Comment

A thoughtful president seeking to simplify a complex tax system would take a bipartisan approach. Alas, there is no reason to think that America has a thoughtful president. A column by Barry Eichengreen.

Today's world is different from the one which prevailed prior to the Great Financial Crisis: Dynamism in the developing world, lingering malaise in advanced economies. A column by Stephen S. Roach.

Package deals are a specialty of the EU. President Macron should take into account the priorities of both Italy, the biggest obstacle to EU reform, and Germany. A column by Daniel Gros.

Changes in America’s saving rate hold the key to its trade balance, as well as to its long-term level of real incomes. Blaming others won’t alter that fact. A column by Martin Feldstein.

The big matter of uncertainty is Italy. Its political future is in the air and its fragile banking system can bring instability any time. Plus: The country is just too big to fail. A column by Fabrizio Zilibotti.

France needs Germany to serve as a model of a social market economy, capable of creating new non-governmental jobs. Germany needs France in order to assert its own place in the world. A column by Harold James.

Persuading Putin to get on the «right» side in Syria will require the Trump administration to present a real solution – which it has not shown itself to have. A column by Nina L. Khrushcheva.

Populism remains a wildcard, and only if growth picks up fast enough is it likely to be kept out of play. A column by Kenneth Rogoff.

The EU's policymakers should ignore the protectionist noises coming from Trump, and concentrate on defending the current global trading system and the liberal international order. A column by Daniel Gros.

Trump will have to learn that consensus building is frustrating and that such solutions are neither clear nor simple. The EU, for its part, realized this in the 1950’s. A column by Harold James.

The centenary will allow Putin to strengthen his preferred narrative: that Russia is now returning to greatness, thanks to the power Putin himself has consolidated. A column by Andrei Kolesnikov.

While Germany’s external surplus, at 8% of GDP, is big – too big – it is not the result of currency manipulation by Germany. A column by Hans-Werner Sinn.