Videos
Recent Articles
- Alan Greenspan's Myriad Misconceptions - March 22, 2010
- Rarely has a public figure's reputation suffered a reversal as dramatic as Alan Greenspan's. When he left the Federal Reserve in early 2006 after nearly 19 years as...
- Are Millennials a Chump Generation? - Washington Post - March 8, 2010
- Greece and the Welfare State In Ruins - February 22, 2010
- It would be possible in other circumstances to disregard the ongoing story of Greece and its debts as a tedious tale of financial markets. But there's much more to it...
- We've Misjudged China - February 15, 2010
- It's become apparent from recent events that America's political, business and scholarly elites have fundamentally misjudged China. Conflicts with China have multiplied....
- On Government Spending, America Has a Candor Gap - February 8, 2010
- In all the recent reports, speeches and news conferences concerning the federal budget outlook -- including the administration's proposed budget for 2011 -- hardly...
- The Story Behind the Economic Crisis - Newsweek - February 3, 2010
- Before Spending More, Spend Better - February 1, 2010
- By now, it ought to be obvious why President Obama has wanted his health-care overhaul passed quickly. It would be (and now will be) inconvenient to promote expanded...
- Ben Bernanke's Simple Task - January 29, 2010
- Now that the Senate has confirmed him for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke has, or ought to have, a very simple agenda: improve confidence....
- China's $2.4 Trillion Global Grip - January 25, 2010
- China disclosed the other day that its foreign exchange reserves had increased to about $2.4 trillion in 2009, up $453 billion for the year. These stupendous figures --...
- The Wall Street Pay Puzzle - January 18, 2010
- Why does Wall Street make the big bucks? A nation with 10 percent unemployment is understandably puzzled and outraged when the very people at the center of the financial...
- The Numbers Behind Our Daily Lives - January 11, 2010
- You may think that the last place to find a portrait of a nation is a book full of numbers. But turn to Page 673 of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, and...
- In the Aftermath of the Great Recession - January 4, 2010
- One insistent question at the start of a new decade involves the lingering effects of the old: What scars will the Great Recession leave? We are already seeing some....
- The Fed 'Reform' We Don't Want - November 30, 2009
- Ever since its creation in 1913, the Federal Reserve has grappled with a daunting political contradiction. The Fed is charged with preventing the collapse of the banking...
- Obamacare: Buy Now, Pay Later - November 16, 2009
- There is an air of absurdity to what is mistakenly called "health-care reform." Everyone knows that the United States faces massive governmental budget deficits as far...
- Is Roubini Painting Too Grim a Picture? - Newsweek - November 10, 2009
- Up Against a Wall of Debt, Part II - Newsweek - November 7, 2009
- In my latest NEWSWEEK column, I suggested that the unthinkable had become thinkable: some advanced society"”say, the United States, Spain, Italy, Japan, or...
- Could the United States Go Broke? - November 2, 2009
- The idea that the government of a major advanced country would default on its debt -- that is, tell lenders that it won't repay them all they're owed -- was, until...
- Debt: What If Governments Can't Repay? - Newsweek - October 30, 2009
- The idea that the government of a major advanced country would default on its debt"”that is, tell lenders that it won't repay them all they're...
- Why Stimulus 2.0 Might Backfire - Newsweek - October 17, 2009
- What can government do to crank up America's creaky job machine? We'll be arguing ferociously about that in coming months, and the answer, frankly, isn't clear. Diehard...
- The Government Averted a Depression - October 5, 2009
- How close did we come to the Great Depression 2.0? That question will spawn a cottage industry of books, studies and conferences. But Christina Romer, the head of...
- The Banks Bail Out Uncle Sam...Not Really - September 23, 2009
- It seemed like a classic "man bites dog" story. America's banks, having been repeatedly rescued by the government in the past 18 months, were about to turn the tables...
- Obama's Tire Tariff: Bad Policy, Right Message - September 21, 2009
- For years, American presidents have faced a China conundrum: How to deal with a country that practices predatory trade without unleashing global protectionism? President...
- Candor Needed With Healthcare - September 14, 2009
- We cannot, it seems, have a candid national conversation on health care. President Obama's speech the other night was a brilliant performance, and it may improve...
- Both Parties Duck the Deficit Issue - August 31, 2009
- The problem of the burgeoning government debt is mainly political, but the adverse consequences may be economic. The trouble is that we don't know what those...
- Bernanke's Reappointment a No Brainer - August 26, 2009
- It would have been insane (not to be too subtle) for President Obama not to nominate Ben Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. The...
- Will U.S. Recovery Go Global? - August 17, 2009
- Before we get too giddy about any U.S. economic "recovery," we should remember that the preceding economic collapse was global. No recovery can succeed unless it, too,...
- California's Reckoning--And Ours - Newsweek - August 3, 2009
- Obama's Squandered Stimulus Plan - July 20, 2009
- It's not surprising that the much-ballyhooed "economic stimulus" hasn't done much stimulating. President Obama and his aides argue that it's too early to expect...
- The Consequences of Big Government - July 13, 2009
- The question that President Obama ought to be asking -- that we all should be asking -- is this: How big a government do we want? Without anyone much noticing, our...
- Why Economists Missed the Crisis - July 6, 2009
- Niall Ferguson is one of those rare characters: a respected scholar who's also a successful popularizer. Ferguson, a Brit, has taught at Oxford and New York University...
- 'Reforms' Won't Prevent Future Crises - June 29, 2009
- Since its earliest days, the United States has suffered periodic financial crises. The first dates to 1792. In the 19th century, bank panics occurred regularly. Then, of...
- The U.S. Can't Deliver On All Its Promises - June 22, 2009
- Raised in an individualistic culture, Americans dislike the concept of the "welfare state" and do not use the term. But make no mistake, the United States has a welfare...
- Deflation or Inflation? Or Both? - June 8, 2009
- To make sense of today's most perplexing economic debate -- whether we're flirting with inflation or deflation -- it's worth recalling what happened after World War II....
- The Economic Crisis America Needs - May 25, 2009
- When the trustees of Social Security and Medicare recently reported on the economic status of these programs, the news coverage was universally glum. The recession had...
- Barack Obama's Risky Deficit Spending - May 18, 2009
- Just how much government debt does a president have to endorse before he's labeled "irresponsible"? Well, apparently much more than the massive amounts envisioned by...
- Addressing Overseas Tax Dodge Questions - May 11, 2009
- The U.S. tax code is "full of corporate loopholes that makes it perfectly legal for companies to avoid paying their fair share." -- President Obama, May 4 Like it or...
- Obama's Bias Against Oil and Gas - May 4, 2009
- Considering the brutal recession, you'd expect the Obama administration to be obsessed with creating jobs. And so it is, say the president and his supporters. The...
- Selling the Green Economy - April 27, 2009
- Few things are more appealing in politics than something for nothing. As Congress begins considering anti-global-warming legislation, environmentalists hold out...
- Our Great Depression Obsession - April 20, 2009
- The Great Depression of the 1930s was the most momentous economic event of the 20th century. It was a proximate cause of World War II, having fed the Nazis' rise in...
- Spend More, Get Less: Obama's Mirage - April 13, 2009
- President Obama has made no secret of his vision for America's 21st-century economy. We will lead the world in "green" technologies to stop global warming. Advancing...