The European Merry-Go-Round
Lewis McCraryThe euro crisis seems stuck in an endless cycle of bailouts flowing from north to south. The numerous diets Germany has used to keep the monetary union alive have failed to address the...
View ArticleThe ECB Can't Rescue Europe
Uri DadushThe European Central Bank’s (ECB's) introduction of Outright Monetary Transactions (OMTs)—the purchase of government bonds in the secondary market—has been a game changer in the...
View ArticleCongratulations, Europe
Paul R. PillarThe awarding of this year's Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union is an appropriate recognition of one of the most significant departures in modern history to advance the cause of...
View ArticleSpain's Twin Crises
Milton EzratiProtesters in Puerta del Sol in Madrid.Spain is special. Every European country these days seems to have its financial crisis. Spain has two.One crisis stems from the by-now-commonplace...
View ArticleThe Crisis of Globalization
Robert W. MerryWhen David M. Smick produces one of his Washington Post op-ed pieces, it pays to take note. Smick, the international economics consultant and author of the best-selling The World Is...
View ArticleEuropean Hubris and Civilizational Decline
Lewis McCraryThe best public intellectuals are often difficult to force into ideological straitjackets. John Gray, someone who moved across the Left-Right spectrum—and eventually rejected the old...
View ArticleAll Roads Lead to Berlin
Jacob HeilbrunnBACK IN November 2011, as Europe struggled with its ongoing financial crisis, Poland’s foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, gave a speech in Berlin that beckoned toward his country’s...
View ArticleObama Fiddles, Globalization Burns
Robert W. MerryThe Wall Street Journal’s lead story the other day carried this headline: "Global Currency Tensions Rise: Japan’s Abe Calls on Central Bank to Resist Easing Moves by U.S. and Europe."...
View ArticleVirginia Coin Inches toward Reality
Alexa L. McMahonThe state of Virginia is known for many things. Ham, wild ponies, the Blue Ridge Mountains and Jefferson himself all have a place in its storied history. If Virginia Del. Robert G....
View ArticleEgypt's Economy Stumbles
Felix ImontiEgypt is desperate for change, but whatever changes are made will bring pain to someone. Fired by the revolution that many saw as the cure for the political, social, and economic ills, many...
View ArticleHow to Go Gold
Ralph BenkoThe True Gold Standard, a lucid, scholarly volume by financier-philanthropist, and Reagan Gold Commissioner, Lewis E. Lehrman, recently has been published in a handsome second, much...
View ArticleThatcher's Prudent Nationalism
Leon HadarThe death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher—which coincided with the continuing financial crisis in Europe—has revived interest in the late Tory leader's consistent...
View ArticleThe Meaning of Gold's Plummet
Jay ZawatskyIn finance, “R-squared” measures the correlation between the movements of two things. Their movements are perfectly correlated if their R-squared is 100 percent; they are uncorrelated if...
View ArticleThe Bitcoin Bubble and a Bad Hypothesis
John QuigginThe sudden drop in the value of Bitcoins, the hot new Internet currency, has added urgency to the question of whether Bitcoin is the way of the future, or just another bubble. Not to keep...
View ArticleThe World's Long Affair with Gold
John QuigginAfter rising steadily since the turn of the century, the price of gold has fallen sharply in 2013, though it is still above its level at the beginning of 2011. What explains the price of...
View ArticleThe New Franco-German Rituals
Jonathan LaurenceThe state of the Franco-German alliance demonstrates just how gaps in economic-performance numbers can drive countries apart—in this instance, countries of the Eurozone. The more...
View ArticleEurope Still a Mess
Milton EzratiEurope of late has demonstrated that it is as big a mess as ever.The Cyprus urgency had just begun to dissipate when Portugal suffered a political crisis over the austerity demanded by EU...
View ArticleLatvia: the Next Cyprus?
Andrew S. BowenEarlier this month, EU finance ministers gave their approval for Latvia to become the eighteenth member of the Euro in January 2014. It seems counterintuitive that the country of two...
View ArticleShinzo Abe: Japan's Savior?
Tobias HarrisThroughout his career, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has made no secret of his desire to be a transformational figure in Japanese history. Regularly appealing to the example of his...
View ArticleTokyo Time Bomb: Japan's Looming Debt Disaster
Jay ZawatskyThe economy is rebounding. The housing crisis is easing. And there’s no plausible reason to worry about inflation, since the Federal Reserve will soon begin retreating from its...
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