Project Syndicate
The World's Opinion Page, featuring exclusive commentaries from leading thinkers, statesmen, and activists.
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The Fall of the Berlin Wall and Social Democracy | by Daron Acemoglu
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The fall of the Berlin Wall heralded not only the collapse of communism in Europe, but also the destruction of a broader – and far more constructive – social-democratic compact. To prevent a return to extremism and instability, that compact must be...
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Project Syndicate How the end of communism in Europe also ended the West's highly successful post-war economic model | 7h
Germany Can Reduce Its External Surplus | by Dalia Marin
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For years, Germany's ballooning current-account surplus has rankled the rest of the world, and German policymakers have thrown up their hands as if powerless to do anything about it. But the external imbalance is a result of policies that are fully...
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Project Syndicate Some in Germany would like the world to believe that there is nothing the government can do to reduce the country's massive current-account surplus. But of course there is, says Dalia Marin of 52h
A Living Wage for Capitalism | by Jim O'Neill
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Higher nominal wages for low-paid workers can boost real earnings, increase consumer spending, and help make housing more affordable. And insofar as raising the minimum would increase companies’ wage bill, it would create a stronger incentive to...
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Project Syndicate Corporate leaders should be less worried about their wage bill and more worried about the popular backlash against capitalism, argues Jim O'Neill of 59h
Ensuring Africa’s Continued Rise | by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala - Project Syndicate 3d 1 tweets
To commemorate its founding 25 years ago, PS is republishing a selection of commentaries written since 1994. In the following commentary, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala wrote that, while Africa is well placed to build diversified, sustainable economies,...
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Project Syndicate African policymakers cannot simply assume that the continent’s rise will continue, wrote in 2016; they must take the right steps to ensure that it does #PS25 3d
The Growing Threat of Water Wars | by Jayati Ghosh
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In 2015, United Nations member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, which include an imperative to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” Yet, in the last four years, matters have deteriorated...
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Project Syndicate By 2030, demand for fresh water will exceed supply by an estimated 40%. Without strong action, warns of , this could become a source of major conflicts 4d
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Project Syndicate By 2030, demand for fresh water will exceed supply by an estimated 40%. Without strong action, warns of , this could become a source of major conflicts 47h
Global Trade’s Bright (Green) Future | by Pascal Lamy
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Keeping climate change in check will require reducing the carbon footprint associated with global shipping, which accounts for the bulk of world trade. With governments and the shipping industry already moving in the right direction, the challenge...
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Project Syndicate Governments meeting this month at the to discuss emissions reductions in global shipping must set the bar high, urges Pascal Lamy. The latest findings about the pace and severity of climate change show that a weaker approach simply is not enough 4d
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Project Syndicate If it were a country, the global shipping industry would be the sixth-largest greenhouse-gas emitter in the world, notes former WTO director-general Pascal Lamy 3d
Europe on a Geopolitical Fault Line | by Ana Palacio
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China has begun to build a parallel international order, centered on itself. If the European Union aids in its construction – even just by positioning itself on the fault line between China and the United States – it risks toppling key pillars of...
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Project Syndicate China has changed the international system much more than the system has changed China. It must not be allowed to create an alternative one, argues 4d
When Markets and Mobility Collide | by Ricardo Hausmann
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Many people, including economists, wonder why a scheduled 3% fare increase on the Santiago metro triggered mass protests that paralyzed the entire country. In fact, the popular response should come as no surprise, and understanding it is crucial to...
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Project Syndicate No one should be surprised that liberalization of transport prices in Latin America has triggered mass protests, says . As ’s Michael Sandel has put it: “The more things money can buy, the harder it is to be poor” 5d
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Project Syndicate For many people in places like Chile and Ecuador, the infrastructure of urban mobility can constitute a poverty trap, writes 's : Because you are poor, you cannot get to the good jobs, which means you will remain poor 4d
Is Economic Winter Coming? | by Raghuram G. Rajan
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Now that the old rules governing macroeconomic cycles no longer seem to apply, it remains to be seen what might cause the next recession in the United States. But if recent history is our guide, the biggest threat stems not from the US Federal...
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Project Syndicate Heading into a presidential election year, the biggest risks for the US economy stem not from the Fed or even excesses in certain sectors, but from poor decision-making by and other wannabe strongmen, says Raghuram Rajan of 5d
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Project Syndicate "If the world had fewer wannabe strongmen, the global economy would be much stronger than it is" - Raghuram Rajan 5d
The High Stakes of the Coming Digital Currency War | by Kenneth Rogoff
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Just as technology has disrupted media, politics, and business, it is on the verge of disrupting America’s ability to leverage faith in its currency to pursue its broader national interests. The real challenge for the United States isn't Facebook's...
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Project Syndicate A US-regulated digital currency could in principle be required to be traceable by US authorities. A digital currency run out of China would leave the US far fewer levers to pull, notes 's 6d
Why End the Global Media Crisis? | by Mark M. Nelson
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Despite its scope and complexity, the crisis in the news media is far from intractable. Addressing it will require the world's wealthy democracies to use foreign and security policy and international development assistance to encourage the growth of...
