Blogs&Reviews

  • Finance, the state, and innovation

    Diane Coyle, 25 June 2018

    In a revised edition of "Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy", William Janeway argues that our economic system – where complicated interactions between government, providers of finance, and capitalists drive technological innovation and economic growth – is inherently fragile. In this post, Diane Coyle welcomes the update as timely. Since the book’s original publication in 2012, the world has seen sluggish growth, flatlining productivity, and extraordinary changes in the economy and society brought about by technology.

  • What does it mean to have rational expectations?

    Roger Farmer, 21 June 2018

    In this follow up to his post on ergodicity, Roger Farmer discusses chaos theory, 'spin glasses', and what it means to have rational expectations.

  • How the broadcast media created mediamacro

    Simon Wren-Lewis, 20 June 2018

    The Brexit debate was not the first time that the broadcast media in the UK reinforced rather than countered the claims of the right-wing press – the same happened with austerity. In this post, Simon Wren-Lewis asks why the BBC and other broadcasters largely ignored standard textbook macroeconomics, and instead promoted ‘mediamacro’.

  • Trump, China, and tariffs: From soybeans to semiconductors

    Chad Bown, Euijin Jung, Zhiyao (Lucy) Lu, 19 June 2018

    On 15 June, the Trump administration produced the list of specific Chinese products on which it soon plans to impose tariffs. In this post, Chad Bown, Euijin Jung and Zhiyao Lu examine this list and China's proposed retaliation, and argue that even companies that are not suffering yet from China’s mistreatment will soon be hurting because of tariff-induced higher costs.

Other Recent Blogs&Reviews:

  • Idée fixe: Theresa May's disastrous Brexit strategy
    Simon Wren-Lewis, 07 June 2018

    Brexiters have come up with various reasons for not staying in the Customs Union. In this post, Simon Wren-Lewis argues that none of these reasons stands up to scrutiny. He also argues that Prime Minister Theresa May should have realised right away that the Brexit people voted for – taking back control and being at least no worse off in economic terms at the same time – was an impossible project, and that this realisation should have governed how she approached Brexit from the start. 

  • Bulls and bears: Why central banks should stabilise the stock market
    Roger Farmer, 07 June 2018

    That idea that, in the immortal words of Gordon Gekko, “greed is good” is encapsulated in the first welfare theorem of economics which explains why markets, most of the time, work well. Selfish behaviour by people seeking to improve their own lives will, inevitably, improve the lives of everyone else on the planet.  In this post, Roger Farmer asks why that idea doesn’t apply also to the financial markets.

  • Trump, Brexit, globalisation in crisis?
    Pascal Lamy, 06 June 2018

    Although recent developments have challenged the established liberal consensus on globalisation, in this post Pascal Lamy argues that this process is set to continue due to the technological forces underpinning its evolution. While there is rising political opposition in light of increased inequality, undoing the current levels of economic integration will not be easy and strictly national solutions will be insufficient. In this context, Europe needs to unite around its social market model and project its values more strongly in the world.

  • The ECB (belatedly) finds common cause with the IMF
    Ben Clift, 05 June 2018

    Debate on euro area reform has been split between two camps: those who saw the euro area crisis as a consequence of moral hazard, and those who saw the threat of contagion effects through vulnerable financial markets. In this post, Ben Clift details how ECB Governor Mario Draghi’s recent speech proposing a full realisation of the banking union, with risk sharing and public backstops to prevent ‘bad equilibrium’, signals that the ECB’s vision for euro area reform has finally shifted to the latter, in line with the IMF’s vision for euro area architecture reform. 

  • Fiscal policy remains in the stone age
    Simon Wren-Lewis, 03 June 2018

    With unemployment remaining high in the euro area and core inflation well below target, Simon Wren-Lewis argues that German fiscal policy, in particular, is too tight, calling for stimulus in the form of public investment.

Pages

CEPR Policy Research