After decades on the margins of mainstream economic thinking, monetarism is beginning to re-enter the debate, most notably at the Federal Reserve. To regain credibility, however, monetarists must learn from past mistakes and adapt to the monetary and financial realities of the 21st century.
Those who defend sweeping financial sanctions against countries like Russia and Iran often claim that popular suffering is a defensible means of pressuring the target government. But while such measures certainly inflict widespread suffering on civilian populations, this rarely translates into politâŚ
Even as hunger declines around the world, food insecurity remains prevalent in rural communities. Restoring soil health, expanding access to new technologies, strengthening land rights, and upgrading public infrastructure are essential to boost agricultural productivity and protect rural livelihoodsâŚ
For most of the postwar era, the United States has enjoyed a privileged position as an issuer of both sovereign debt and US dollars that always found takers. But the US may no longer be able to rely on stable demand for its debt or its currency, forcing policymakers to face the truth about how finanâŚ
A new private initiative bringing together the crème de la crème of European business, financial, economic, and tech elites could well prove useful in kick-starting European growth and innovation. But first, it must recognize that the problem it hopes to solve is fundamentally political.
MeduzaRELIABLE 7.5geopolĂticaanti-Kremlinâ 77 fuentesTue, 25 Aug 2026 02:57:48
Ukraine marked the 35th anniversary of its independence on August 24. The leaders of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Romania, Moldova, and Luxembourg traveled to Kyiv for the occasion, as did Britainâs new prime minister, Andy Burnham, on his first official visit to Ukraine.
Balancing regulation with innovation is never easy, and the Chinese governmentâs robust support for AI could lead to inefficiency and excess. But the âplatform stateâ model, combined with other strengths, has enabled China to achieve dominance in multiple strategic sectors, while enhancing its resilâŚ
Outside of the United States, all other financial systems face major constraints on their ability to absorb large financial inflows. That is why geopolitical multipolarity is advancing faster than financial multipolarity, despite the many reasons that investors have to pursue greater diversificationâŚ
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has justified his intervention in currency and bond markets by arguing that they are not providing a fair signal of economic fundamentals. But they are, and Bessent's willingness to peddle such nonsense may be the most striking testament yet to the sycophancy thatâŚ
Even if the AI investment boom turns out to have been a bubble, the Big Tech companies that have cornered the cloud infrastructure market will emerge as strong as ever, or even stronger. That is why Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are in a league of their own, even compared to other giants like Meta aâŚ
For decades, Western governments have ceded the strategic direction of their economies to the market. To dominate the industries of the future, they must learn from their own history and rebuild the institutions, expertise, and discipline that effective industrial policy demands.
The disagreements between the Nobel laureate economist Daron Acemoglu and his opponents are consequentialâand so are the opponents. But rather than engage in good faith with Acemoglu's arguments, the venerable British news magazine recently stooped to bibulous calumny by unnamed critics of his work.
If Europe remains a mere collection of small states and middle powers, the current period of profound geopolitical and historical change will also mark the end of its role on the world stage. With no end in sight for Russia's war in Ukraine, Europeans must come to grips with reality.
WIREDRELIABLE 8.0tecnologĂacenter-leftâ 6 fuentesFri, 21 Aug 2026 10:00:00
âPeople have talked about the Colorado River crisis for decadesâweâre now in it,â says one expert. âEveryone you talk to is like, âShit, man.ââ
By obscuring or destroying the primary sources of knowledge, large language models create the illusion of an embodied and active collection of everything we know. But without examining and interrogating the human originators of recorded knowledge and wisdom, one cannot fully develop oneâs own undersâŚ
The original vision of the internet as a democratizing force failed to account for the manner in which power would concentrate, attention would be monetized, and public discourse would be manipulated. In Europe and elsewhere, these lessons now must inform how we govern generative AI.
