14 Items

The New York stock exchange on Wall Street

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Analysis & Opinions - Project Syndicate

The Risks to America’s Booming Economy

| Mar. 29, 2017

The US has experienced a decade of excessively low interest rates, which have caused investors and lenders to seek higher yields by bidding up the prices of all types of assets and making risky loans. The danger is that overpriced assets and high-risk loans could lose value and cause an economic downturn.

Analysis & Opinions - Project Syndicate

A Window on China's New Normal

| March 27, 2015

CAMBRIDGE – Every year at this time, China’s government organizes a major conference – sponsored by the Development Research Center, the official think tank of the State Council – that brings together senior Chinese officials, CEOs from major Chinese and Western firms, and a small group of international officials and academics. The China Development Forum (CDF) occurs just after the annual National People’s Congress.

Analysis & Opinions - Project Syndicate

America's Risky Recovery

| April 28, 2015

CAMBRIDGE – The United States’ economy is approaching full employment and may already be there. But America’s favorable employment trend is accompanied by a substantial increase in financial-sector risks, owing to the excessively easy monetary policy that was used to achieve the current economic recovery.

Analysis & Opinions - Project Syndicate

The Deflation Bogeyman

| February 28, 2015

CAMBRIDGE – The world's major central banks are currently obsessed with the goal of raising their national inflation rates to their common target of about 2% per year. This is true for the United States, where the annual inflation rate was -0.1% over the past 12 months; for the United Kingdom, where the most recent data show 0.3% price growth; and for the eurozone, where consumer prices fell 0.6%. But is this a real problem?

A Chinese bank clerk counts Japanese Yen banknotes over RMB Yuan banknotes at a bank in Huaibei city, August 17, 2010.

AP Images

Analysis & Opinions - Project Syndicate

The Wrong Growth Strategy for Japan

| January 17, 2013

Japan’s new government, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, could be about to shoot itself in the foot. Seeking to boost economic growth, the authorities may soon destroy their one great advantage: the low rate of interest on government debt and private borrowing. If that happens, Japanese conditions will most likely be worse at the end of Abe’s term than they are today.

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Analysis & Opinions - The Age

Built-In Instability

| May 28, 2010

The crisis in Greece and the debt problems in Spain and Portugal have exposed the euro's inherent flaws. No amount of financial guarantees - much less rhetorical reassurance - from the European Union can paper them over. After 11 years of smooth sailing since the euro's creation, the arrangement's fundamental problems have become glaringly obvious.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announces Greece's decision to request activation of a joint eurozone-International Monetary Fund financial rescue plan, from the Greek Aegean island of Kastellorizo, April 23, 2010.

AP Photo

Analysis & Opinions - Project Syndicate

Why Greece Will Default

| April 28, 2010

"The only way that Greece could avoid a default would be by cutting its future annual budget deficits to a level that foreign and domestic investors would be willing to finance on a voluntary basis. At a minimum, that would mean reducing the deficit to a level that stops the rise in the debt-to-GDP ratio."