2015
Today’s decision-makers are supposed to embrace big data, relentlessly pursue quantitative metrics, and adhere to the optimal course of action that these powerful tools supposedly indicate. Yet if there is one thing that the Greek crisis has made clear, it is the importance of the human factor in negotiations.
George Friedman (Stratfor) Jul 14, 2015
A desperate battle was fought last week. It pitted Germany and Greece against each other.

The Agreekment That Could Break Europe
Harris Mylonas (FA) Jul 14, 2015
Euroskeptics, eurocritics, and life after the bailout.

Bullish on Spain
Omar G. Encarnación (FA) Jul 14, 2015
Why the country is faring better than Greece.

An economic rationale for the African scramble
Ewout Frankema, Jeffrey G. Williamson and Pieter Woltjer (VoxEU) Jul 14, 2015
The partitioning of Africa by European imperial powers in the late 19th century irreversibly transformed the long-term development trajectories of African economies. Yet, the motives for, and timing of, the scramble remain poorly understood. This column argues that the changes in African international trade over the course of the 19th century created an economic rationale for the African scramble. This episode offers insights that are relevant for current African economic development.

The new European Union
Charles Wyplosz (VoxEU) Jul 14, 2015
The new bailout deal for Greece was not easy. This column argues that it was also a failure. It will not be enough to recapitalise banks, it asks for structural reform that exceeds Greek capacities, and it raises the Greek debt-to-GDP ratio to unsustainable levels. In a few months or quarters, the programme will fail and the Grexit question will flare up again.

A generous deal that avoids austerity
Lars Feld (FT) Jul 15, 2015
Without these funds, the Greek economy would break down.

One final fling for France and Germany
François Heisbourg (FT) Jul 15, 2015
The faultlines on Greece are set to deepen and widen.

Rates must rise to avert next crisis
Scott Minerd (FT) Jul 15, 2015
Capital is being driven into increasingly speculative investments.

Germany's Destructive Anger
Jacob Soll (NYT) Jul 15, 2015
If it is going to lead Europe, it can't act as if it's simply a victim.

Productivity mysteriously goes bust
Robert J. Samuelson (WP) Jul 15, 2015
The worldwide slowdown is baffling and disappointing.

Brazil's Perverse Development Bank Distortions Aggravate Economic Slump
Monica de Bolle (PIIE) Jul 15, 2015
Brazil's inordinately high interest rates have long been a cause of much perplexity. Following the economic stabilization of the mid-1990s, and the adherence to inflation targeting, fiscal responsibility, and floating exchange rates in the 2000s, most people expected Brazilian interest rates to converge to emerging-market benchmarks by the end of the decade.

Professor Blanchard Writes a Greek Tragedy
Ashoka Mody (Pieria) Jul 15, 2015
Olivier Blanchard has, with his customary clarity and candor, addressed criticisms of the IMF’s role in Greece’s financial rescue. His blog post deserves careful reading and consideration.

Markets Aren't Buying China's Rosy GDP Claims
William Pesek (Bloomberg View) Jul 15, 2015
Beijing can't fool investors who are expecting a slowdown.

Greece's Imaginary Numbers
Mark Gilbert (Bloomberg View) Jul 15, 2015
What works in mathematics will doom efforts to rescue Greece.

Leaving Euro Is Better Than Eternal Greek Crisis
Justin Fox (Bloomberg View) Jul 15, 2015
It wouldn't be paradise, but the torture would end.

Angus Deaton on Rwanda
Agnes Binagwaho (Boston Review) Jul 15, 2015
Taking issue with Angus Deaton's charge in our forum on effective altruism that large aid flows to Africa sometimes save lives while bolstering dictators.

The Mirage of the Financial Singularity
Robert J. Shiller (Project Syndicate) Jul 15, 2015
Many economists and financial-market observers seem to believe that we are approaching the point when even Warren Buffett would be better off leaving all investment decisions to a computer program. How, then, would they explain the recent plunge in China's stock market?

Dollar Diplomacy in Tehran
Eric Lorber and Elizabeth Rosenberg (FA) Jul 15, 2015
How promoting business in Iran boosts the nuclear agreement.

From Drift to Deals: Advancing the WTO Agenda
Gary Clyde Hufbauer, Euijin Jung, Sean Miner, Tyler Moran and Jeffrey J. Schott (PIIE) Jul 15, 2015
The World Trade Organization (WTO) needs a grand bargain to pursue 21st century pacts that keep policymakers, business leaders, and the public engaged, while answering the legitimate demands of developing members to reduce longstanding distortions to farm trade and manufactures.

Greece: And the can keeps on rolling…
Thorsten Beck (VoxEU) Jul 15, 2015
Monday’s deal was a political compromise consistent with the political constraints of Greece and its creditors. It is doubtful, however, that it will provide a long-term solution to Greece’s economic crisis. At a minimum, the momentum should be used to eliminate the option of Grexit once and for all. The bank-sovereign ties should be cut to turn Greek banks from a source of crises into a growth-supporting sector.

Answer to Greek question
Philip Stephens (FT) Jul 16, 2015
The 1989 blueprint for the euro emphasised responsibility and solidarity would sit side by side.

Greece needs Europe’s best and brightest
Hélène Rey (FT) Jul 16, 2015
Enacting planned reforms speedily would be a tall order without help.

Euro project still has mountains to climb
Ralph Atkins (FT) Jul 16, 2015
Lessons that can be learnt from Greece’s flirtation with euro exit.

The Greek Solution Solved Nothing
Alan S. Blinder (WSJ) Jul 16, 2015
Three essential problems remain, and leaving the eurozone may be the answer.

Prospects Dim for WTO Work Programme as July Deadline Approaches
Bridges, Volume 19, Number 26 Jul 16, 2015
The prospects for reaching a Doha Round "work programme" by the end of this month are growing increasingly dim, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo told members last week.

BRICS Leaders Eye Increased Coordination at Russia Summit
Bridges, Volume 19, Number 26 Jul 16, 2015
Leaders from the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – confirmed plans to begin financing infrastructure projects through their new development bank by early 2016, while also releasing an "economic partnership strategy" document to be reviewed every five years.

What’s Next for China’s Market After Crash?
Allen Cheng (II) Jul 16, 2015
The government’s aggressive measures to stop a panic sell-off have steadied stocks but left big questions over outlook.

One Thing Europe Got Right in Greece's Crisis
Mark Gilbert (Bloomberg View) Jul 16, 2015
Even if Greece crashes, the currency will hold strong.