By articulating a vision of the future that seems inevitable, technology industry leaders want to create the impression that the surrender of privacy and other defining trends of the current moment cannot be stopped. But predictions become self-fulfilling prophecies only if we believe them and act aâŚ
To fend off an attempted takeover, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena has launched its own bids for two other Italian banks. The episode shows why EU policymakers should focus less on making governments surrender their influence over national banking systems and more on building a European financing châŚ
QuartzRELIABLE 7.0economĂaâ 27 fuentesMon, 24 Aug 2026 13:00:45
The Genius Act requires stablecoins to hold short-term Treasurys, which could support Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's effort to shift borrowing toward shorter maturities
Rather than framing the pursuit of AI capabilities as a race, we should turn the process into a democratic mission, with milestones set by the people, rather than on their behalf. Taiwan's own demonstration of mission-led governance, along with insights from the open-web community, show what is possâŚ
In arguing for a regulatory regime that is skewed entirely toward freeing developers to build online services, rather than placing any social obligations on them, the AI industry is using a playbook that Silicon Valley wrote 30 years ago. This time, however, the public seems less inclined to buy theâŚ
Donald Trump seems not to appreciate that deterrence depends on the ability to mount a credible defense. This makes the Korean Peninsula a more dangerous place, not least because 28,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea, which the US is obliged by treaty to defend.
In the US, the recent rise in bond yields is largely driven by structural factors like the end of the post-2008 Great Stagnation, higher potential growth from tech-industry investments, and greater private-sector demand for credit. Higher yields are more worrisome for advanced economies that are staâŚ
Every sanction that ordinary citizens have ever possessedâthe ability to withhold labor, taxes, sons, or votesâpresupposes someone who needs what you can withhold. As AI infrastructure encroaches on Americans, they are learning the lesson of many resource-rich states: where there is no need, there iâŚ
Aggregate economic indicators are obscuring a widening divide between those enjoying rapid income growth and those facing deteriorating job prospects. The rise of AI could deepen this disparity, with certain regions and workers experiencing recession-like conditions while others enjoy boom times.
Guatemalan President Bernardo ArĂŠvaloâs recent selection of an honest successor to a corrupt attorney general represents a decisive victory for the countryâs democracy. ArĂŠvalo succeeded not because he abandoned institutions to save democracy, but because he trusted institutions enough to work throuâŚ
As advances in generative AI continue, US policymakers should heed two lessons from the opening of trade with China. But that will require them to rethink the conventional wisdom about deindustrialization and the decline of manufacturing employment.
The Trump administrationâs decision to prioritize national competitiveness over multilateral frameworks has deepened the fragmentation of AI governanceâand expanded the opening for China to organize its own system. But China's approach is similarly shaped primarily by its own geopolitical ambitions.
TASSCAUTION 4.0geopolĂticapro-Kremlinâ 30 fuentesSat, 22 Aug 2026 21:28:22
The enemy is trying to intimidate Russians and disrupt the upcoming parliamentary elections, due in September, but these attempts will fail, the president said
The world is undergoing a historical and cultural rupture. Just as Hollywood and other American exports once gave the rest of the world a glimpse of modern life and the future that awaited them, China is now doing the same for African, Latin American, and even American young people.
Democracy is most vulnerable when voters can no longer distinguish genuine abuses of power from partisan attacks. Authoritarian leaders exploit that uncertainty by blurring the line between misconduct and political theater, making legitimate criticism look like just another witch hunt.
For a while, the worldâs advanced economies (other than the US) were rapidly losing ground to their emerging counterparts. But the BRICS' catch-up momentum has stalled since 2016, not because the G7 has been doing better, but because everyone has been doing worse.
The AI debate has largely focused on productivity gains and job displacement, but its consequences will reach much further By revolutionizing how we combat disease, wage wars, and stimulate income growth, AI could fundamentally alter the terms of human existence.
Pro-democracy activists often turn to Eastern and Central Europe for inspiration, while Asiaâs remarkable democratic breakthroughs receive far less attention. Yet the continentâs recent struggles offer valuable lessons for those seeking to resist the global advance of authoritarianism.
