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:

  • Brexit: It’s the economics, stupid
    Simon Wren-Lewis, 28 May 2018

    Voters for 'Leave' wanted a Brexit that delivered more money for public services, but that cannot be realised under any of the four possible Brexit scenarios on the table. Economics matters to voters, more so than issues of sovereignty or immigration, and this post argues that Leave voters were misled with mythical economic gains.

  • VIX, CISS and all the political uncertainty
    Jon Danielsson, 20 May 2018

    Two widely used indicators of financial risk, the VIX index and the ECB’s CISS, are at a historical low. As this post explains, however, provided we only worry about the immediate future, and then only care to measure the easily visible, our favourite risk indicators will tell us everything is fine even if the longer-term political uncertainty appears high.

  • Seven reasons China won’t yield in Trump’s trade war
    Jeffrey Frankel, 19 May 2018

    President Trump and China are exchanging threats of raising tariffs which, if implemented, would signal the start of a trade war. There are some who defend Trump’s actions as bargaining tactics, but in this post I lay out seven reasons why China is unlikely to back down in this case, and why the US will not win this war.

  • Standing on the shoulders of giants: In response to Howard Reed
    Roger Farmer, 14 May 2018

    Recently, Howard Reed wrote a controversial piece for Prospect. This blog pushes back on Reed’s notions of tearing down classical economics.  Be committed and passionate, but understand the giants of the past.

  • Talking to the Establishment
    Simon Wren-Lewis, 12 May 2018

    When people talk about ‘the Establishment’, they often imagine a socially coherent body managing the country for the collective interest. This blog reviews Aeron Davis’ book, "Reckless Opportunists: Elites at the End of the Establishment", in which the author argues that we may now be seeing the end of such an Establishment.

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