Opinion

  Modern economics has little room for parasites. In the vast majority of models, there are only buyers and sellers —there’s no one who just comes up and steals your money. In the real world, of course, there are parasites galore — thieves, con artists, fraudsters, extortionists and more. In the long term, the amount of parasitism in any system …

  Although the Trans-Pacific Partnership has been widely given up for dead, the agreement has a chance to be approved in the lame-duck Congressional session following the presidential election. But the trade deal’s many opponents are not the only obstacle; proponents have not articulated an exciting vision of what the agreement could mean. Some of the best arguments for the …

  On the evening of Sept. 26, two interesting things happened. First, Hillary Clinton won a decisive debate victory over Donald Trump in the first presidential debate, as judged by prediction markets (and later, by polls). Second, financial markets abruptly experienced large, abnormal swings. Economists Justin Wolfers and Eric Zitzewitz have documented this extraordinary convergence in a new paper, titled …

  In July, Republican James Comey was the toast of the Democratic Party. That was after he announced that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for allowing e-mails with classified information to be stored on a private server. Party leaders praised the FBI director’s independence. Now, many of Clinton’s supporters argue, as Republicans did over the …

  One child in seven inhales toxic air which takes toll on brain. About 300 million children live in areas so polluted it can cause serious physical damage to them, warns a new UN study. Children are more vulnerable because their lungs, brains and immune systems are still developing. The pollutants easily find passage through their respiratory tracts. As kids …

  Of all of the scary economic data that routinely streams out of Japan, this statistic should terrify you: $800 million. That’s the total value of venture capital deals completed in Japan in 2015, according to accounting firm Ernst & Young. Compare that to $72 billion in the U.S. and $49 billion in China. Even tiny Israel managed $2.6 billion …

  World leaders have started to generate some real optimism with their efforts to address global climate change. What’s troubling, though, is how far we remain from getting carbon emissions under control — and how much wishful thinking is still required to believe we can do so. The Paris agreement on climate change has garnered the national signatories needed to …

  The anonymity of bitcoin gained it myriad adherents among anarchists and drug dealers around the world. Now, though, it’s looking like the digital currency isn’t quite anonymous enough. Consider the sudden popularity of Zcash and Monero, two new cryptocurrencies that offer confidential transactions. When Zcash first became available last week, demand was so strong that its founders temporarily became …

  With most election forecasts pointing towards a victory for Hillary Clinton, her top advisers are beginning to think about how to stabilize a world that has been rocked by the U.S presidential campaign and by recent reversals for American power. The paradox for the Clinton team, if it wins, will be how to signal continuity with an Obama administration …

  The central banks of Japan, the U.K., and the U.S. will hold policy meetings this week. These three systemically important institutions are inclined to implement new policy measures, albeit different ones. Yet all three may end up keeping their policy stance as is. Their individual and collective dilemmas illustrate the current policy funk facing the global economy, as well …