International Selection

Lehman Brothers’ collapse revealed a flaw not just in finance, but in twenty-first-century politics and society: technologically driven short-termism. A column by Harold James.

A marriage of convenience between surplus and deficit countries eventually blossomed into codependency. Now, frictions have intensified and might lead to a full-blown trade war. A column by Stephen S. Roach.

The evidence is that Quantitative Easing can play a positive stabilization role. If there are negative side effects, these are best addressed not by central banks but by other policy makers. A column by Barry Eichengreen.

Laurence Ball, Professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University, says that key policy makers have not been transparent about the failure of Lehman Brothers. He claims that the Federal Reserve could have rescued the imperiled investment bank but chose not to because of political pressures.

As soon as long-term rates will rise, the present value of future corporate profits will shrink and investors will have an alternative to equities. The result will be a decline in share prices. A column by Martin Feldstein.

Leaders who refuse to recognize the world as it is will eventually lose the position that their denial of reality was supposed to protect. A column by Nina L. Khrushcheva.

Reforms must allow Swiss health care to benefit from the huge advantages of freer markets, and to cease from suffering from their absence. The alternative is rationing of services. A column by Victoria Curzon Price.

After the November elections, the strong American economy may be threatened by an escalating trade war or the specter of higher taxes. A column by Michael J. Boskin.

Sarah Ketterer, co-founder and CEO of Causeway Capital Management thinks that Swiss blue-chip stocks Novartis, Roche and ABB will outperform in a rising interest environment.

Should the leaders of the two governing parties, Salvini and Di Maio, enact only a portion of their programs, Italy would sink in a major economic and financial crisis. A column by Charles Wyplosz.

The government ought to restore financial stability and growth by reversing its stance on central-bank independence, interest-rate policy, and perhaps even the IMF. A column by Mohamed A. El-Erian.

Patent laws as we know them are becoming an obstacle to innovation instead of promoting them. Today's IP regime needs to be overhauled and made more flexible. A column by Zia Qureshi.