What is the apparent fragility in the US bond market telling us? Since markets tend to be less wrong than those who comment on them regularly, their signals must be taken seriously, especially when they coincide with a relative softening in US inflation figures and other high-frequency economic indiâŚ
Even as multilateralism faces an existential threat, multilateral development banks are not only surviving but thriving. Thanks to MDBsâ ability to borrow at costs close to that of the US Treasury, they have created a new class of de facto risk-free assets that could help underpin the global financiâŚ
If the risk Europe faces is losing access to frontier AI models, the solution is not necessarily to chase the labs that created them in the hopes of eventually pulling ahead. Instead, it is to build the capacity to make surviving that loss possible, such as by investing in AI infrastructure and traiâŚ
North Koreaâs communist regime has long functioned as a faith, repurposing Christian doctrine and imagery to deify its founder, Kim Il-sung, and his descendants. A new book traces how those religious influences transformed the Kim dynastyâs personality cult into a system that has endured across threâŚ
While economic rebalancing by China would be good for everyone, Chinese leaders have given little indication that they are moving decisively in this direction. With China's ever-increasing exports threatening to decimate European manufacturing, the EU has little choice but to embrace tariffs.
China recorded the largest trade surplus in history last year, and its exports continue to grow. But the scale of the threat to the global economy, and the appropriate response, remains subject to considerable disagreement. Some economists advocate protectionist measures, if only to pressure China tâŚ
Governments and economists have long viewed demographic aging as a threat to economic growth. But new research finds that labor scarcity encourages investment and shifts innovation toward labor-saving technologies, boosting productivity enough to offset a shrinking workforce.
The puzzle of why the Trump administration is so concerned with a falling yen has historical parallels not to the 1930s or the 1980s, but to the 1960s, when US officials feared that a crisis elsewhere could spread to America. With US bond yields spiking, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is getting dâŚ
When major economies are running at near full capacity, it is not clear that trade deficits should be a cause for concern, since they represent a transfer of purchasing power from surplus countries. Under the current circumstances, then, Chinaâs widely criticized surpluses might as well be called enâŚ
The days of unfettered globalization, multilateral rule of law, commonly accepted limits on economic statecraft, and widely shared macroeconomic objectives are now long gone. A perpetual, directionless transition is our new reality, and corporate executives, investors, and policymakers must adapt acâŚ
The current China shock combines continued supply upgrading with an absorption problem: the decline in property and related investment has reduced domestic demand, but national saving remains very high. The result is a larger savings-investment surplus that spills into net exports.
Millions of people continuously generate the raw material on which AI is trained, yet almost none shares in the wealth it creates. This underscores the need for data cooperatives representing internet users, creators, and other rights holders to negotiate access to the content being fed to large lanâŚ
Despite a series of major negative shocks, some of them unprecedented, the US economy continues to grow in line with its estimated long-run potential. Yet given obvious and mounting risks, from debt-financed speculation to geopolitical tensions, the appearance of resilience should not be confused wiâŚ
Rather than join the global race for computing power, Morocco has focused on building sovereignty over its data, talent, and uses of AI, because technological power will be measured by usefulness, not by domination. This strategy calls for the country to embrace innovation without ceding its identitâŚ
A century ago, the US power industry was dominated by sprawling, heavily indebted holding companies until their collapse forced the federal government to break them up. Now, the pattern is repeating, with mega-mergers and buyouts advancing a debt-heavy business model at the expense of households andâŚ
While the global economy generates unprecedented wealth for plutocrats like Elon Musk, it is, by design, highly unequal, dangerously over-indebted, prone to recurring financial crises, and ecologically disastrous. In such a context, radical reforms will be needed, beginning with the rejection of monâŚ
When a state can credibly promise that labor displacement will not mean destitution, workers and their representatives are more likely to accept technological change. But since China can promise no such thing, its lack of a robust welfare state has emerged as a fundamental weakness in the broader AIâŚ
The resurgence of guerrilla warfare in Ukraine and Iran has underscored the potential benefits of asymmetric action in todayâs increasingly multipolar world. Latin America, in particular, should consider how to leverage its many strengths to remedy its relatively weak position on the global stage.
