Recent evolutions in US attitudes and policies have raised questions about the future of the dollar’s role in the global economy. This column explores a hypothetical scenario in which the world is deprived of the dollar as its global safe asset. In such a world, interest rates would be higher and more volatile. Liquidity would […]
As populations age, the demand for long-term care will increase dramatically. This column argues that markets for long-term care insurance in the US have failed to expand, despite nearly five decades of development in part because individuals too often rely on self-insurance or Medicaid – a means-tested programme that requires they spend down their assets […]
Recent tariff measures by the US and countermeasures by its trading partners have dominated global policy debates. Using three economic models, this column shows how the tariffs impact trade flows, output, and welfare, especially in North America and China. In the short term, tariffs act as negative supply shocks for tariffing countries (depressing output while […]
The Institute of International Finance (IIF) said China, France, and Germany were the largest contributors to the global debt increase, while debt levels declined in Canada, the UAE, and Turkey Global debt rose by around $7.5 trillion in the first three months of the year to hit a record high of over $324 trillion, data […]
The U.S. dollar slipped again on Monday as a meteoric surge in its Taiwanese counterpart stoked speculation some Asian countries were prepared to engineer revaluations of their currencies to win U.S. trade concessions. Asia-Pacific currencies were the major developed-market beneficiaries of the fallout from that, and the dollar was down 0.7% on the Japanese yen […]
Gold prices rose to a two-week high on Tuesday as concerns over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff plans boosted interest in the safe-haven metal, while investors awaited the Federal Reserve policy meeting on Wednesday. Spot gold gained 0.9% to $3,362.69 an ounce as of 0632 GMT, after hitting its highest since April 22 earlier in […]
Elon Musk, who U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to oversee a government cost-cutting effort, acknowledged that his declared goal of cutting $2 trillion in spending from the $6.8 trillion federal budget would be a long shot. “I think if we try for 2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting 1,” Musk, the world’s richest […]
The CEO of privacy-oriented search engine DuckDuckGo said its talks with Apple about a potential contract failed because the smartphone maker was reluctant to give up Google’s multibillion dollar paychecks, according to newly transcripts of a landmark antitrust trial of the Alphabet unit. Gabriel Weinberg, who also founded the company, testified on Sept. 21 on the effect on DuckDuckGo […]
