Opinion

As the 1970s came to a close, I sensed that double-digit rates of inflation were about to turn to disinflation, or smaller and smaller overall price increases. Given the close correlation between inflation and yields on US Treasury securities, I forecast in 1981 a dramatic decline in the 30-year yield from what was then 14.7% to 3% and stated, “We’re ...

Two MIT economists have come out with a big, bold plan for reviving US economic growth. Done right, it just might work. Slowing growth creates a lot of problems. It engenders despair by making people less likely to be richer than their parents. It might exacerbate wealth inequality. It creates a zero-sum world where people must fight over a smaller ...

Fearing market disruptions, both the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Federal Reserve will most likely take more stimulus measures this month regardless of what their analyses tell them about the potential impact on the economy and financial assets. That has implications for both future economic prosperity and medium-term financial stability, and it adds to the to-do list for policy makers ...

Looking at the way major economies in recent years have managed to combine chaotic politics with decent growth, it’s tempting to wonder whether we’re all making too much fuss about the behavior of the people in power. In the US, President Donald Trump has joked about becoming president for life, toyed with overturning the constitution by executive fiat, and used ...

“To the barricades.” That’s one way of characterising Bill Dudley’s recent proposal that the Federal Reserve fight back against President Trump’s unrelenting attacks. Although it’s a phenomenally bad idea, it has the curious and paradoxical effect of revealing the primary defects of Trump’s economic policies. First, some background. Dudley — a former chief US economist for Goldman Sachs — was ...

Giuseppe Conte looks set to form a new government in Italy, after activists from the Five Star Movement backed an alliance with the Democratic Party. The speedy resolution of Italy’s political crisis offers a striking contrast with the enduring chaos in Britain. But the basis of the new coalition, including the program and the likely ministerial team, appear extremely shaky ...

How often does it happen that a public pension fund chooses someone to manage its money — and then sticks with that person for 43 years? Only one streak I know of has lasted this long. The Atlanta-based investment counseling firm Bowen, Hanes and Company Inc., run by Jay Bowen, has received national acclaim for its long tenure overseeing the ...

After just 43 days in office, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has gotten himself into a dire fix. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way out — for him or for the country he nominally leads. Thanks to a series of miscalculations, Johnson’s party is cracking up, his government is collapsing, and his political strategy is backfiring. This week, he ejected 21 ...

Relations between Japan and South Korea are currently strained due to a dispute over former civilian workers from the Korean Peninsula during World War II. The heart of the problem is whether the promises made between our two sovereign states when they decided to normalise their relations in 1965 will be kept or not. In some people’s view, Japan’s recent ...

Back in the day, PCs were hip and investors chased computer stocks to sky-high valuations. Everyone was buying a desktop, and then a laptop, and the companies that supplied them could do no wrong. Then came the smartphone. We all know to blame Apple Inc. for the end of the PC era. Though Steve Jobs didn’t invent the “phone + ...