Born amid the euphoria of the Westâs Cold War victory, the International Criminal Court embodied the aspiration that international law could transcend politics. But the ICC always represented victorsâ justice, and it was never equipped to operate in a world shaped by Machtpolitik.
Zhu Rongjiâs personal history and political challenges made it highly unlikely that he would rise to the pinnacle of Chinese politics. Once there, he implemented many of the reforms that turned the country into an economic powerhouse.
The current migration crisis is eating away at the solidarity on which the European Union depends, fueling the rise of the far right and pushing leaders to adopt increasingly hardline policies. But the Ceuta debacle shows why such measures cannot address the deeper forces driving migration.
Rather than governing like a pugnacious populist or a ruthless pragmatist, Chileâs new president, JosĂŠ Antonio Kast, has adopted an old-school center-right agenda and governing style reminiscent of the 1980s. Yet even this potentially safer approach comes with its own risks and costs.
The debate over whether European firms should use a Chinese state-directed model or one built by a private US firm threatens to distract from Europeâs most pressing problem, which is that it has no seat at either table. To preserve its own sovereignty, the continent must create a third option for itâŚ
The balance of global investment has shifted dramatically over the past three decades, with China emerging as the leading destination for productive capital. Europe and the United States can still narrow the gap, but only by making it cheaper and easier to build, operate, and innovate.
The roadmap for middle-power action that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Finnish President Alexander Stubb recently laid out calls for countries that share interests to create ad hoc coalitions. But to be effective, these coalitions must work as much as possible within existing multilateral âŚ
For decades, the West assumed that economic growth would turn China into a more open, liberal society, much as it did South Korea and Taiwan. Instead, Chinaâs totalitarian institutions proved remarkably resilient, surviving decades of reform and reasserting themselves under President Xi Jinping.
Even if AI-related job displacement is less severe than many feared, corporations will need to be enlisted in minimizing its effects in the name of social solidarity. To that end, governments should consider what policy incentives are in place, and large employers should consider their own long-termâŚ
Those who worry that the renminbi, yen, and won are undervalued vis-Ă -vis the dollar are usually focused on the large trade and current-account surpluses that China, Japan, and Korea run with the US. But coordinated intervention in currency markets will not address the fundamentals underlying these âŚ
Both the US and Europe are moving to create digital money, but neither has the right idea about how to do it. The key is to allow ânarrow banks,â which issue money but not credit, to keep their reserves in central banks and provide capped interest payments to coin holders.
If fairness in sports required a level playing field that all who wish to compete could afford, that would be a reason for banning expensive performance-enhancing drugs. But it would be a reason for banning expensive high-tech swimming suits and expensive high-tech running shoes, too.
In recent years, the international community has stood idly by while China has systematically eradicated Tibetan culture and identity. With the authorities stepping up their assimilation efforts, Asia risks not only losing one of its oldest civilizations, but also facing a China that is bigger, boldâŚ
Unlike recent energy crises, todayâs geopolitical shock is destroying supply rather than rerouting it, exposing the limits of the standard policy toolkit. Governments can mitigate its impact on those most exposed, but only if fiscal and monetary policy work in concert.
Lebanonâs political circumstances, together with Iranâs strengthened regional position, make Hezbollahâs complete disarmament highly unlikely. By conditioning Israelâs withdrawal from Lebanon on this outcomeâbut with no provisions about cutting Hezbollahâs Iranian lifelineâthe new framework agreemenâŚ
Even during the immediate post-pandemic period, when evidence on the labor-market effects of remote work was scant, there was a strong case to be made for going into the office, especially for younger workers. And now, multiple new studies have vindicated this intuition.
In recent months, Ukrainian drones have successfully struck dozens of sites deep inside Russia, targeting the oil industry, weapons plants, and logistics hubs. But while Ukraine has developed a world-leading military technology to defend itself from a much larger aggressor, drones will not be enoughâŚ
In a world of great-power rivalry and hyper-scaling tech behemoths, you would be forgiven for thinking that the bulky bully always has the edge. But as this year's World Cup has shown repeatedly, you would be wrong.
