Slight increases in the rate of inflation in the United States and Europe have triggered financial-market anxieties. Has US President Joe Biden’s administration risked overheating the economy with its ...More
EJ Insight2021-06-09
The late George Shultz, US Secretary of the Treasury under President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan, was one of the finest public servants in recent American histor ...More
EJ Insight2021-06-09
Ransomware – a type of malicious software that restricts access to a computer system until a ransom is paid – is not a good look for cryptocurrencies. Proponents of these digital coins would rather po ...More
EJ Insight2021-06-08
Our world is extraordinarily inefficient. We waste enormous quantities of energy, water, raw materials, and food. We even waste our waste and the precious resources it contains. We do so not necessari ...More
EJ Insight2021-06-04
When the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, Afghanistan had only 300 ventilators and two intensive-care units. Early epidemiological models predicted that the country, with a population of about 3 ...More
EJ Insight2021-06-03
A century ago, an influenza pandemic killed more people than died in World War I. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed more Americans than died in all US wars since 1945. A big difference, however, ...More
EJ Insight2021-06-02
US President Joe Biden’s first months in office have been impressive. The number of COVID-19 vaccines that have been administered is more than twice what he promised, and the spread of the coronavirus ...More
EJ Insight2021-06-01
The proper functioning of any interconnected economic system depends on trust. And a global system that has been designed by advanced economies requires a significant level of buy-in from the developi ...More
EJ Insight2021-05-28
Unlike the United States, Europe, and other early industrializers whose carbon dioxide emissions have largely already peaked, most other countries were not concerned about climate change until recentl ...More
EJ Insight2021-05-27
In 1944, Friedrich A. Hayek suggested that the spontaneous order of markets was inherently superior to the supposedly dynamism-draining totalitarian order of communist or fascist regimes. The ensuing ...More
EJ Insight2021-05-27
“There are three kinds of lies,” Mark Twain famously wrote. “Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Too often, the COVID-19 crisis has lent support to the suspicions Twain’s bon mot expresses. Data are c ...More
EJ Insight2021-05-27
After the most severe global recession in decades, private and official forecasters are increasingly optimistic that world output will recover strongly this year and thereafter. But the coming expansi ...More
EJ Insight2021-05-26
Almost one-quarter of humanity lives on the Indian subcontinent. That fact is easily forgotten elsewhere, as world leaders focus on combating outbreaks of COVID-19 and its new variants within their ow ...More
EJ Insight2021-05-21
China’s recently released population census confirms the persistence of the country’s alarming excess of males relative to the global norm. This numerical imbalance from birth onward has several signi ...More
EJ Insight2021-05-21
Climate change and biodiversity loss are the most pressing challenges of our time, so all responsible political leaders must offer long-term policies for confronting them effectively. We need clear st ...More
EJ Insight2021-05-20
Hugging your parents. Meeting your grandchild for the first time. Laughing with friends – in person! COVID-19 vaccines promise to bring us closer to our loved ones and enjoy the sort of moments we hav ...More
EJ Insight2021-05-18
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the largest decrease in global economic activity on record. But the drop in carbon dioxide emissions has been only temporary. Although global CO2 emissions fell by 6.4 ...More
EJ Insight2021-05-12
When I was growing up in northern India’s Kashmir Valley, my physician father would often accompany me when I received my annual vaccinations. I used to ask him how vaccines worked and where they were ...More
EJ Insight2021-05-12
Productivity growth changes everything. In advanced economies with a slowly growing labor force and already-large capital stock, it typically accounts for the majority of output growth. This means tha ...More
EJ Insight2021-05-11
In his recent address to the US Congress, President Joe Biden warned that China is deadly serious about trying to become the world’s most significant power. But Biden also declared that autocrats will ...More
EJ Insight2021-05-10
