There is ample reason to be angry at financiers, and real change is needed in how they operate. But the European Commission's proposal to tax financial transactions is no solution to Europe’s problems – or to the world's.
The gloomy predictions of absolute American decline will turn out to be as misleading as similar predictions in decades past. And this does not mean that China will necessarily replace the US as the world's leading power.
In particular, China should try to replace its dollar-denominated assets with renminbi-denominated assets, and its renminbi-denominated liabilities with dollar-denominated liabilities.
European politicians are slowly waking to the idea that they must construct a relationship that is much more generous and far-sighted. It won't be just a security mechanism, but nor can it be limited to economic issues alone.
On the UN resolution establishing a no-fly zone and civilian protection in Libya, Brazil, along with three of the other “BRICS” – Russia, India, and China – abstained. Now Brazil and other large Latin American countries are showing a similar lack of leadership on the question of statehood for Palestine.
And even before that default occurs, interest rates on Spanish or Italian debt could rise sharply, putting these countries on a financially impossible path. The eurozone's politicians may learn the hard way that trying to fool markets is a dangerous strategy.
Europeans must address the banking problem forthrightly, and simultaneously with the euro, sovereign-debt, and fiscal-adjustment issues. Pretending that banks that passed modest stress tests can be kept open indefinitely with little collateral damage is wishful – and dangerous – thinking.
It is fashionable nowadays to talk about personal attention as a commodity or even a currency. But attention is neither: it can be bought and sold, to some extent, but it cannot be traded to third parties, and it is not entirely fungible.
As the US economy continues to sputter three years after the financial crisis erupted with full force, it has become clear that the US cannot recover strongly without a change in the mix of domestic and foreign components of total aggregate demand.
Thirty years after the discovery of HIV/AIDS, we have seen impressive scientific and policy advances. But HIV/AIDS remains a daily threat to millions, stunts development, and destroys far too many lives.
Greedy banks, bad economic ideas, incompetent politicians: there is no shortage of culprits for the economic crisis in which rich countries are engulfed.
Europe is again on the precipice. The most recent Greek rescue is on the brink of collapse. The crisis of confidence has infected the eurozone's big countries. The euro's survival and, indeed, that of the European Union hang in the balance.
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