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Project Syndicate In 2015, less than 0.3% of the $150 billion the world’s richest countries spent on international development assistance went to addressing threats to media freedom. Raising that share to just to 1% could be transformative, says 8d
The Rise of Nationalism After the Fall of the Berlin Wall | by George Soros
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Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, open societies were triumphant and international cooperation became the dominant creed. Thirty years later, however, nationalism has turned out to be much more powerful and disruptive than...
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Project Syndicate After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States emerged as the sole surviving superpower. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to the responsibilities that its position entailed, writes 9d
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Project Syndicate . sees several factors behind the rise of authoritarian nationalism 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall 8d
How to Get Past the US-China Trade War | by Dani Rodrik
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China and the United States, like all other countries, should be able to maintain their own economic model. But international trade rules should prohibit national governments from adopting “beggar-thy-neighbor” policies that provide domestic...
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Project Syndicate Trade and other policies aimed at safeguarding (or “protecting”) a country’s economic system should be presumed legitimate, says . What is not acceptable are policies that yield domestic benefits only by imposing costs on trade partners 10d
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Project Syndicate While China’s global economic role is likely to be affected by political conflict with the West, it is inconceivable that the West will stop trading with China. What, then, should a workable framework for economic relations look like? asks 8d
How to Deal with a Declining Russia | by Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
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It seems unlikely that Russia will again possess the resources to balance US power in the same way that the Soviet Union did during the four decades after World War II. But declining powers merit as much diplomatic attention as rising ones do.
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Project Syndicate In 1989, the Soviet economy was twice the size of China’s; today, notes 's , Russia's GDP is one-seventh that of China 10d
The End of Neoliberalism and the Rebirth of History | by Joseph E. Stiglitz
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For 40 years, elites in rich and poor countries alike promised that neoliberal policies would lead to faster economic growth, and that the benefits would trickle down so that everyone, including the poorest, would be better off. Now that the...
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Project Syndicate The simultaneous waning of confidence in neoliberalism and in democracy is no coincidence or mere correlation, argues . Neoliberalism has been undermining democracy for 40 years 11d
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Project Syndicate Four decades of free-market orthodoxy have taken a high toll on democracy | 8d
Are Randomized Poverty-Alleviation Experiments Ethical? | by Peter Singer, Arthur Baker and Johannes Haushofer
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When this year's Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to three pioneers in using randomized controlled trials to fight poverty in developing countries, the choice revived questions about the ethics of the method. Three questions, in...
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Project Syndicate Thanks to the work of this year's Nobel laureates in economics, random controlled trials have become a powerful tool in the fight against poverty. But are they ethical? ask , Arthur Baker, and 11d
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Project Syndicate In a world of scarce resources, it doesn’t just matter whether an anti-poverty program is better than nothing, point out , Arthur Baker, and . Donors and policymakers need to know how much better, and at what price 9d
The New Anti-Capitalism | by Harold James
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It should not be surprising that our era of rapid technological change has coincided with renewed skepticism of capitalism across Western countries. Yet this time is different, not least because of the rise of winner-take-all markets and a shift in...
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Project Syndicate It is tempting to say that capitalism’s growing unpopularity nowadays is simply a symptom of Luddism. But today’s anti-market sentiment is being led not so much by distressed workers as by intellectuals and politicians, writes Harold James 11d
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Project Syndicate We are currently living through the most dramatic technological and economic transformation in the history of mankind. We are also witnessing declining support for capitalism around the world. Are these two trends connected? | Harold James 7d
Rethinking Productivity | by Diane Coyle
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Today, about four out of every five dollars spent in the OECD economies purchases services or intangible goods. This “dematerialization” of economies demands a more nuanced understanding of what drives productivity.
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Project Syndicate "Soft” innovations may be at least as important as “hard” technologies in driving productivity, writes 12d
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Project Syndicate GPS navigation and professional services (like management consultancy) can undoubtedly boost productivity. But how do we quantify their effects? asks 10d
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Project Syndicate Today, about four out of every five dollars spent in the economies purchases services or intangible goods. This “dematerialization” of economies is complicating our understanding of productivity | 8d
Russia’s New Ideocracy | by Dmitry Oreshkin
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Under Putinism, Russia is ruled by a sanctified minority that propels the country toward some goal that is fully known only to them. Whatever that goal turns out to be, neither the rule of law nor the hopes of the Russian people is likely to be any...
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Project Syndicate Under Putinism, Russia is ruled by a sanctified minority that propels the country toward some goal that is fully known only to them | Dmitry Oreshkin 14d
The Case for International Civil Servants | by Kemal Derviş
Kemal Derviş - Project Syndicate 15d 3 tweets
Cooperation among nation-states is still the most important element of global governance. But organizations and civil servants that serve the world as a whole are an indispensable source of support for necessary collective action to address major...
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Project Syndicate It is tempting to define multilateralism, or even global governance, as simply the process of cooperation among nation-states. But such a view is too narrow, says 15d
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Project Syndicate International civil servants can themselves launch initiatives and act as advocates. Perhaps the most emblematic leader in that regard was the late UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, says 14d