The recent decline in China’s currency, the renminbi, which has fueled turmoil in Chinese stock markets and drove the government to suspend trading twice last week, highlights a major challenge facing ...More
EJ Insight2016-01-12
The upcoming referendum on Britain’s continued membership in the European Union, almost certain to be held this year, could turn out to be yet another major catastrophe to hit Europe. If, as seems inc ...More
EJ Insight2016-01-06
At the cusp of the new year, we face a world in which geopolitical and geo-economic risks are multiplying. Most of the Middle East is ablaze, stoking speculation that a long Sunni-Shi'ite war (like Eu ...More
EJ Insight2016-01-05
When it comes to sovereign debt, the term “default” is often misunderstood. It almost never entails the complete and permanent repudiation of the entire stock of debt; indeed, even some Czarist-era Ru ...More
EJ Insight2016-01-04
For most people, the arrival of a new year prompts a moment of reflection on what has been working and what needs to change. Not for the people of North Korea. In that benighted country, "New Year's r ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-31
When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan recently announced their plan to devote some US$45 billion in Facebook shares toward making the world a better place, some critics wro ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-30
No visitor to the Middle East can avoid noticing the yawning gap between the educational, entrepreneurial and occupational aspirations of the region’s young people and the harsh reality that deprives ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-24
Christmas is coming – and has been, it seems, since mid-autumn. And just in case there was any sign of flagging, we now have Black Friday, an export from the United States, when we are all encouraged ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-22
Containing the scourge of Islamist terror will be impossible without containing the ideology that drives it: Wahhabism. The international expansion of the messianic, jihad-extolling form of Sunni fund ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-22
Nearly 30 years have passed since the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, and the scientific community is still arguing about the impact radiation is having on the ecosystem surrounding the reactor. Recent ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-21
The United States, the European Union and Western-led institutions such as the World Bank repeatedly ask why the Middle East can’t govern itself. The question is asked honestly but without much self-a ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-21
How should one evaluate the agreement reached in Paris this month at the United Nations climate change conference? No sooner was the deal announced on Dec. 12 than the debate erupted. Some avid enviro ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-18
Recent trends in productivity growth make it hard to be optimistic about the future. In 2014, the global growth of total factor productivity, or TFP, which measures the combined productivity of capita ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-16
The Nobel laureate Robert Mundell once said, “Great powers have great currencies.” China, whose government Mundell long advised, seemed to take this notion to heart, prodding the International Monetar ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-14
Fear of a “cyber Pearl Harbor” first appeared in the 1990s, and for the past two decades, policymakers have worried that hackers could blow up oil pipelines, contaminate the water supply, open floodga ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-11
This week, Angus Deaton will receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics “for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare”. Deservedly so. Indeed, soon after the award was announced in October ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-08
Over the next few weeks, the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are likely to put in place notably different policies. The Fed is set to raise interest rates for the first time in almost ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-03
Last month, China’s leaders revealed details of the country's 13th five-year plan, which will guide the economy’s trajectory until 2020. Gone are the directives to expand industrial production at a br ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-03
Since the Nov. 13 terrorist bloodletting, Paris has been practically under martial law. In this subdued and challenging context, world leaders are convening in the City of Light at the United Nations ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-01
Last month’s monetary policy statement from the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) contained a striking statement: “If endogenous momentum is inadequate and returns on investment low, growth must rely on d ...More
EJ Insight2015-12-01
