Sebastian Mallaby argues that, by focusing on a "Buffett rule," President Obama is squandering his chance to sell voters on meaningful tax reform.

Peter Orszag examines recent research that suggests financial speculators can exert significant influence on commodities prices for brief periods of time.

Sebastian Mallaby explains how Robert Zoellick has guided the World Bank into an era of greater transparency, collaboration, and innovation.

Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher point out that America does not train enough people in the mid-level skills that factories need, a reason for companies like Apple to rely on outsourcing that helps them generate enough profits and keep investing for innovation rather than solving America's problem of unemployment.

In its 2011 updated analysis of more than 75 countries on the size of their outstanding equity and debt, cross-border capital flows, and the stocks of foreign investment assets and liabilities, MGI finds that the recovery of financial markets remains uneven across geographies and asset classes and significant risks remain.

Roger Kubarych says that a recovery based solely on improved productivity won't gain much traction unless workers share in the gains.

Information about prices and quantities of assets lies at the heart of well-functioning capital markets. In the current financial crisis, it has become clear that many important actors—both firms and regulatory agencies—have not had sufficient information. Distributed by the Center for Geoeconomic Studies, this Working Paper proposes a new regulatory regime for gathering and disseminating financial market information. The authors argue that government regulators need a new infrastructure to collect and analyze adequate information from large (systemically important) financial institutions. This new information framework would bolster the government's ability to foresee, contain, and, ideally, prevent disruptions to the overall financial services industry.

Three developments have altered the US economic and financial climate this year - a distinct tightening of credit terms, a sudden slide in confidence, and emerging signs that the US labor market is softening – and they have been powerful enough to compel an almost unprecedented policy response by both the Federal Reserve and the US Government. Roger Kubarych argues that the monetary policy easing and fiscal stimulus will work, albeit slowly, but the effects on financial markets are less clear.

New York remains a global heavyweight in financial services, but markets in London and East Asia are gaining strength and posing a serious challenge to the Big Apple.

Watch leading global business experts discuss the challenges to competitiveness in U.S. capital markets as part of the Council's McKinsey Executive Roundtable Series in International Economics.

Listen to leading global business experts discuss the challenges to competitiveness in U.S. capital markets as part of the Council's McKinsey Executive Roundtable Series in International Economics.

Harvey Goldschmid, Glenn Hubbard, Arthur Levitt, and Frank Zarb address Council members on U.S. Capital Markets Competitiveness as part of the McKinsey Executive Roundtable Series on International Economics.

The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation has issued an interim report on how to keep U.S. capital markets globally competitive.

This report suggests that developed nation policymakers will not likely have to deal with a US stock market decline that precipitates a global downturn. Most likely, guided by active, informed markets and sound government policies, the major economies will rebalance growth as needed and reprice assets gradually, making fears of an American stock market crash moot. There are, nevertheless, sound reasons for concern, which are considered in the report.