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...

China’s shift from export-driven growth to a model based on domestic services and household consumption has been much bumpier than some anticipated, with stock-market gyrations and exchange-rate volatility inciting fears about the country’s economic stability. Yet...

This week, Angus Deaton will receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics “for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare”. Deservedly so. Indeed, soon after the award was announced in October, Deaton published some startling work...

At the end of every August, central bankers and financiers from around the world meet in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for the US Federal Reserve’s economic symposium. This year, the participants were greeted by a large group...

The rising crescendo of bickering and acrimony within Europe might seem to outsiders to be the inevitable result of the bitter endgame playing out between Greece and its creditors. In fact, European leaders are finally beginning...

The United States and the world are engaged in a great debate about new trade agreements. Such pacts used to be called “free trade agreements”. In fact, they were managed trade agreements, tailored to corporate interests,...

When the euro crisis began a five years ago, Keynesian economists predicted that the austerity that was being imposed on Greece and the other crisis-stricken countries would fail. It would stifle growth and increase unemployment —...

At long last, the United States is showing signs of recovery from the crisis that erupted at the end of President George W. Bush’s administration, when the near-implosion of its financial system sent shock waves around...