Yearly Archives: 2015

Volatility and Reforms: The Overlooked Virtues of Economic Uncertainty

The Great Recession highlighted the prominent role that economic uncertainty plays in hindering investment and growth. This column provides new evidence that economic uncertainty can actually play a positive role by promoting the implementation of structural reforms with long-run benefits. The effect appears to be strongest for countries with poorly informed voters. These findings suggest that times of uncertainty may present an opportunity to implement reforms that would otherwise not be passed.

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The Predictability of Political Extremism

What’s at stake: The rise of the extreme right in the latest French election has mostly been treated as surprising or reflecting special circumstances like the November 13 Paris attacks. But a large literature linking extreme right votes to persisting depressed economic conditions suggests that longer run factors are at play.

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Will China Be the Enforcer of the Paris Climate Agreement?

Yves here. While China has made impressive strides in technologies that reduce carbon emissions, I have trouble squaring that with their plans to build more coal-fired electricity generating plants. By Gaius Publius, a professional writer living on the West Coast of the United States and frequent contributor to DownWithTyranny, digby, Truthout, and Naked Capitalism. Follow […]

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The Fed’s New “Operation Twist”: Twisted Logic for Bank Profits at the Expense of the Real Economy

How did Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve justify their rate increase now, despite strong signs that there is little economic basis for doing so?

Call this an exercise in twisted logic, plain and simple.

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