Greece: France or Germany — Who Really Dunnit?
Shumpei Takemori (Globalist) Jul 16, 2015
Germans are getting a bum wrap over the Greek crisis. France's role is more problematic.

Greece's Broad Pro-European Alliance
Holger Schmieding (Globalist) Jul 16, 2015
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is now at the mercy of the pro-European opposition.

The scariest aspect of China’s recent market falls is what could be left to come
Jamie Lowry (Pieria) Jul 16, 2015
There's plenty of scope for a lot more pain in China.

Reply to Dr. Agnes Binagwaho
Angus Deaton (Boston Review) Jul 16, 2015
Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, firing off in all directions, misses her target.

Did Greece Surrender?
John Cassidy (New Yorker) Jul 16, 2015
Two weeks ago, Greeks voted down an offer that they thought would trap them in austerity. Now the parliament has accepted a package that is at least as severe.

The Contradictions of China’s Communist Capitalism
Pranab Bardhan (Project Syndicate) Jul 16, 2015
The dizzying plunge in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges is testing China’s Communist rulers. As the realization sinks in that Chinese stock prices can decline, just as they have risen, the government is taking desperate, if clumsy, measures to control the free fall.

Minimum Wage or Living Income?
Robert Skidelsky (Project Syndicate) Jul 16, 2015
As robots increasingly replace human labor, humans will need incomes to replace wages from work. That is why the idea of an unconditional basic income, long advocated by free-market and socialist thinkers alike, is a measure whose time has come.

Asia’s View of the Greek Crisis
Lee Jong-Wha (Project Syndicate) Jul 16, 2015
Asians have been watching the Greek debt crisis unfold with a mixture of envy and schadenfreude. When they experienced their own financial crisis in 1997, they were offered far less external aid and far harsher conditions to receive it, though they recovered much more strongly.

Bottling the Sun
Steven Charles Cowley (Project Syndicate) Jul 16, 2015
Even if world leaders reach an agreement at the UN climate conference in December to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions substantially by 2050, the question of how to meet a booming global population’s insatiable appetite for energy in the longer term will remain. One of the most promising options is nuclear fusion.

How the IMF punctured the insane dreamworld of eurozone elites
Jeff Spross (The Week) Jul 16, 2015
It was the latest dramatic turn in the ongoing drama of the Greek economic crisis, made all the more poignant by the 11th-hour arrival of what many might consider the most unlikely defender imaginable: the International Monetary Fund.

Does Europe Have a Future?
Stephen M. Walt (FP) Jul 16, 2015
Here’s what I told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. It’s not encouraging.

Why China’s stock market bubble was always bound to burst
Orville Schell (Guardian) Jul 16, 2015
The sudden collapse of the nation’s share boom left tens of millions of investors in shock. But a massive government intervention to prop up the market has laid bare the contradictions of a capitalist China

The quality of distance: Quality sorting, Alchian-Allen effect, and geography
Kazutaka Takechi (VoxEU) Jul 16, 2015
With mega trade deals currently being negotiated, it is imperative to fully understand the various effects of trade policy. This column focuses on the implications of product quality and the type of trade costs for trade policy. Using data on agricultural prices from Japan, it argues that specific trade costs are more sensitive to geographic distance than ad valorem costs. The welfare effects of policy initiatives such as improving infrastructure may hence be larger than previously thought.

Why the ECB should not insist on repayment of its Greek bonds
Paul De Grauwe and Yuemei Ji (VoxEU) Jul 16, 2015
When the ECB buys a Eurozone member’s bonds, the government pays interest to the ECB but the ECB rebates it to the government. If Greece repays its ECB-held bonds, it loses this ‘free borrowing’. This column argues that repayment is like ‘reverse QE’. To maintain its QE targets, more bonds from other EZ members must be bought – thus shifting the free borrowing from Greece to other EZ members. To avoid this perverse outcome, the ECB could extend the maturity of the Greek bonds.

They Told You So: Economists Were Right to Doubt the Euro
N. Gregory Mankiw (NYT) Jul 17, 2015
The continuing saga of Greece and its creditors is more tragic than comic.

Debt Isn’t Killing Greece. Its Leaders Are
Holger Schmieding (WSJ) Jul 17, 2015
The country was poised for 3% growth before Syriza took power. More debt relief would reward loony policies.

Germany, Not Greece, Should Exit the Euro
Ashoka Mody (Bloomberg View) Jul 17, 2015
The return of the deutsche mark would benefit everyone.

Is Tsipras the New Lula?
Jeffrey Frankel (Project Syndicate) Jul 17, 2015
It is now possible that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will become to his country what South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva were to theirs: a man of the left who embraces fiscal responsibility and freer markets. But Greece’s creditors must open their eyes, too.

China’s BRICS Balancing Act
Minghao Zhao (Project Syndicate) Jul 17, 2015
While Russia hosted the most recent annual BRICS summit, it is China that dominates the grouping, which has already proved to be a force multiplier for Chinese diplomacy. But, if China is to avoid resistance from its BRICS partners, its leaders must be prudent, not pushy.

IMF Staff Paper: Linkages Between Labor Market Institutions and Inequality
IMF Survey Jul 17, 2015
In a continuation of their ongoing work on inequality, IMF economists have found a decline in unionization and the erosion of minimum wages to be associated with rising inequality in advanced economies. But these findings are not necessarily a blanket recommendation for higher unionization and minimum wages.

The relation between stock and currency returns
Gino Cenedese, Richard Payne, Lucio Sarno and Giorgio Valente (VoxEU) Jul 17, 2015
Various theories suggest that exchange rate fluctuations and stock returns are linked. In this column, the authors find little evidence of a relationship between the two. Thus, a simple trading strategy that invests in countries with the highest expected equity returns and shorts those with the lowest generates substantial risk-adjusted returns.

The changing tasks of the ECB
Stefano Micossi (VoxEU) Jul 17, 2015
The ECB’s monetary policy has evolved rapidly over the past decade – from the adoption of the euro to the recent implementation of quantitative easing. This column discusses the effectiveness of the ECB’s policies. The single currency induced pro-cyclicality in the Eurozone periphery. The failure to adequately respond to the Lehman failure placed the burden to stabilise financial markets on the Eurozone. And finally, the persistent deflation and depression convinced the ECB to adopt an expansionary monetary stance.

Greece and the missing banking union
Jeffrey N. Gordon and Georg Ringe (VoxEU) Jul 17, 2015
The Greek Crisis is a crisis rather than a problem due to the vulnerability of Greek banks. While the banks have deep problems, this column argues that these would have been mitigated if a fully operational banking union were in place. A full banking union requires joint banking supervision, joint bank resolution, and joint deposit insurance. The EZ only has the first so far. Completing the banking union must be part of any long-term solution.

