The magazine of international economic policy.

From the Spring 2013 issue

Does Debt Matter?

The global consensus on debt is in disarray. Can a realistic guide be fashioned for determining whether a nation's debt has reached a danger zone?

The views of more than twenty experts, including Jörg Asmussen, Jens Weidmann, Robert J. Shapiro, Martin Feldstein, Michael J. Boskin, Anders Åslund, Anne O. Krueger, Rudolph G. Penner, James K. Galbraith, Martin Neil Baily, Julian Callow, Thomas Ferguson, Joseph E. Gagnon, Andrew Fieldhouse, Stephen G. Cecchetti, Jeffrey A. Frankel, Alan Reynolds, David R. Malpass, David M. Walker, Richard C. Koo, Tadashi Nakamae, Richard N. Cooper, and Ronald I. McKinnon.



QE Undone

Quantitative easing can boost the stock market, but not the real economy—or even inflation.

By John H. Makin

In Defense of QE

The Fed’s “whatever it takes” policy makes sense, warts and all.

By John M. Berry

The West’s Dismal Future

Bubbles, bubbles, and more bubbles.

By Paul Craig Roberts and Johannes Maruschzik

Political Central Banking

Get ready for the end of central bank independence.

By Mario I. Blejer

Debt Risk

The real problem is the dangerous use of semantics.

By J. Bradford DeLong

The Weekend Austerity Began

An excerpt from The Alchemists, the brilliant new book by Neil Irwin.

The Cyprus Difference

The eurozone can’t unring the bell on bank deposits.

By Douglas J. Elliott

In Light of “Cyprus,” Are Eurozone Uninsured Bank Deposits Vulnerable?

Was the Cyprus banking crisis, and taxation of those deposits as part of the financial rescue, an aberration? Seventeen noted thinkers weigh in, including Robert Johnson, James E. Glassman, Jared Bernstein, W. Bowman Cutter, Dino Kos, Edward N. Luttwak, Barry Eichengreen, Bernard Connolly, Edwin M. Truman, Andrew Balls, Sebastian Dullien, Thomas Oatley, Milton Ezrati, George R. Hoguet, Hans-Joachim Dübel, Hannes Androsch, and Catherine L. Mann.

From Deauville to Cyprus

The seeds of another eurozone crisis have been planted.

By Klaus C. Engelen

Currency War Scorecard

Charting potential winners and losers.

By Martin Kessler

Japanese Optical Illusion

The “lost decades” theory is a myth.

By William R. Cline

In Defense of the Hong Kong Dollar Peg

Which eventually will cease to exist.

By Chi Lo

Turmoil in the South China Sea

Is China beginning to resemble Imperial Japan?

By Masahiro Matsumura

Just-in-Time Immigration Reform

The case for a sustained but selective immigration policy.

By Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg

A “Myth-Buster of a Book”

A review of Why Growth Matters by Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya.

By Pravin Krishna

A Bold Optimist

A review of The Great Convergence by Kishore Mahbubani.

By David Hale

The Death of Economics

The field of economics needs a giant rethink.

By David M. Smick

Off the News

Infrastructure wake-up call, energy revolution, and oil prices and the end of quantitative easing.