Economics

Experimental economics is not really a new theory but a (still) relatively new method of studying the kind of questions that economists have studied for ages. However, the addition of the experimental method to the economist’s toolbox is remarkable for...

Unemployment claims jumped in the United States while the Federal Reserve and International Monetary Fund express concerns that global growth is slowing. The Department of Labor announced Thursday that seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims rose to 297,000 for the week...

In late June, the US agreed to enter into the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). The Agreement is the largest trade treaty entered into by the United States in more than two decades. It encompasses a dozen Pacific nations and could...

The House Committee on Appropriations recently adopted a budget for an assortment of financial agencies. Tucked inside the 150-plus pages of legislative prose is a provision denying the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) funding to issue “any rule, regulation, or...

Analysts and scholars – including Chinese economists and social scientists – have long been critical of Beijing’s development strategy in Tibet. A heavy dependence on state subsidies to maintain high levels of economic growth cause economic inefficiencies and social inequalities....

More people are buying homes in the United States, accelerating price increases throughout the country. Home prices rose 6.3% year-over-year in May 2015 according to the CoreLogic Home Price Index, marking 39 months of consistent year-over-year increases in house prices...

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has noted that growth will likely slow across many of the world's largest economies, including the U.S. and China. The organization released its warning based on an analysis of information available from...

The global capital markets have stabilized. Chinese and Japanese shares initially sold off, but both recovered.  Chinese officials have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at the stock market in hopes of stabilizing it.  There was some success today.  The...

Celebrity activism and support for African humanitarian causes – such as the Enough Project, Akon’s Lighting Africa and Kony 2012 – has become mainstream. However, what are the consequences, and is this something we necessarily want to promote? Celebrity activism...

The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong, is currently on an official visit to the United States. Later this year, President Obama is also expected to pay a return visit to Hanoi. The visits are...

The United States and China have the two largest economies in the world, making an investment treaty an obvious course of action in the opinion of many financial analysts. Yet, such a treaty has been sorely lacking for some time....

The U.S. is importing and exporting fewer goods while the demand for workers rises to a record. The U.S. is importing and exporting fewer goods while the demand for workers rises to a record. The Department of Commerce said in a report...

In a normal review of the US, the IMF recently called on the Federal Reserve to drop its dot-plot tool and replace it with a single staff forecast, like the ECB.  We too have been critical of the individual macroeconomic...

The global financial crisis of 2007–2009 underlined the need for central banks and financial regulators to take a macroprudential perspective on financial risk, i.e., to monitor and regulate the buildup of systemic financial risk in the economy as a whole,...

Demand for services rose in the U.S. as non-manufacturing activity increased slightly, as many analysts expected. In June, the Institute of Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index rose to 56%, up from 55.7% in May in a sign that demand for services...