Pakistan is not often in the Western news, but when it is, it is almost always negative. That is certainly the case with the arrest this week of former prime minister and leading opposition figure Imran Khan, which triggered widespread protests.
Read moreRussia or China? The U.S. Has a Choice to Make.
China has “both the intent to reshape the international order” and the power to do so, he said. The United States will seek to rally coalitions of other nations to meet Beijing’s challenge.
Read moreTrump’s Creative Destruction of the International Order
Apparently, according to multiple reports, U.S. President Donald Trump blew up the post-Cold War world order during brief, contentious meetings at the G-7 summit in Ottawa this weekend. His summit with North Korea, of course, promises more of the same, though at least in a manner that most support.
Read moreLearning to Love Stagnation
Economic stagnation, in short, has had little impact on the Japanese public’s high quality of life. This realization has led to a wave of new thinking in Japan that emphasizes a “degrowth,” or post-growth, model and focuses on well-being rather than income or output.
Read moreThe Envestnet Edge, September 2015
The Envestnet Edge from September 2015
Read moreThe Right Way to Handle a Market Storm
If it seems as though we have focused on crises in Europe for years, that’s because we have. The seemingly endless impasses of Greece and its possible spillover effects on the rest of Europe and then, by extension, on the global financial system, have beset markets and investors for nearly six years.
Read moreWillem Hendrik Buiter, James Harmon, Alan Patricof and Zachary Karabell at The Common Good Forum
This panel focuses on the global economic environment and regional economic growth. Where is growth likely to come from? Is the U.S. still the major catalyst for growth? Will Europe hold? Is China slowing down? Are frontier and emerging markets still sources for great growth?
Read moreGDP and Other Mysteries
The statistics that drive our big-picture economic thinking — GDP, unemployment figures, and inflation rates, among others — have come to be regarded as nearly sacrosanct. Investors, policymakers, and everyday consumers rely on them to make decisions trivial and earthshaking alike, often measured in trillions of dollars. Zachary Karabell, in his book The Leading Indicators: A Short History of the Numbers That Rule Our World, traces the history of these numbers and questions how useful they actually are.
Read moreLead, America, or Get Out of the World’s Way
The United States is doing a poor job of leading the global economy. But apparently we won’t let anyone else lead it either. In a world increasingly defined by the global flow of goods and services, Washington finds not just curiously adrift but actively at odds with itself and a coherent approach.
Read moreThings United on a Global Platform: The New Distributed Intelligence
Discussion on the Internet of Things
Read moreRight Said Fed
Last week, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen held her first press conference, where just a few brief words managed to upend the financial markets. When asked about the possible timing of raising short-term interest rates, she explained that there would be a “considerable period” between the end of the bond buying program—currently being wound down at a rate of $10 billion a month—and an increase in rates. What’s “a considerable period”? Nothing too specific, maybe “about six months.”
Read moreAfter Words with Zachary Karabell
Zachary Karabell talked about his book, The Leading Indicators: A Short History of the Numbers that Rule Our World, in which he argues that gross national product, balance of trade, unemployment, inflation, and consumer confidence should no longer be the primary basis for business plans or monetary policy. He argued that the information revolution has made considerably more data available. He spoke with Wall Street Journal reporter Kimberly Strassel.
Read more(Mis)leading Indicators
Economic numbers have come to define our world. Economists and analysts loosely refer these as “leading indicators” and subscribe to the belief that these figures accurately reflect reality and provide unique insights into the health of an economy. But this has become less reliable than ever before.
Read moreIf the World Is Getting Richer, Why Do So Many People Feel Poor?
In a widely-read statement in his annual foundation letter, Bill Gates took an unabashedly optimistic approach to the world this week. Not only did he tout the massive material progress evident everywhere in the world over the past decades, but he also predicted that as more countries accelerate their transformation from rural poverty to urban middle class societies, poverty as we know it will disappear within the next two decades. “By 2035, there will be almost no poor countries left in the world,” Gates wrote. “Almost all countries will be what we now call lower-middle income or richer.”
Read moreBitcoin: Bubble? Maybe. The Wave of the Future? Definitely.
Bitcoin. The world’s newest and hottest virtual currency. It has become the story du jour for a financial media hungry for stories, and its sudden surge in recent weeks, going from a price of less than $200 barely a month ago to $1,200 last week, certainly attracted attention. And of course, rarely do things gain so much so fast without a concomitant fall.
Read moreThe Youth Unemployment Crisis Might Not Be a Crisis
There’s no doubting that worldwide, kids are out of work. In the United States alone, the unemployment rate for 15 to 24-year-olds is about 16 percent, nearly twice the national average. In parts of Europe, the figures are much worse, with a whopping 56 percent youth unemployment rate in Spain alone — representing about 900,000 people. But do these high numbers represent a global labor market crisis that imperils future growth, as the headlines warn? Maybe not. Maybe instead, they’re evidence of a generation of college graduates determined not to settle, which bodes well for our future.
Read moreThe Upside of a 'De-Americanized' World
This current bout of Washington absurdity has reached its denouement, for now. Though resolved for the next few weeks, these debates seem certain to continue, especially with the debt compromise only good until February. Overall, the result has been to accelerate a trend that has been gathering steam for at least the last five years: the move away from a Washington-centric world and towards a new, undefined, but decidedly less American global system.
Read moreWhy Alibaba, the Amazon of China, Is Coming to America
China's top e-commerce company wants to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. It's a reminder that, while global politics might be frozen, global commerce is not.
Read moreAlibaba Looks West
Washington may once again be careening toward an abyss of its own making. It makes good theater, but for now we don't know how or if it will fundamentally shape our lives. So what will? Half a world away, a Chinese company is considering a public offering.
Read moreZachary Karabell: U.S. - China Relations
After more than a decade of intimate economic relations, China and the United States have become deeply intertwined. Historian Zachary Karabell maintains that while neither country is fully at ease with this partnership, the occasional tension over intellectual property, human rights, and regional strategy pales in comparison to the deepening and on-going economic bonds that tie the two countries together.
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