Reforming Greece
Nauro F. Campos and Fabrizio Coricelli (VoxEU) Jul 17, 2015
Greece’s reluctance to implement ‘the structural reforms required for debt sustainability’ is a recurrent theme in the debate on the EZ Crisis. This column qualifies this conventional wisdom by reassessing the relationship between Greece and the EU over the past four decades. Although Greece has implemented structural reforms that were substantial enough to bring about a turning point in its relationship with the EU, these reforms have been overly localised, badly sequenced and implemented by short-sighted political elites. The role that structural reforms can play in solving the current crisis should not be overestimated.

The travels and travails of the macro tourist
Barry Ritholtz (WP) Jul 18, 2015
This morning, we look at travels and travails of the macro tourist.

The euro zone: Pain without end
Economist Jul 18, 2015
A deal between Greece and Europe averts one disaster, and hastens the next.

Variable geometry bites back: Schäuble’s motives
Fabio Ghironi (VoxEU) Jul 18, 2015
Success of the German-inspired solution for the latest Greek crisis is far from assured. If it fails, the Eurozone may be changed forever. This column argues that the failure would lead to an outcome that has been favoured for decades by Germany’s Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble. Perhaps the package the Eurozone agreed is just a backdoor way of getting to the ‘variable geometry’ and monetary unification for the core that the Maastricht criteria had failed to achieve.

Preventing the new mediocre from becoming the new reality: The role of fiscal policy
Bernardin Akitoby, Sanjeev Gupta and Abdelhak Senhadji (VoxEU) Jul 18, 2015
There has been a heated debate about the effectiveness of fiscal policy as a countercyclical tool but little evidence on how it can support growth. This column shows that fiscal policy can lift medium- and long-term growth in both advanced and developing economies. But all fiscal reforms are not equal in their growth dividend. Successful reforms are often part of a broader reform package and can balance the growth-equity trade-off.

‘The Global Minotaur’, by Yanis Varoufakis
Giles Wilkes (FT) Jul 19, 2015
Insights from the most irritating man in the room.

Grexit remains the likely outcome
Wolfgang Munchau (FT) Jul 19, 2015
Unless the economy behaves very differently than in the past, it will be trapped in a vicious circle.

Gamblers on Chinese stocks abandon their fortune to fate
Lawrence Osborne (FT) Jul 19, 2015
When a table’s numbers shift, the gamblers hare off to a luckier one.

Germany should heed how it helped eastern Europe
Stefan Wagstyl (FT) Jul 19, 2015
Greece and its creditors need to build public support for reforms.

Fannie and Freddie are Back, Bigger and Badder Than Ever
Bethany McLean (NYT) Jul 19, 2015
After nearly bringing down the economy in 2008, how is it possible that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still around?

As Beijing Becomes a Supercity, the Rapid Growth Brings Pains
Ian Johnson (NYT) Jul 19, 2015
The new megalopolis, Jing-Jin-Ji, is to cover ground the size of Kansas and have a population about six times larger than the New York metropolitan area.

Europe’s Impossible Dream
Paul Krugman (NYT) Jul 19, 2015
How fantasy economics led to disaster.

No, Puerto Rico is not our Greece
Robert J. Samuelson (WP) Jul 19, 2015
Greece’s decline destabilizes the E.U., but the territory’s problem do not threaten U.S. well-being

Ethiopia: Land of Edible Napkins
Guy Pfeffermann (Globalist) Jul 19, 2015
Ethiopia has an amazing ability to get things done, quite unusual in low-income countries.

A Less Perfect Union
Kathleen R. McNamara (FA) Jul 19, 2015
Europe after the Greek debt crisis.

Latvian Lessons
Anders Paalzow (FA) Jul 19, 2015
Here's how Riga overcame its own economic crisis---and what that says about Greece.

Love and hate between Greece and the west
Tony Barber (FT) Jul 20, 2015
Creditors have tainted the nation’s relations with the rest of Europe.

Markets afflicted by magical thinking
James Grant (FT) Jul 20, 2015
Prices should be discovered in the market, not administered by a government.

Asset managers need some tough reforms
Patrick Jenkins (FT) Jul 20, 2015
The need to identify risks in the system has intensified.

Gamblers on Chinese stocks abandon their fortune to fate
Lawrence Osborne (FT) Jul 20, 2015
When a table’s numbers shift, the gamblers hare off to a luckier one.

Finland Shows Why Many Europeans Think Americans Are Wrong About the Euro
Neil Irwin (NYT) Jul 20, 2015
The Finnish economy is struggling, but the finance minister says you have to look at the long run to evaluate the effect of the euro.

Russia’s Coming Regime Change
Andrei V. Kozyrev (NYT) Jul 20, 2015
The Russian people will rise up. But for now, the West must stand firm and resist Putin’s intimidation.

FT Investigation: The strange tale of ticker ‘566’
Miles Johnson, Lucy Hornby and Cynthia O’Murchu (FT) Jul 20, 2015
How an obscure toy maker was transformed into Hanergy Thin Film, a solar group whose value touched $40bn before a dramatic fall back to earth.

Tsipras By the Numbers
Denis MacShane (Globalist) Jul 20, 2015
Why the numbers 36, 60 and 80 are key to the Greek prime minister's triumph over infantile leftism and conservative economism.

What Europe Should Learn From Asia's Crisis
William Pesek (Bloomberg View) Jul 20, 2015
The answer isn't austerity, it's fast and bold reform.

Will the World Ever Boom Again?
Noah Smith (Bloomberg View) Jul 20, 2015
Unless there's another China out there, maybe not.

Europe’s Vindictive Privatization Plan for Greece
Yanis Varoufakis (Project Syndicate) Jul 20, 2015
Eurozone leaders are demanding that Greek public assets be transferred to a Treuhand-like fund – a fire-sale vehicle similar to the one used after the fall of the Berlin Wall to privatize all of the vanishing East German state’s public property. The plan should be a stigma on Europe’s conscience; worse, it is a wasted opportunity.

Germany, Greece, and the Future of Europe
Jeffrey D. Sachs (Project Syndicate) Jul 20, 2015
Germany’s demands have brought Greece to the point of near-collapse, with potentially disastrous consequences for Greece, Europe, and Germany’s global reputation. Maintaining a peaceful and prosperous Europe is Germany’s most vital responsibility; but it is surely its most vital national interest as well.

