Political Economy

Because growth will consistently underperform expectations as China rebalances, many members of the Chinese policymaking elite, and their effective allies among the shrinking but still large contingent of China-bulls, will increasingly…

Argentina's official economic growth surprised analysts with a 7.8% year over year jump in May. But can the growth numbers be trusted?

What if automation means that what capitalists really want is a very small, highly skilled workforce to control the robots that do all the work? What if paying people enough to live on simply is not cost-effective compared to the running…

Let’s be clear: it is the apathetic American people who have created this mess. They have allowed their government to operate in a veil of secrecy without any basic checks on power. If Americans don’t wake up and start demanding change, it…

This is an article that originally ran early this month at VoxEU by the Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund and one of his researchers that make the case now being used in Europe for the current policy mix.

So QE cannot possibly offset the effects of fiscal tightening in the lives of ordinary working people - the largest part of the population. In fact because it seems to discourage productive corporate investment, it may even reinforce…

I don't think it's a big secret that I believe Greece will eventually leave the eurozone. I have said this repeatedly. But I have also written that I do not believe that Greece would attempt to do so while Europe's economic crisis is…

Last year, we saw a sea change in official German policy regarding the euro crisis and inflation. The German government came out in favour of accepting higher inflation domestically in Germany as a sacrifice for eurozone wage and price…

There is an experiment being conducted in Japan, but the experiment isn’t Abenomics (which I suspect won’t work, and could end very badly). No, the experiment is about learning to grow old with dignity, not as individuals, but as societies.

As Merrill's junk bond index yield crossed the historical low of 5% on Thursday, some senior Fed officials are clearly becoming uneasy. Corporate credit markets are entering bubble territory (see discussion) and up until recently very…