LONDON – There is no doubt that monetary finance is technically feasible and that wise fiscal and monetary authorities could choose just the "right" amount. The crucial issue is whether politicians can be trusted to be wise. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US Federal Reserve will buy unlimited quantities of Treasury bonds, the Bank ...

LONDON – Our expanding ability to automate human work across all sectors – agriculture, industry, and services – makes an ever-growing workforce increasingly irrelevant to improvements in human welfare. That's good news for most of the world, but not for Africa. Every two years, the United Nations issues its latest estimate of future ...

TOKYO – The valid insight behind "modern monetary theory" – that governments and central banks together can always create nominal demand – was explained by Milton Friedman in 1948. But it is vital also to understand that excessive monetary finance is hugely harmful, and it is dangerous to view it as a costless way to solve long-term ...

NEW DELHI – Electric motors are inherently more efficient than internal combustion engines. And, provided the electricity used has a carbon intensity below about 800 grams per kilowatt-hour, electric cars reduce carbon emissions. Passenger cars account for only 8% of total global carbon dioxide emissions, and if you charge an electric vehicle ...

LONDON – Financial markets were surprised by the Bank of Japan's recent introduction of negative interest rates on some commercial bank reserves. They shouldn't have been. The BOJ clearly needed to take some new policy action to achieve its target of 2% inflation. But neither negative interest rates nor further expansion of the BOJ's already ...

The 2008 financial crash was a self-inflicted, avoidable economic catastrophe. It wasn't the result of war or political turmoil, or the consequence of competition from emerging economies. It didn't derive from underlying tensions over income distribution or from profligate government spending. No, the origins of this crisis lay in the ...

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's recent speech at the annual gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has excited great interest, but the implication of his remarks is even more startling than many initially recognized. If a eurozone breakup is to be avoided, escaping from continued recession will require ...