How important are terms-of-trade shocks?
Stephanie Schmitt-Grohe & Martín Uribe (VoxEU) Jul 20, 2015
In the past few years, the world has witnessed large swings in world relative prices, from oil to metals to food prices. This column examines how important these terms-of-trade shocks are in explaining GDP fluctuations. Using structural vector autoregression analysis it shows that terms-of-trade shocks account for no more than 10% of business-cycle fluctuations in the majority of poor and emerging countries.

Greece should prepare for Grexit and then not do it
Charles Wyplosz (VoxEU) Jul 20, 2015
There is a high likelihood that Grexit will be back on the table. This column argues that Greece can strengthen its negotiating position if it is prepared for exit. Grexit remains a disastrous choice, but it has become the default option for Greece and its creditors. However, preparing for Grexit does not mean leaving the Eurozone. A credible threat point may deliver a better outcome. The purpose of the exercise should be to make Grexit a plausible solution, then not to do it.

Let China’s markets speak truth to power
Henry Paulson (FT) Jul 21, 2015
Policymakers must do more to reform underlying structural problems.

Europe’s confusion on German leadership
Bill Emmott (FT) Jul 21, 2015
Eurozone is happy to back Berlin when it is wrong and resist it when it is right.

Bank of China aims to spread Asian wings
Jennifer Hughes (FT) Jul 21, 2015
Beijing’s infrastructure spending will boost international ambitions.

Investors cannot see through market froth
John Plender (FT) Jul 21, 2015
Bubbles will be clearer as central banks start to normalise policy.

The Case for a Tax on Financial Transactions
Jared Bernstein (NYT) Jul 21, 2015
Senator Bernie Sanders's financial transaction tax would raise revenue and discourage high-frequency trading.

Fifty Years of Debasing Money
Seth Lipsky (WSJ) Jul 21, 2015
The Coinage Act of 1965 marked the end of silver coins, contrary to what LBJ promised.

This is what economists don’t understand about the euro crisis – or the U.S. dollar
Kathleen McNamara (WP) Jul 21, 2015
What economists get wrong is that single currencies are never the product of debates about optimal economic solutions.

Let Greece leave the eurozone
David Ignatius (WP) Jul 21, 2015
A gentle Grexit might be less painful than the austerity measures included in the bailout plan.

The Growing Gap between Real Wages and Labor Productivity
Robert Z. Lawrence (PIIE) Jul 21, 2015
Since 1970, the real wages of US production workers have stagnated, despite the rapid growth in output per worker. This apparent disconnect between labor productivity and real wages is most dramatic when real output per hour is contrasted with real average hourly wages since 1970.

Greece: Next Stop Russia?
Beat Guldimann (Globalist) Jul 21, 2015
What are the chances of Tsipras and Putin becoming allies?

Greece: Open for Business Again?
Denis MacShane (Globalist) Jul 21, 2015
Don't be fooled: Nothing has been resolved.

A Euro Visionary at the IMF
Leonid Bershidsky (Bloomberg View) Jul 21, 2015
Maurice Obstfeld has long been clear-eyed about the single currency's flaws.

At Least Somebody Feels Good About Greece
Matthew A. Winkler (Bloomberg View) Jul 21, 2015
Investors have faith that the euro zone will stick together.

There's Just One Way to Reach 4 Percent Growth
Noah Smith (Bloomberg View) Jul 21, 2015
Immigration, and a lot more of it.

Greece’s Imperfect Imperative
Lucrezia Reichlin, Elias Papaioannou and Richard Portes (Project Syndicate) Jul 21, 2015
The latest deal between Greece and its creditors is far from perfect, particularly because its emphasis on fiscal targets risks undermining structural reforms. But the deal can – and must – serve as the basis for saving Greece and the eurozone.

Europe’s Civil War
Anne-Marie Slaughter (Project Syndicate) Jul 21, 2015
The recent negotiations over Greece’s debt brought into relief two competing visions of the EU: the flexible, humane, and political union espoused by France, and the legalistic and economy-focused union promoted by Germany. At a time of unprecedented divisions within the Union, which vision will prevail?

China’s Live Stress Test
Andrew Sheng and Xiao Geng Project Syndicate) Jul 21, 2015
China’s economy has succeeded through trial and error – and the country's recent stock-market collapse should be viewed as part of that process, to be used to drive the next phase of economic reform. One key lesson is that Chinese stock markets remain structurally biased toward state ownership and guidance.

The half-life of happiness
Sebastian Galiani, Paul Gertler and Raimundo Undurraga (VoxEU) Jul 21, 2015
Does material wealth make you happier? Recent literature and public discussion suggests that we believe widely that, in the long term, it doesn’t; especially if you are fairly wealthy and live in the West. But what if you’re poor and live in a developing country? This column presents new evidence that taking material improvements for granted is a common human behaviour that is present even among the extremely poor.

Understanding past and future financial crises
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas and Maurice Obstfeld (VoxEU) Jul 21, 2015
What explains the different effects of the crisis around the world? This column compares the 2007–09 crisis to earlier episodes of banking, currency, and sovereign debt distress and identifies domestic-credit booms and real currency appreciation as the most significant predictors of future crises, in both advanced and emerging economies. It argues these results could help policymakers determine the need for corrective action before crises hit.

Paris eyes push for ‘eurozone government’
Anne-Sylvaine Chassany (FT) Jul 22, 2015
French leader seeks to unite pro-Europeans two years out from presidential election.

Balkan banks avoid a dose of Greek flu
Neil Buckley (FT) Jul 22, 2015
Regulators and financial institutions had time to boost their immune systems against contagion.

Low bond liquidity presents little risk
Douglas Hodge (FT) Jul 22, 2015
The main effect will be higher cost of capital.

Let China’s markets speak truth to power
Henry Paulson (FT) Jul 22, 2015
Policymakers must do more to reform underlying structural problems.

Which Was Bigger: The Greek or American Bailout?
Karl Russell (NYT) Jul 22, 2015
Comparison of the Greek and American bailouts and their economic decline and growth since.

The most successful anti-poverty movement in history?
Peter Gregory (OECD Insight) Jul 22, 2015
It is erroneous for the UN to claim that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been “the most successful anti-poverty movement in history”. The extraordinary reduction in the number of people living in extreme poverty over the last 25 years has been caused by market-led economic growth. We must re-cast foreign aid and charity to reflect this reality.

Schäuble: Europe's Last Man Standing
André Reichel (Globalist) Jul 22, 2015
Is Germany's finance minister really anti-European?

Did Putin Sell Out Greece?
Leonid Bershidsky (Bloomberg View) Jul 22, 2015
A Greek report feeds a conspiracy theory that he bargained for leeway on Ukraine.

