-
The Long Sino-American Trade War - By A. Michael Spence
Some observers interpret the trade war that US President Donald Trump has initiated with China as a tough negotiating tactic, aimed at forcing the Chinese to comply with World Trade Organization rules and Western norms of doing business. Once China meets at least some of Trump’s demands, this view holds, mutually beneficial economic engagement will be restored. But there are many reasons to doubt such a benign scenario. The long China-US trade war is really a manifestation of a fundamental clash of systems.
—— Opinion
-
Shareholders Are Stealing Our Jobs - By Andrea Armeni and Tensie Whelan
It’s not the robots that are coming for American jobs. It’s not the immigrants. It’s not evil offshoring CEOs either. It’s the shareholders.
—
Under shareholder capitalism, the U.S. labor force has become a liability—a cost to be contained—rather than an asset, and the decrease in worker well-being is a simple externality to be placed off books and ignored.— Opinion
-
A Primer on Concentration and Growth - By Thomas Philippon
In “A Primer on Concentration, Investment and Growth,” a study prepared for the 2018 Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, Professor Philippon reviews the facts and controversies regarding the measurement and implications of rising concentration, including the importance of technological changes and foreign competition. He argues that weak investment cannot be explained by low expected productivity growth, low expected demand, higher costs of capital, or technological changes related to the rise of intangibles – but it is explained by declining competition.
—— Research Highlights
-
The Big Blockchain Lie - By Nouriel Roubini
With the value of Bitcoin having fallen by around 70% since its peak late last year, the mother of all bubbles has now gone bust. More generally, cryptocurrencies have entered a not-so-cryptic apocalypse. The value of leading coins such as Ether, EOS, Litecoin, and XRP have all fallen by over 80%, thousands of other digital currencies have plummeted by 90-99%, and the rest have been exposed as outright frauds. No one should be surprised by this: four out of five initial coin offerings (ICOs) were scams to begin with.
—— Opinion
-
Wall Street CEOs Show True Leadership in the Khashoggi Case - By Michael Posner
The diplomatic fallout from the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi accelerated as three prominent U.S. business leaders withdrew from the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, also known as Davos in the Desert. Laurence Fink, the CEO of Blackrock, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, and Stephen Schwarzman, the founder and CEO of Blackstone, joined a growing list of heavyweights who are demonstrating corporate leadership by declining to attend this celebration of Saudi’s emerging economic power. Their withdrawal underscores that this should not be a “business as usual” moment with the Kingdom.
—— Opinion
-
What Jamal Khashoggi's Case Says about America's Values-Free Leadership - By Michael Posner
Great democracies advance their national interests by upholding their values. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt exemplified this approach earlier this week when he warned Saudi Arabian Foreign Minster Adel al-Jubeir that “friendships depend on shared values.” The impetus for his comment was the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul last week. After speaking with the Saudi Foreign Minister, Hunt tweeted that “violence against journalists worldwide is going up and is a grave threat to freedom of expression.”
—— Opinion
-
Why Algorithms Alone Can't Make the Internet Safe - By Michael Posner
Major Internet companies today find themselves in the cross-hairs of European regulators and facing increased public distrust in Europe and the U.S. One reason is that the full scope of harmful content online has become more evident. Until recently, Facebook, Google, and Twitter sought to downplay the magnitude of their problems in this regard, arguing that the amount of hate speech and political disinformation online was relatively tiny, a minor inconvenience when compared to the overall volume and value of Internet communications.
—— Opinion
-
What A Difference 20 Years Make: Now You Get To Be A Smart Investor - By Baruch Lev and Chenqi Zhu
On Sunday, May 3, 1998, a front-page article in The New York Times reported on a breakthrough in cancer research by EntreMed, a biotech company developing cancer drugs. Investors’ reaction was swift and decisive: On Monday, May 4, EntreMed’s share price surged from $12.1 close on Friday, to $85.0 on Monday’s opening, and closed near $52.0. The price hovered around $30.0 during the three following weeks. And not just EntreMed; the Nasdaq Biotechnology Combined Index also rose 7.5% on that Monday.
—— Opinion
-
The Restructuring of the World - By A. Michael Spence
The global economy is undergoing a far-reaching transformation. Change is being driven by shifts in countries’ populations, productivity, wealth, power, and ambitions, and accelerated by US President Donald Trump’s moves to reshape supply-chain structures, alter cross-border investment incentives, and limit the movement of people and technology across borders.
—— Opinion
-
Who Controls Your Data? India may Pass a Law Ensuring that You Do - By Vasant Dhar
On Aug. 24, 2017, India’s Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment declaring privacy to be a fundamental individual right. In response, a committee headed by a former Supreme Court justice drafted a data protection bill to be presented to parliament later this year. The measure introduces a new type of entity, a “data fiduciary,” which will ensure that data is used for designated purposes only.
—— Opinion
-
Is Your Inbox Overflowing? Better Shortcuts could Help in More Ways than One - By Dolly Chugh
The problem with email is that “anyone, anywhere, at any time, can put anything, on your to-do list,” says Dr. Josh Davis, an author and expert in the neuroscience of productivity. Many people face this dilemma. And it is not just overflowing email inboxes, it is also requests on social media and texts. Our “inbox” is now scattered between multiple platforms with messages sometimes from people we know, but also from people we don’t. People looking for jobs, informational interviews, funding, feedback, networking—as Dr. Davis said to me, “anyone, anywhere, at any time” can find us. How do we deal with the unsolicited messages which overflow our inboxes and the anxiety they can create?
—— Opinion
-
'Department Of Swagger' Fails First Test on Refugees - By Michael Posner
This week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a further retreat from U.S. leadership on refugee protection, reducing the cap on refugee admissions next year to 30,000. That’s down 80,000 from the last year of the Obama administration. Since the end of World War II, the U.S. has played a leading role protecting refugees, reflecting broad bipartisan support for policies that provided safe haven to those fleeing religious and political persecution.
—— Opinion
-
Use Your Everyday Privilege to Help Others - By Dolly Chugh
I often forget I am straight. I just don’t think about it much. When asked what I did this weekend, or when setting family photos on my desk at work, I have no reason to wonder if what I say will make someone uncomfortable, or lead to a “joke” at my expense, or cause a co-worker to suddenly think I am attracted to them. Our culture is set up for straight people like me to be ourselves with very little thought. But for some gay colleagues, a simple question about the weekend or a decision of how to decorate the workspace carries significant stress—how to act, who to trust, what to share.
—— Opinion
-
Trump’s Half-Measures Won’t Save the Coal Industry - By Paul H. Tice
Raucous West Virginia rallies notwithstanding, President Trump has thus far failed to deliver on his campaign promise to resuscitate the coal industry. This is mainly for lack of political will in his administration to address the climate-change elephant in the room.
—— Opinion
-
Backdrop for the Next Financial Crisis is Brewing - By Nouriel Roubini
As we mark the tenth anniversary of the global financial crisis, there have been plenty of postmortems examining its causes, its consequences and whether the necessary lessons have been learnt.
—— Opinion
