What was at first a trade skirmish – with US President Donald Trump imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum – appears to be quickly morphing into a full-scale trade war with China. If the truce agreed...

The euro may be approaching another crisis. Italy, the eurozone’s third-largest economy, has chosen what can at best be described as a Euroskeptic government. This should surprise no one. The backlash in Italy is another predictable...

The trade skirmish between the United States and China on steel, aluminum, and other goods is a product of US President Donald Trump’s scorn for multilateral trade arrangements and the World Trade Organization, an institution that...

I’ve been attending the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in Davos, Switzerland – where the so-called global elite convenes to discuss the world’s problems – since 1995. Never have I come away more dispirited than I...

Never has a piece of legislation labeled as both a tax cut and a reform been received with as much disapproval and derision as the bill passed by the US Congress and signed into law by...

Fifteen years ago, I published Globalization and Its Discontents, a book that sought to explain why there was so much dissatisfaction with globalization within the developing countries. Quite simply, many believed that the system was “rigged”...

One of the important powers of any US president is to appoint members and heads of the many agencies that are responsible for implementing the country’s laws and regulations and, in many cases, governing the economy....

Having failed to “repeal and replace” the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), US President Donald Trump’s administration and the Republican congressional majority have now moved on to tax reform. Eight months after assuming office, the administration...

Hurricane Harvey has left in its wake upended lives and enormous property damage, estimated by some at US$150-180 billion. But the storm that pummeled the Texas coast for the better part of a week also raises...

Although America’s right-wing plutocrats may disagree about how to rank the country’s major problems – for example, inequality, slow growth, low productivity, opioid addiction, poor schools and deteriorating infrastructure – the solution is always the same:...

Donald Trump has thrown a hand grenade into the global economic architecture that was so painstakingly constructed in the years after the end of World War II. The attempted destruction of this rules-based system of global...

The likely victory of Emmanuel Macron in the French presidential election has elicited a global sigh of relief. At least Europe is not going down the protectionist path that President Donald Trump is forcing the United...

In barely a month, US President Donald Trump has managed to spread chaos and uncertainty — and a degree of fear that would make any terrorist proud — at a dizzying pace. Not surprisingly, citizens and...

Every January, I try to craft a forecast for the coming year. Economic forecasting is notoriously difficult; but, notwithstanding the truth expressed in Harry Truman’s request for a one-armed economist (who wouldn’t be able to say...

Donald Trump’s astonishing victory in the United States presidential election has made one thing abundantly clear: too many Americans — particularly white male Americans — feel left behind. It is not just a feeling; many Americans...

As I have traveled around the world in recent weeks, I am repeatedly asked two questions: Is it conceivable that Donald Trump could win the US presidency? And how did his candidacy get this far in...

For 200 years, there have been two schools of thought about what determines the distribution of income — and how the economy functions. One, emanating from Adam Smith and 19th century liberal economists, focuses on competitive...

I wrote at the beginning of January that economic conditions this year were set to be as weak as in 2015, which was the worst year since the global financial crisis erupted in 2008. And, as...

Something interesting has emerged in voting patterns on both sides of the Atlantic: Young people are voting in ways that are markedly different from their elders. A great divide appears to have opened up, based not...

Developing countries are bracing for a major slowdown this year. According to the UN report World Economic Situation and Prospects 2016, their growth will average only 3.8 percent this year — the lowest rate since the...