Some Things Only Government Can Do
Noah Smith (Bloomberg View) Jul 22, 2015
Too bad paying for them is such a problem.

Bank of Japan Only Imagines Inflation
William Pesek (Bloomberg View) Jul 22, 2015
Haruhiko Kuroda got ahead of reality, undermining two years of monetary stimulus.

Why the Greek Deal Will Work
Anatole Kaletsky (Project Syndicate) Jul 22, 2015
Most economists and political commentators believe that the latest Greek bailout was little more than an analgesic. It will dull the pain for a while, but the euro’s problems will metastasize, with a dismal prognosis for the single currency and perhaps the EU as a whole. But the conventional wisdom is likely to be proved wrong.

The Best Ways to Fight Extreme Poverty
Bjørn Lomborg (Project Syndicate) Jul 22, 2015
Many of the UN’s proposed development targets for the next 15 years are linked to poverty reduction. But, with some targets able to yield much greater returns than others, world leaders must choose wisely.

Moving on From the Euro
Kevin Hjortshøj O'Rourke (Project Syndicate) Jul 22, 2015
It has been obvious for some years that the “actually existing EMU” has been a costly failure, not just economically but politically. And yet most economists, even those who were never keen on Europe’s monetary union in the first place, have been reluctant to make the argument that the time has come to abandon a failed experiment.

China’s Patient Investors
Zhang Lei (Project Syndicate) Jul 22, 2015
Chinese markets, like emerging markets everywhere, are volatile, and investors there are usually focused on short-term profits. And yet a long-term approach is not only possible; done properly, it can be fabulously lucrative.

What historical heights can teach us about past living standards
Howard Bodenhorn, Timothy W. Guinnane and Thomas Mroz (VoxEU) Jul 22, 2015
Were living standards during early industrialisation as terrible as we imagine? Robert Fogel, the Nobel prize-winning economic historian, taught us a great deal about studying long-term living standards through looking into people’s height. This column argues that one of Fogel’s early claims turns out to have, at best, a weak foundation. The measured decline of mean height during industrialisation reflects in large part the nature of the data sources, not necessarily changes in the height of the underlying populations. The Industrial Revolution did not necessarily make people shorter.

Bond markets out of kilter with rate reality
Michael McKenzie (FT) Jul 23, 2015
Complacency on policy expectations keeps front-end yields low.

China tech expansion in a new phase
Richard Waters (FT) Jul 23, 2015
Tsinghua’s interest in Micron evokes memories of Japanese chip onslaught of the 1980s.

Do not fight free trade, it enriches nations
Antonia Ax:son Johnson and Stefan Persson (FT) Jul 23, 2015
Its record in reducing poverty should be enough to counter critics.

Raising Ex-Im From the Dead
WSJ Jul 23, 2015
Congress should administer last rites to a corporate welfare relic.

TTIP Negotiators Complete Tenth Round, Exchange Revised Services Offers
Bridges, Volume 19, Number 27 Jul 23, 2015
Negotiators for a bilateral EU-US trade and investment deal concluded their tenth round of negotiations last week, exchanging revised services offers and reporting productive discussions on regulatory coherence.

UN Approves New Development Financing Framework at Addis Meet
Bridges, Volume 19, Number 27 Jul 23, 2015
After months of tough preparatory negotiations, UN member states meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last week agreed to a revised global framework for development finance, aligning flows with a range of economic, social, and environmental priorities.

IMF Exceptional Access and Reform Legislation: Do Not Link the Two Issues
Edwin M. Truman (PIIE) Jul 23, 2015
In "The Lessons Greece's Lenders Forgot" (Wall Street Journal, July 10), John Taylor argued that the United States and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) erred in May 2010 by not abiding by the IMF's 2003 framework for exceptional (large scale) access to its financial support. I argued in a letter to the Wall Street Journal that Taylor did not have all of his facts right about the Greek case and about the IMF's framework for exceptional access.

Central Banks and Our Dysfunctional Gold Markets
Marcia Christoff-Kurapovna (Mises Daily) Jul 23, 2015
Many investors still view gold as a safe-haven investment, but there remains much confusion regarding the extent to which the gold market is vulnerable to manipulation through short-term rigged market trades, and long-arm central bank interventions.

Japan: Ramping up Policy Actions for Lasting Economic Change
IMF Survey Jul 23, 2015
Abenomics has lifted Japan out of the doldrums, according to the IMF’s latest assessment of the Asian economy. But, policies need to be reinforced to end the lingering deflationary mindset, raise growth, restore fiscal sustainability, and maintain financial stability without undue reliance on yen depreciation.

Monetary Policies in Advanced Economies: Good for Them, Good for Others
IMF Survey Jul 23, 2015
Seven years after the onset of the Great Recession, economic activity in many advanced economies remains below potential. In the euro area, for example, the output gap—how far output is below where it could be if all productive resources such as labor and capital were being fully utilized—is nearly 2½ percent.

Breaking down the silo: connecting education to world trends
Tracey Burns (OECD Insights) Jul 23, 2015
Did you ever wonder if education has a role to play in stemming the obesity epidemic sweeping across all OECD countries? Or what the impact of increasing urbanisation might be on our schools, families, and communities? Or whether new technologies really are fundamentally changing the way our children think and learn? If so, you’re not alone.

The Failure of Politics: Merkel's Euro Debacle
Daniel Stelter (Globalist) Jul 23, 2015
In reality, it was German banks and not Greece that had to be rescued.

Europe and the Consequences of French Weakness
David Marsh (Globalist) Jul 23, 2015
European changes since German reunification 25 years ago represent a double blow for France.

The Economic Potential of The Internet of Things
Irving Wladawsky-Berger (Pieria) Jul 23, 2015
The hype may actually understate the full potential of the Internet of Things

Cheap Money Is Here to Stay
William Pesek (Bloomberg View) Jul 23, 2015
Central bankers have lost the initiative to markets.

Iranian Oil Could Hurt Russia and the U.S.
Leonid Bershidsky (Bloomberg View) Jul 23, 2015
Current oil prices are barely high enough for U.S. frackers and the Russian government.

The Eurozone’s German Problem
Philippe Legrain (Project Syndicate) Jul 23, 2015
It cannot be Greece’s fault that the eurozone economy as a whole – in which it plays a miniscule role – is faring worse seven years after the start of the crisis than Europe did during the Great Depression of the 1930s. In fact, the real problem in the eurozone is not Greece’s debt, but Germany’s beggar-thy-neighbor policies.

