In 2025, the US government underwent a large fiscal switch, with Congress enacting large income tax cuts and the second Trump administration putting new tariffs on goods at levels not seen in the US since the Great Depression. This column evaluates tariffs as a broad tool of fiscal policy, reviewing both tax policy and macroeconomic […]
JPMorgan Chase announced plans on Monday to hire bankers and invest up to $10 billion in U.S. companies considered critical to national security and economic resilience as part of a broader $1.5 trillion pledge. The 10-year initiative aims to facilitate, finance and invest in industries central to the growth of the U.S. economy, including defense, energy and manufacturing. Shares […]
Around the world, governments are racing to digitize services and tackle climate change. Yet too often, these efforts happen in silos—or even pull in opposite directions. While digital tools can eliminate paper-based processes, reduce travel, and streamline services, they also depend on energy-intensive data centers, growing processing needs, and generate growing volumes of e-waste if not […]
There is general agreement that a currency’s safe-haven status can be gauged by its response to changes in financial volatility. This column documents how, in the months following the Trump administration’s “Liberation Day” announcement, the dollar switched from rising during periods of market volatility to falling, and thus appeared to switch from a safe-haven to […]
Many European countries have adopted the American model of doctoral training and academic evaluation. While this model suits America’s vast, mobile labour market, in Europe it has created perverse incentives and distorted research priorities. This column argues that Europe needs a more pluralistic, socially grounded, and inclusive system for the training of economists. It proposes […]
The US should start fiscal adjustment as soon as it can if it wants to head off the risk of exploding debt related to Trump’s tax and spending plan. On 4 July 2025, President Donald Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) . It contains tax and budgetary provisions and is projected […]
The current US administration’s willingness to weaponise trade makes clear that transatlantic economic relations have become entirely transactional. This column, taken from a CEPR book on the economic consequences of the second Trump administration, argues that Europe must respond to US tariffs, which target weakness, with economic strength: faster productivity growth, cheaper energy, a genuine […]
China’s growth model has continued to rely on expanding industrial capacity and exporting to the world, rather than on domestic consumption. This has lead to a significant increase in China’s global share of manufactured exports and has raised concerns about overcapacity (Figure 1; Xu, 2025). The imbalance arises because China’s expanding production capacity is outpacing […]
The new Trumpian tariffs are not the familiar protectionism G7 nations have applied for decades. Instead of shielding particular sectors, they wall off the entire American goods-producing economy from foreign competition. This is precisely the logic of 20th-century import substitution industrialisation – a strategy widely tried, and widely abandoned, because it raised costs, bred inefficiency, […]
The two most prominent arguments President Trump has advanced for his trade war – both during the early months of his second term, and for decades prior – are that protectionism will reduce the trade deficit and increase manufacturing employment. This column, taken from a CEPR book on the economic consequences of the second Trump […]
