The Amazon rainforest has been burning for weeks. Yet Brazil’s right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, mobilized the armed forces to help contain the fires only...
I was having lunch in an Ithaca restaurant with my mother-in-law, who was visiting from India, when the Chinese waitress serving us asked her where she came...
Facebook’s new global digital currency, Libra, which the company plans to launch as early as 2020, could transform the world. But no one - including the...
In my book “The Republic of Beliefs: A New Approach to Law and Economics,” I was eager to demonstrate how the methods that have emerged from the long and...
When wealthy people espouse left-wing causes, such as redistribution of wealth, those on the right often label them hypocrites. “If you are so concerned about...
The nomination earlier this month of David Malpass, a senior U.S. Treasury Department official, for the post of World Bank president came as something of a...
At the end of a year of political trauma and conflict, I found myself feeling an unexpected sense of hope, sitting in Mumbai, where I could see the Arabian...
The Great Chinese Famine, which peaked in 1960, was the world’s largest on record. But the effects of that famine including its toll of more than 30...
Jair Bolsonaro, the frontrunner for the Brazilian presidency, is a far-right, gun-loving, media-baiting hyper-nationalist. The fact that he would be right at...
Democracy is in crisis. Fake news – and fake allegations of fake news – now plagues civil discourse, and political parties have proved...
One major impetus behind U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies is his belief China has artificially weakened its currency in order to dump...
In modern economics, the interaction between supply and demand with regard to goods and services is well understood, thanks to the pioneering work of the late...
Around the world, the effects of alarmingly high economic inequality are spilling over into politics and society. Economic insecurity is a driving force...
The World Bank’s annual Doing Business report is probably its most-cited publication. It is also the Bank’s most contentious, and with the release of Doing...
At the end of a low and dishonest year, reminiscent of the “low, dishonest decade” about which W.H. Auden wrote in his poem “September 1, 1939,” the world’s...
After years of stressing the importance of evidence-based policymaking, economists have clearly had some influence on politicians. What economists now need to...
Global growth seems to be moving, slowly but surely, along the path to recovery. The International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook predicts 3.5...
Not long ago, India was a poster child for political stability and economic growth among emerging economies. Though the country had a long way to go to...
Fox Business has gleefully reported that former U.S. President Barack Obama will accept $400,000 from the Wall Street investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald to...
U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist threats against China have spurred much concern. If he follows through on his promises and, say, officially labels...