Is Uber a Threat to Democracy?
Kemal Dervis (Project Syndicate) Jul 23, 2015
Innovative companies like Uber bring huge increases in efficiency, as well as social and regulatory challenges that must be confronted in a way that ensures fairness. The notion that markets alone can manage its transformative impact is pure folly.

The Return of the Ugly German
Joschka Fischer (Project Syndicate) Jul 23, 2015
During the long night of negotiations over Greece on July 12-13, something fundamental to the European Union cracked. Since then, Europeans have lived in a different kind of EU, with Germany’s pursuit of national interest set to provoke conflict with France and Italy.

City scale and productivity in China
John Gibson and Chao Li (VoxEU) Jul 23, 2015
The size of cities in China – and the effects of city size on productivity – are important topics for urban economists. This column argues that the data used in many previous studies of Chinese cities do not stand up to scrutiny because they do not take nearly enough workers into account. More comprehensive data on city employment from China’s 2010 census suggest that there are lots of inefficiently small cities.

China's Global Ambitions, With Loans and Strings Attached
Clifford Krauss and Keith Bradsher (NYT) Jul 24, 2015
The country has invested billions in Ecuador and elsewhere, using its economic clout to win diplomatic allies and secure natural resources around the world.

Lessons in resillience from rural Greece
Alexis Adams (WP) Jul 24, 2015
Rural Greeks are relying on time-tested techniques to weather the economic storm.

Sovereign Debt Restructuring: The Greek Challenge
Carlos A. Primo Braga (IMD) Jul 24, 2015
Does the past dictate the future?

What Obama Should Say in Africa
Bloomberg View Jul 24, 2015
Greater prosperity will come with more accountable politics.

Fighting Corruption Won’t End Poverty
Ricardo Hausmann (Project Syndicate) Jul 24, 2015
On his recent trip to Latin America, Pope Francis declared that the corrupt deserve to be “tied to a rock and cast into the sea.” Perhaps they do; but that won’t necessarily make their countries more prosperous.

What the Greek and Iranian Deals Are Not
Dominique Moisi (Project Syndicate) Jul 24, 2015
This month’s agreements on the Greek crisis and Iran’s nuclear program are undoubtedly important achievements. But the comparisons that have accompanied both deals have tended toward hyperbole, impeding rational discussion of their implications for Europe, the Middle East, and the prospects for international diplomacy.

Depression’s Advocates
J. Bradford DeLong (Project Syndicate) Jul 24, 2015
When the Greek debt crisis erupted in 2010, it seemed that the obvious lessons of history implied a straightforward path to resolution. Instead, eurozone policymakers insisted on repeating the mistakes of the 1930s, and today they are doubling down on them.

Greece: Strophe and Antistrophe
Avinash D. Persaud (PIIE) Jul 25, 2015
A Greek default in 2010 would have avoided Greece's fiscal troubles cascading into an existential moment for the European Union. But Germany and France, fearing damage to their banks, rejected that option, and sacrificed Greece's economic sustainability for European financial stability.

Foreign-owned firms in the technology take-off in China
Sourafel Girma, Yundan Gong, Holger Görg, Sandra Lancheros and Christiane Krieger-Boden (VoxEU) Jul 24, 2015
In the run-up to WTO accession in 2001, China considerably liberalised its policy towards FDI. This column argues that foreign acquisitions contributed significantly to raising export activities and R&D activities, though rather through joint ventures than whole acquisitions.

Monnet’s chain reaction and the future of Europe
Enrico Spolaore (VoxEU) Jul 25, 2015
The idea that Europe’s challenges could be addressed with further integration dates back to the beginning of the European project. This column argues that partial integration might not necessarily lead to more integration. In particular, such a strategy might not be successful in areas involving high heterogeneity costs that do not necessarily reduce with more integration. If further integration is to take place, European institutions may need to accept much more flexibility and have provisions not only for entry, but also for exit.

Asset management and financial stability
Gaston Gelos & Hiroko Oura (VoxEU) Jul 25, 2015
The growth of the asset management industry has raised concerns about its potential impacts on financial stability. This column assesses the systemic risk created by fund managers’ incentive problems and a first-mover advantage for end investors. Fund flows and fund ownership affect asset prices, and fund managers’ behaviour can amplify risks. This lends support to the expansion and strengthening of industry oversight, both at the individual fund and market levels.

The make believe world of eurozone rules
Wolfgang Munchau (FT) Jul 26, 2015
The disagreement between Germany and the ECJ is not about the law, but politics and economics.

Africa: more ready to make than consume
Paul Collier (FT) Jul 26, 2015
The problem is not a missing middle class but a missing class of organisation.

Don't Cry for Greece, Argentina
Omar G. Encarnación (FA) Jul 26, 2015
The lessons from the Great Depression.

The race to a risky Trans-Pacific Partnership deal
Shiro Armstrong (EAF) Jul 26, 2015
The largest hurdle for the 12-member Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement — the US president’s ability to get Trade Promotion Authority, or fast track — has been cleared. Many people think that the TPP can be wrapped up in a few months.

Early EU vote will see off Cameron
Janan Ganesh (FT) Jul 27, 2015
Even if he persuades Britons to stay in a slightly revised union, the Reaper will still close in.

Bank executive ousting is back in fashion
Patrick Jenkins (FT) Jul 27, 2015
Post-crisis stabilisation and regulatory pressure take toll on European bosses.

China’s Market-Intervention Folly
WSJ Jul 27, 2015
A retreat from economic reform is the prime obstacle to continued Chinese progress.

What the Trans-Pacific Partnership Means for Southeast Asia
Hunter Marston (Diplomat) Jul 27, 2015
The trade deal would be a giant step for the four Southeast Asian countries currently in talks.

Euro Area Recovering, But Lasting Growth Requires Collective Push
IMF Survey Jul 27, 2015
The euro area recovery is strengthening, but the weak medium-term outlook calls for a stronger collective push, said the IMF’s latest review of the currency union.

Greece and the eurozone need the IMF to act
The Banker Jul 27, 2015
The International Monetary Fund has gradually found its voice in the years since its participation in the Greek bail-out of 2010. Now it must go further.

6 reasons Greece’s economy can truly recover this time around
Theodore Pelagidis (Brookings) Jul 27, 2015
With Greece and the troika back at the negotiating table, this time could well be different.

Escaping the Greek Debt Trap
Barry Eichengreen (Bloomberg View) Jul 27, 2015
A 1991 arrangement shows a possible way out of the crisis.

