Germany is no longer Europe’s most troublesome player. It’s now an indispensable nation. The power of this transformation is personified by Chancellor Angela Merkel and her delicate political and diplomatic balancing act.
If the United States cannot get its fiscal house in order, the dollar’s privileged position as the world’s reserve currency may be at risk—at a time when there seem to be few if any plausible alternatives.
Without economic recovery there is no political consensus; without political consensus there is no economic recovery. If Washington fails to overcome its current stalemate, a long period of monetary stagnation and moral decline will set in.
Finance ministers around the world are up in arms over the Fed's latest efforts to jump-start the anemic U.S. economy. The future of globalization hangs in the balance.
The advent of a new historical epoch requires boldness in foreign policy architecture. Though less studied than the post-World War II master builders, Charles Evans Hughes' effort after World War I is a worthy case in point.
Europe has long viewed Turkey as a parent would a troubled stepchild. But a vibrant and increasingly powerful Turkey is making such an attitude absurd--and dangerous.
As the Great Recession gnaws at our very belief in the ability of capitalism to raise us to ever-escalating levels of wealth and prosperity, Keynes's no-longer-viable financial prescriptions are being resurrected.
