"Foreign investors are right to be cautious about Asia's short-term outlook, but there's no reason to panic," writes Joshua Kurlantzick.

"Today... Europe is talking about 'the French question': can the Socialist government of President François Hollande pull France out of its slow decline and prevent it from slipping permanently into Europe's second tier?"

Examines data including GDP, household debt, and industrial production to show the weakness of the current recovery compared to previous postwar rebounds.

The Fed, which celebrates its centennial in 2013, has been transformed in the past decade, expanding its role of maintaining full employment and stable prices to deploying trillions of dollars to boost the U.S. economy.

Peter Orszag writes that economists' theories to explain the gap between jobs open and jobs filled have diverging implications for the speed of the labor market's recovery.

North and South Korea seem likely to reopen the Kaesong industrial complex, despite the economic risks Seoul assumes in dealing with Pyongyang, says expert Marcus Noland.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is, with the European Commission and the European Central Bank, part of the so-called troika responsible for setting the conditions that the Greek government must meet to secure continued official financial support. Greece is the eurozone's largest IMF program beneficiary, with about €28 billion in outstanding loans from the IMF.

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Joshua Kurlantzick analyzes the Chinese economic slowdown, the impact of the slowdown on China's state capitalist companies, and the implications for China's regional power.

Japan's decision to participate in Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations has made the trade agreement "almost irresistible" and poised for expansion, says expert Mireya Solís.

Peter Orszag wants regulators to watch out for excessive consolidation in local hospital markets as Medicare's shift to value-based payments puts pressure on health care providers to merge and raise fees for private insurers.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released this report on August 6, 2013, which showed that between June 2012 and June 2013, "exports were up $6.0 billion, or 3.2 percent, and imports were down $2.3 billion, or 1.0 percent." The International Trade Administration's corresponding fact sheet highlights data on trade relationships with Trans-Pacific Partnership countries for the same time period.

Steven A. Tananbaum Senior Fellow for International Economics Robert Kahn analyzes implications of the recent slowdown in the Chinese economy.

As Egypt's political crisis deepens, its economy has been stabilized by a cash infusion from the oil-rich Persian Gulf. Economist Farouk Soussa outlines the limited options facing Egypt's interim government.

"Ever since its start, the existential threat to the single currency has mainly come from two separate but related scenarios: a massive bank run by depositors convinced their euros were about to be turned back into drachmas, escudos or pesetas; or Italy losing access to the bond market, making it unable to refinance its massive €2tn debt pile."

Peter Orszag argues that the Medicare payment board can act more nimbly than Congress to improve the quality and value of health care.

If France moves in the direction of its Southern European neighbors, the consequences for the entire European Union could be calamitous, says expert Dominique Moïsi.

President Barack Obama gives a series of speeches on his vision for the economy, which he calls "A Better Bargain for the Middle Class."

Michael Spence writes that slowing growth puts Chinese authorities in the tricky position of shifting their economy from a growth model based heavily on public investment-led growth to a growth model that mixes more domestic consumption with higher-yielding forms of investment.

There has never been greater urgency for expanding and improving U.S. workforce training programs. In this Working Paper, Thomas Hilliard argues that the federal government should corral the country's siloed and disjointed workforce-development programs in line with a common national strategy.