Alpha, Beta, and Beyond
Nouriel Roubini (Project Syndicate) Jul 27, 2015
Even in normal times, individual and institutional investors alike have a hard time figuring out where to invest and in what. But a new, low-cost approach to investing – neither active nor passive – promises to ease the challenge confronting investors in normal and abnormal times alike.

Market Manipulation Goes Global
Stephen Roach (Project Syndicate) Jul 27, 2015
All eyes are now on China’s attempts to cope with the collapse of a major equity bubble. But the Chinese authorities’ efforts are hardly unique: All the leading economies of the West are doing pretty much the same thing – just dressing it up in different clothes.

Can Greece Save Itself?
James Surowiecki (New Yorker) Jul 27, 2015
If Europe won’t help, the only option is reshaping the economy.

Debt miracle: Why the country that borrowed the most industrialised first
Jaume Ventura and Hans-Joachim Voth (VoxEU) Jul 27, 2015
Is debt really that bad? This column looks at the towering debts, rapid tax hikes, and constant state of war that led to Britain’s Industrial Revolution, showing that the devil is in the detail when assessing sovereign debt. When we consider the dangers of debt in today’s world, we should keep an eye on its potential benefits as well.

The warning signs of trade stagnation
Stephanie Flanders (FT) Jul 28, 2015
Data highlight investment slowdown and limits to recovery.

Something is rotten in the euro kingdom
Yanis Varoufakis (FT) Jul 28, 2015
Plan would have eased Greece’s chronic liquidity shortage.

Trigger for global shift into renminbi
David Marsh (FT) Jul 28, 2015
Inclusion in IMF’s special drawing right currency unit could prompt $100bn of official buying.

Countries Should Take Action to Reduce External Imbalances, IMF Says
IMF Survey Jul 28, 2015
If the world’s largest economies took steps to reduce excess external imbalances, they could improve prospects for sustained global growth and financial stability, according to a new IMF analysis.

Why Is Inflation So Low?
Angel Ubide (PIIE/El Pais) Jun 28, 2015
Since central banks began their quantitative easing (QE) programs to counter the effects of the global financial crisis, seven long years ago, the alarm announcing the imminent arrival of inflation has been pervasive. Monetarists screamed, terrified that the rapid increase in central banks' balance sheets would generate high and accelerating inflation that would require rapid rises in interest rates, with the consequence that the remedy (the QE programs) would end up being worse than the disease (the crisis).

Third Bailout and the Third Punic War
John Weeks (Pieria) Jul 28, 2015
Those in Greece whose hope is that the Third Bailout has bought them time for a better deal with the Troika in the future might reflect on the outcome of the third Punic War.

Latin America’s Anti-Corruption Crusade
Jorge G. Castañeda (Project Syndicate) Jul 28, 2015
Latin America has been plagued by corruption for centuries. But, in responding to recent corruption scandals, the region's societies and institutions have shown their unwillingness to remain complicit in corruption, or continue resigning themselves to its inevitability.

China’s Abnormal Stock Market
Linda Yueh (Project Syndicate) Jul 28, 2015
China's stock market has plunged yet again, and it is likely to fall further. The big question now is whether the recent volatility will spill over into other asset markets and the real economy.

Don’t Lend to Your Euro Friends
Hans-Werner Sinn (Project Syndicate) Jul 28, 2015
After months of brinkmanship, and only a week after Greek voters rejected the conditions for a rescue package, the eurozone's political leaders agreed to start negotiations on a much larger package, worth almost half of Greece’s GDP. Unfortunately, the deal reveals Europe’s apparent determination to reenact the same tragedy in the future.

The Lethal Deferral of Greek Debt Restructuring
Yanis Varoufakis (Project Syndicate) Jul 28, 2015
The point of restructuring debt is to reduce the volume of new loans needed to salvage an insolvent entity: Creditors offer debt relief to get more value back and to extend as little new finance to the insolvent entity as possible. Remarkably, Greece’s creditors seem unable to appreciate this sound financial principle.

Lending Athens a Pot of Gold
Stephen Kinsella (FA) Jul 28, 2015
Why Ireland should support Greek debt relief.

The Troubled Oil Business
Amory Lovins (Medium) Jul 28, 2015
Hitting peak oil will come faster than any of us think. But don't blame dwindling supply - it's all about disappearing demand.

Innovation, income inequality, and social mobility
Philippe Aghion, Ufuk Akcigit, Antonin Bergeaud, Richard Blundell & David Hemous (VoxEU) Jul 28, 2015
In recent decades, there has been an accelerated increase in top income inequality, particularly in developed countries. This column argues that innovation partly accounts for the surge in top income inequality and fosters social mobility. In particular, the positive effect of innovation on social mobility is due to new innovators.

The ripple effects of China’s market woes
David Pilling (FT) Jul 29, 2015
Clumsy intervention has had a chilling influence on global sentiment.

Oil Export Momentum
WSJ Jul 29, 2015
Support is growing to repeal a Nixon-era ban that Iran and Russia love.

Explaining the world’s economic funk
Robert J. Samuelson (WP) Jul 29, 2015
It’s not gloom so much as worry and restraint.

Letting China’s Bubble Burst
Michael Spence (Project Syndicate) Jul 29, 2015
As China’s capital markets expand, they are outstripping policymakers' capacity to manage prices and valuations. The only practical way forward is for the authorities to focus on regulatory and institutional development, while following through on their commitment to permit markets to self-correct.

In Defense of Varoufakis
Mohamed A. El-Erian (Project Syndicate) Jul 29, 2015
Greeks and other Europeans may fault Yanis Varoufakis, Greece's former finance minister, for pursuing his agenda with too little politesse while in office. But the essence of that agenda was – and remains – largely correct.

Encouraging Work
Andrés Velasco (Project Syndicate) Jul 29, 2015
Few policies manage to be economically illiterate and heartless at the same time. But Britain’s Conservative government has achieved just that, by cutting tax credits for low-income workers.

Helping solve Africa’s poverty puzzle
John Page (Brookings) Jul 29, 2015
Put simply, despite solid growth since about 1995, Africa’s economies have not generated a sufficient number of jobs that pay enough to draw households out of poverty.

Stock markets, banking crises, and economic recoveries
Ross Levine, Chen Lin and Wensi Xie (VoxEU) Jul 29, 2015
Some have argued that the stock market serves as a ‘spare tire’ during banking crises by providing an alternative corporate financing channel. This column examines the claim using data for 36 countries spanning 20 years. The findings support the three core predictions of the spare tire view, suggesting that countries can insulate parts of their economy from future banking crises by designing appropriate legal frameworks.

