The willful US fiscal crackup of 2012-13 will impose costs unless politicians' change their behavior and return to practicing good governance. In the past, the United States ran deficits, or put off some harder long-term choices, but basic budgetary processes worked. Everyone worldwide, whether...

The renminbi (RMB) is not yet an international currency that could challenge the position of the dollar or the euro, but it is heading in that direction. Chinese officials support the limited goal of increasing usage of the RMB in international transactions, but they do not publicly advocate...

As the United States emerges from the Great Recession, concern is rising over the issues of income inequality, stagnation of wages, and especially the struggles of lower-skilled workers at the bottom end of the wage scale. A number of major American employers—for example, Aetna and...

Active accommodation of fiscal consolidations by monetary policy is controversial, as can be seen in current euro area discussions. While many observers acknowledge that there is usually a place for monetary accommodation in response to fiscal consolidation, a sequencing argument is often heard...

Europe must adopt policies to grow and reform at the same time to reverse its downward economic slide, excessively low inflation, high unemployment, and the risk of a lost decade or more. Seven years after the start of the global financial crisis in 2007, the prospect of secular stagnation...

Europe must adopt policies to grow and reform at the same time to reverse its downward economic slide, excessively low inflation, high unemployment, and the risk of a lost decade or more. Seven years after the start of the global financial crisis in 2007, the prospect of secular stagnation...

Using data on eight advanced economies (Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and United States) between 2007 and 2010, Tomas Hellebrandt shows how the Great Recession affected income inequality in different countries and how families and the state tried to...

Combining consensus forecasts of growth of population and real incomes during 2014-35 with household income surveys for more than a hundred countries accounting for the bulk of the world economy, we project the income distribution in 2035 across all individuals in the world. We find that the...

Janet Yellen, who will serve as the 15th chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System after her likely confirmation in December 2013, faces some formidable challenges as the economy and financial system continue to recover from the long-lasting effects of the global financial...

The escalating crisis in Ukraine has prompted the United States and Europe to impose the toughest economic sanctions against Russia since the end of the Cold War. Continued instability and military conflict in eastern Ukraine are straining Ukrainian finances. Despite a generous international...