Opinion

  No one likes to admit defeat. But global policymakers, who continue to insist that there’s more they can do to revive growth and inflation, are starting to sound like Monty Python’s Black Knight, the limbless and mortally wounded warrior who threatens to bleed on his victorious opponent. The truth is that governments and central banks have very few weapons …

  When America fights its wars in the Middle East, it has a nasty habit of recruiting local forces as proxies and then jettisoning them when the going gets tough or regional politics intervene. This pattern of “seduction and abandonment” is one of our least endearing characteristics. It’s one reason the U.S. is mistrusted in the Middle East. We don’t …

  To borrow a phrase from Vermont’s favourite socialist, I too am sick and tired of hearing about Hillary Clinton’s damn e-mails. As we all found out on Friday afternoon, the FBI is reviewing some messages involving a close Clinton aide to see if they contained classified information. The agency’s director, James Comey, said so in a vague letter to …

  House Republicans are digging in for four years of nonstop investigations of Hillary Clinton if she is elected, and promising rejection of any legislation she proposes. As Paul Waldman at the Plum Line put it, they’ve already prepared to treat her presidency as illegitimate, just as they did with Barack Obama. Some of this is what political scientists might …

  At last, the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is set to be formally signed today. The deal went through a roller-coaster. Opposition from many corners — essentially from Belgian’s Wallonia region — to the agreement threw up daunting challenges for the EU. It put at stake the bloc’s credibility as a union. Now that the deal is …

  Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has been the only “adult in the room” since the U.K. vote to quit the European Union, according to former BOE policy maker Danny Blanchflower. It’s an assessment many would agree with. Unfortunately, Carney looks like he may be planning a Brexit of his own. Prime Minister Theresa May, former Foreign Secretary William …

  Back in 2012, Daron Acemoglu — an economist I follow and greatly respect — wrote a paper along with James Robinson and Thierry Verdier claiming to explain why Scandinavian countries are (supposedly) less innovative than the U.S. Acemoglu et al. theorized that Scandinavia embraces “cuddly capitalism” — a strong safety net that prevents failure — while the U.S. goes …

  In the 2000s, a series of academic papers showed that corporate America had become a much less comfortable place for incumbents. Lots of people in corporate America already knew this, but it was helpful to see peer-reviewed evidence: L.G. Thomas and Richard D’Aveni found big increases in profit volatility among manufacturing companies from 1950 to 2002. Diego Comin and …

  Where are living standards the highest? You might think that’s an easy question to answer. Just take a country’s total income (in the United States, that’s now about $18 trillion) and divide by the nation’s population (U.S.: now about 320 million). The result is per capita income (now about $56,000 for every man, woman and child in America). Compare …

  With its debts surging and growth sluggish, China has hit on a new strategy to revitalize its ailing economy. It’s the same as the old strategy. Only this time, it won’t work. Earlier this month, China’s State Council released guidelines for a new swap program, in which companies can exchange troubled debt with banks in return for equity. The …