Financial frictions, product quality, and international trade
Rosario Crinò and Laura Ogliari (VoxEU) Jul 29, 2015
The production of high-quality goods influences key aspects of countries’ economic performance, including growth and development. This column argues that removing credit market imperfections may help countries transition from the production of low-quality to high-quality goods, especially in industries that are more sensitive to financial frictions.

Cameron should stand up to the eurozone
Charles Grant (FT) Jul 30, 2015
UK business worries euro countries could impose their will on the whole EU.

Why summer storms loom for investors
Michael Mackenzie (FT) Jul 30, 2015
Pressure on EMs, concerns on China and US rate make explosive package.

Why China Will Still Reach Its Target Growth Rate
Mark A. Deweaver (WSJ) Jul 30, 2015
The stock market crash won’t stop Beijing from shoveling trillions into wasteful local projects.

China’s Naked Emperors
Paul Krugman (NYT) Jul 30, 2015
The politicians in Beijing who have ruled during economic booms, not unlike many of their American counterparts, have no idea what they’re doing.

Ideas for Greece, From the London Business School
Elias Papaioannou, Richard Portes and Lucrezia Reichlin (NYT) Jul 30, 2015
Simplistic recommendations that ignore institutional complexities will not help Greece or the eurozone.

TPP Trade Talks at Pivotal Stage as Hawaii Meet Nears Conclusion
Bridges, Volume 19, Number 28 Jul 30, 2015
Trade ministers from 12 Pacific Rim countries are gathered in the US state of Hawaii this week, in an effort to bring the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement to their much-awaited conclusion.

WTO Accessions: General Council Approves Kazakhstan Entry, Liberia Bid Advancing
Bridges, Volume 19, Number 28 Jul 30, 2015
WTO members formally signed off on Kazakhstan's accession on Monday, bringing the Central Asian country into the final stage of becoming the global trade body's 162nd member.

Debate: The Case for Growth
Adam S. Posen (PIIE/Economist) Jul 30, 2015
Economies naturally grow. People innovate as they go through life. They also look around at what others are doing and adopt better practices or tools. They invest, accumulating financial, human, and physical capital.

Rule, Germania
Harold James (Project Syndicate) Jul 30, 2015
A persistent feature of the discussions about how to address Europe's debt crisis has been German leaders' insistence that the rules must be followed. Germany's obsession with rules reflects the way its federal system of government has shaped its decision-making, as well as its historic experience with debt crises.

Primordial risk factors for HIV spread in Africa
Graziella Bertocchi and Arcangelo Dimico (VoxEU) Jul 30, 2015
HIV/AIDS is an endemic economic problem for significant parts of Africa. This column presents evidence suggesting that the demographic shock induced by the slave trade still shapes the contemporary family structures and sexual behaviour of many African countries. Policymakers and human rights organisations should understand that the struggle against HIV/AIDS involves the eradication of deeply rooted beliefs and practices.

In Athens
Tariq Ali (LRB) Jul 30, 2015
The capitulation means more suffering, but it has also led to questions being asked more widely about the EU, its structures and its policies. For Greeks of virtually all political persuasions the EU was once seen as a family to which one must belong. It has turned out to be a pretty dysfunctional family.

Revenge of the Ideologues: Killing the Export-Import Bank
Joe Nocera (NYT) Jul 31, 2015
The bank helps big and small American businesses compete globally while turning a profit for the Treasury.

The New Slow-Growth Normal and Where It Leads
Holman Jenkins (WSJ) Jul 31, 2015
On the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, an unhinged regulatory state is our doomsday machine.

An Erosion of Confidence in China
Gordon G. Chang (WA) Jul 31, 2015
In a move indicative of the authoritarian Chinese Central Government, China attempted to reverse sliding stocks. But another recent dip in the market reveals that restoring investors’ trust will be the more difficult play.

Forget about Exits: Europe's Choreographed Policy Outlook
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard (PIIE) Jul 31, 2015
Following the confrontation-driven agreement between Greece and its international creditors on July 12, Europe appears ready for its usual August torpor. European leaders deserve a break. Their numerous emergency summits have stabilized the continent's outlook for at least the next year, virtually eliminating the specter of a Grexit and lowering the prospect of a British exit from the European Union. In other words, Europe's near-term outlook is not as pessimistic as many experts say.

IMF Gets Smart About Greece
Mohamed A. El-Erian (Bloomberg View) Jul 31, 2015
Without the right terms, this rescue will fail too.

Who Really Benefits From Bailouts?
Barry Ritholtz (Bloomberg View) Jul 31, 2015
Financial rescues aren't meant to help average people.

Two Points for Austerity: Spain and Ireland
Leonid Bershidsky (Bloomberg View) Jul 31, 2015
These bailed-out countries are recovering nicely.

Still Too Big to Fail
Simon Johnson (Project Syndicate) Jul 31, 2015
Nearly seven years after the global financial crisis erupted, and more than five years after the passage of the Dodd-Frank financial-reform legislation in the US, the cause of the crisis – banks that are “too big to fail” – has yet to be uprooted. As long as that remains the case, another disaster is only a matter of time.

Can the Euro Be Repaired?
Jean Pisani-Ferry (Project Syndicate) Jul 31, 2015
When Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, recently tabled the option of a Greek exit from the euro, he wanted to signal that no member country could abstain from the monetary union's rules. But his initiative triggered a much broader discussion of the euro’s governance and the very rationale for its existence.

The Profit-Sharing Economy
Laura Tyson (Project Syndicate) Jul 31, 2015
As the income of the top 1% of US households soars, wages for the majority of American workers continue to stagnate, which is undermining long-term economic growth and prosperity. The introduction of more broad-based profit-sharing arrangements could be a key step toward ameliorating this trend.

Still Too Big to Fail
Simon Johnson (Project Syndicate) Jul 31, 2015
Nearly seven years after the global financial crisis erupted, and more than five years after the passage of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation in the United States, the cause of the crisis—the existence of banks that are "too big to fail"—has yet to be uprooted. As long as that remains the case, another disaster is only a matter of time.

European Banks’ Sovereign Debt Home Bias: Voluntary or Involuntary?
Bálint Horváth, Harry Huizinga and Vasso P. Ioannidou (VoxEU) Jul 31, 2015
When banks invest heavily in sovereign debt, and in domestic sovereign debt in particular, the result is a debt home bias. This column presents evidence of a partially voluntary and partially involuntary sovereign debt home bias among large European banks. This bias is stronger if the sovereign is risky and shareholder rights are strong or the government has a positive ownership in the bank. Also, banks with a strong home bias are valued positively by the stock market.