November 16, 2017
Central Banks in the dock
On November 11, 1997, the Bank of England took a big step toward independence, courtesy of the second reading in the House of Commons of a bill amending the Bank Act of 1946. The bill gave legislative affirmation to the decision,
August 23, 2017
Revenge of the experts
The Brexit debate is an endless source of mirth for anyone with a dark sense of humour. My own favourite quote is from Michael Gove, currently Britain's environment secretary.
July 13, 2017
Asia's unhappy anniversary
This month marks the 20th anniversary of the Asian financial crisis—or, more precisely, of the event that triggered the crisis: the devaluation of Thailand's baht.
June 15, 2017
Can US states right Trump's wrongs?
US President Donald Trump, with the help of a Republican-controlled Congress, is undermining many of the fundamental values that Americans hold dear.
May 17, 2017
Is Germany unbalanced or unhinged?
For US President Donald Trump, the measure of a country's economic strength is its current-account balance — its exports of goods and services minus its imports.
January 15, 2017
Trump before Trump
Understanding the political success of US President-elect Donald Trump is not easy. There have been many glib comparisons with populist politicians of the past, from Huey Long to George Wallace. But the most revealing comparison may be with an historical figure from another country: the British nativist firebrand Enoch Powell in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
December 21, 2016
The Age of Hyper-Uncertainty
For all these reasons, the golden age of stability and predictability that was the third quarter of the twentieth century seemed to have abruptly drawn to a close, to be succeeded by a period of greatly heightened uncertainty.
November 21, 2016
Globalisation's last gasp
Does Donald Trump's election as United States president mean that globalisation is dead, or are reports of the process' demise greatly exaggerated?
August 17, 2016
Airing the IMF's dirty laundry
Following the International Monetary Fund's controversial actions in the Asian financial crisis of 1998, when it conditioned liquidity assistance to...