Europeâs dependence on US technology companies is both an economic challenge and a strategic vulnerability. The European Unionâs new Tech Sovereignty Package is a step in the right direction, but without equally ambitious efforts to curb market concentration, it is bound to fall short.
By the end of the 19th-century in the US, it was clear to all interested observers that market power did not automatically or even easily translate into political capital and cultural authority. That is why, unlike the oligarchs of our time, certain Gilded Age capitalists learned how to become a ruâŚ
As debt burdens rise and climate shocks intensify, sustainable financing mechanisms are becoming indispensable. The Islamic Development Bankâs new concessional fund offers a promising model for mobilizing the resources needed to protect development gains and invest in resilience.
Fueled by more than $1 trillion in borrowed money and rising leverage across the financial system, US stock markets may have entered bubble territory. Two developments could trigger a sharp correction: higher interest rates and a loss of confidence in the handful of tech giants driving the AI boom.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdaniâs Independence Day address was a perfect example of ideology in the positive sense of the term. It overturned both the right-wing populist narrative of the United States and the left-wing "woke" critique with a vision that has the potential to mobilize a majority.
Faced with shrinking concessional finance and rising borrowing costs, Rwanda has worked with the World Bank Group to leverage limited public funds and risk-sharing instruments to unlock private capital at scale and on affordable terms. It's an arrangement holding important lessons for low-income couâŚ
Alaska, Norway, and Chile recognized the economic and political risks that accompany commodity booms and established sovereign wealth funds to preserve their resource revenues. Argentinaâs hydrocarbon- and lithium-rich provinces should learn from their experience.
At the beginning of 2013, when "Abenomics" was rolled out in Japan, the yen was significantly overvalued, and looser monetary policy was badly needed. Today, the opposite is true, indicating that interest-rate hikes may well be the right prescription for Japan.
Digital identity platforms, payment systems, and data exchanges promise more efficient, inclusive, and responsive public services. But in an era of geopolitical rivalry and concentrated digital power, those same systems create strategic dependencies that governments can no longer afford to ignore.
Eschewing the idea of a single truth, the recently deceased English artist David Hockney showed that the world unfolds before us in ways we cannot fully understand. After long clinging to the pretense of certainty, economists would do well to embrace the same insight.
As foreign aid declines, policymakers in lower-income countries must increasingly focus on making better use of scarce resources. When it comes to maternal mortality, that means investing in simple, proven, and affordable interventions for postpartum hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, and obstructed labor.
At 250, America is now producing a mindless, raw power and exponentially growing instability. The possibility of catharsis that characterized the United States at its bicentennial is hard to envisage a half-century laterâto the detriment of us all.
Under pressure from Russian aggressionâwhich has reached its full expression in the ongoing war against Ukraineâand an increasingly hostile US administration, Europe urgently needs to make progress toward a defense union. But that will require Franco-German leadership of the kind that is not yet on âŚ
While Europe is not just another middle power, nor is it a great power with sufficient economic, military, and geopolitical clout to dictate terms on the global stage. Instead, Europe is the ideal candidate to convene and lead a group of like-minded middle powers, not as a US-style hegemon, but as aâŚ
The greatest challenge to NATO comes not from its adversaries but from within. As its leaders gather in Ankara on July 7-8, they should focus less on military capabilities than on reinvigorating the alliance's founding strategic philosophy, centered on democratic legitimacy, human rights, and the ruâŚ
While Donald Trump was widely expected to lord over this yearâs World Cup, which the United States is co-hosting with Mexico and Canada, it has turned out not to be his scene. National teams populated with immigrants, and small-town Americaâs embrace of the event, go against everything Trumpâs MAGA âŚ
At NATO's upcoming summit in Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan will seek to portray his country as stable, confident, and essential to Western security. But only the last one is true, which is why the restoration of democracy in Turkey is more than a domestic concern.
Genetic-engineering tools with which to design one's progeny already exist, and they are being made even more potent with AIâat least for those who can afford such services. In the absence of policy interventions, we will be hurtling toward a tiered society in which economic privileges become biologâŚ
