Showing 1 - 10 of 14
Foreign aid, the powerful US soft power, is gone
Oped, Jeffrey Frankel, Published on 23/05/2025
» 'Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." When Joni Mitchell sang that line in 1970, she was lamenting the destruction of the environment, but the sentiment applies to many issues. Today, we can add official development assistance (ODA) to the list.
A 'retrospective' on Trump's first year back in job
Oped, Jeffrey Frankel, Published on 16/01/2025
» Predictions about 2025 come with flashing caveats: no one can know what US President-elect Donald Trump will do, let alone how the rest of the world will respond. But one can speculate. Imagine it is January 2026.
Elon Musk and his US$2 trillion fiscal fantasy
News, Jeffrey Frankel, Published on 27/11/2024
» When the US presidential election was called for Donald Trump, the yield on ten-year US government bonds increased from 4.3% to 4.4%, and the 30-year-bond yield rose from 4.5% to 4.6%, with both remaining at those levels ten days later. As the bond market declined -- higher yields mean lower prices -- the stock market rose. Clearly, investors expect the next Trump administration to produce higher government budget deficits and more debt.
Why do some countries prosper while others falter?
News, Jeffrey Frankel, Published on 06/11/2024
» Why have some countries grown rich and others not? The three winners of this year's Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences -- Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A Robinson -- offer a simple answer: institutions. Countries with "inclusive" institutions -- which underpin an open society, accountable government, economic freedom, and the rule of law -- do better than those with "extractive" institutions that reward those in power.
Levy on China's cleantech hurts green transition
Oped, Jeffrey Frankel, Published on 27/06/2024
» With historic heat waves sweeping across the United States and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere, June is expected to be the 13th consecutive month of record-breaking global temperatures. The primary cause, of course, is the enormous amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. Despite the threat posed by rising atmospheric concentrations of GHGs, emissions continue to increase at a faster pace than previously anticipated.
Let the WTO referee carbon border taxes
Oped, Jeffrey Frankel, Published on 08/12/2022
» Perhaps the most important task confronting the international order is the enforcement of national limits on greenhouse-gas emissions, such as those that were negotiated in the 2015 Paris agreement. Carbon border adjustments could give these limits teeth, but fair application requires a revived World Trade Organization.
International trade: Is it a help or a hindrance?
Oped, Jeffrey Frankel, Published on 22/06/2022
» Leading economies have been afflicted with new problems over the past year. The United States is struggling with both supply-chain blockages and a critical shortage of baby formula. The European Union faces the threat of scarce energy supplies, owing to sanctions on Russian fossil-fuel exports. And almost all countries are experiencing high inflation.
El Salvador's Bitcoin bet is a dangerous folly
News, Jeffrey Frankel, Published on 30/09/2021
» El Salvador this month became the first country to adopt a cryptocurrency -- in this case, Bitcoin -- as legal tender. I say the first, because others might follow. But they should think twice, because the idea is highly dubious -- and likely to be economically dangerous for developing countries in particular.
The G20's coronavirus agenda
Oped, Jeffrey Frankel, Published on 27/08/2021
» Finance ministers, central bank governors, and political leaders are hard at work preparing for the 2021 G20 Heads of State and Government Summit in Rome on Oct 30-31. With the Covid-19 pandemic stretching well into its second year, the meeting will come at a time of heightened uncertainty about public health and the global economy. And though the mechanisms of international cooperation have been weakened by the pandemic and remain bruised by former US President Donald Trump's legacy, they are more important than ever.
Good statistics are crucial amid the pandemic
Oped, Jeffrey Frankel, Published on 05/06/2021
» '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.