President Trump recently released his tax plan, but he’s also said he wants to stimulate the economy with infrastructure spending. Is one more effective than the other at boosting growth?
There’s a raging debate in South Africa about the role of its central bank. This is inevitable given that so much is changing in the world of central banking and in economic life.
The World Bank has changed direction. It won’t be giving up on public funding, but it will increasingly be trying to attract private investors to developing countries.
It’s time to update the old agenda of the 19th century: less working time and more money for all, in the form of shorter work days and a universal basic income.
Syriza, now on the verge of a historic election victory in Greece, has risen dramatically as an electoral force on the back of a plan to write off debt and end austerity. However, talk of the party introducing…
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is enjoying another moment in the sun. Australian politics is starting to move to the beat of its drum as Treasurer Joe Hockey talks about an “end to the age of…
When it comes to debating the rights and wrongs of public policies, economists have always held a privileged position. While citizens and less respected social scientists must strive to get their voices…
Music fans may have noticed something odd when their favourite artists release new “best-of” compilations or remaster back catalogues for CD or iTunes. Over successive reissues, the same songs sound worse…
A few years back, mock-conservative TV pundit Stephen Colbert famously introduced the notion of “truthiness” into the political lexicon. As Colbert put it, truthiness pertains not to whether beliefs are…
Yesterday the Federal Reserve announced limited measures to boost the economy. Whatever effect they will have on the economy, they are unlikely to be of any benefit to Obama. Indeed, history shows that…
In a widely anticipated forthcoming book, Edward Conard – a former Bain Capital colleague of Mitt Romney’s – has advanced the arguments that investment drives economic growth, and that deregulation and…
Sometimes good policy and good politics are the same thing. By tying together lessons learned from economist John Maynard Keynes and former president Harry Truman, Barack Obama is taking steps that may…
Professor of Globalisation and Development; Director of the Oxford Martin Programmes on Technological and Economic Change, The Future of Work and the Future of Development, University of Oxford