FDR Treasury official Harry Dexter White was the leading architect of the Bretton Woods international monetary and financial system. But he was also a vital agent for Soviet intelligence in the 1930s and '40s. This article brings to bear startling new archival evidence to illuminate his motives.
See more in Intelligence, Economics
Edward Alden discusses the struggle to overcome the legacy of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act and argues that increases in border enforcement over the past thirty years may be the strongest argument for why immigration reform in 2013 would not be a repeat of 1986.
See more in Mexico, United States, Immigration, Migration
If the eurozone splinters, it will have been an avoidable disaster.
The main health threat in developing states today is not plagues or parasites but illnesses such as cancer and diabetes, noncommunicable diseases long associated with the rich world.
See more in Economics, Global Health
China seems to want the yuan to dethrone the dollar as the global reserve currency. But don't expect China's currency to take over anytime soon.
Michael A. Levi says Republicans and Democrats alike have touted the energy sector as the key to solving the United States' employment problems. They are both wrong.
See more in Economics, Energy/Environment, U.S. Strategy and Politics
Washington claims that the country's borders are more secure than ever, but the truth is that no one knows for sure.
See more in United States, Infrastructure
The United States' fiscal future depends on whether the country can limit health-care costs.
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Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members have long maintained large oil reserves to limit volatility in oil prices.
See more in Energy, Energy Security
Clean-energy technology is expensive and the United States is spending far too little on developing it.
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As the Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo argues, the concept of foreign aid is flawed -- not just because corrupt dictators divert aid for nefarious or selfish purposes but also because even in reasonably democratic countries, aid creates perverse incentives and unintended consequences.
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The Copenhagen conference won't solve the problem of climate change once and for all. Rather than aiming for a broad international treaty, negotiators should strengthen existing national policies and seek targeted emissions cuts in both rich nations and the developing world.
See more in Comparative Environmental Policies
Sebastian Mallaby's update to his January/February 2007 essay "Hands Off Hedge Funds."
See more in United States, Business and Foreign Policy
Globalization has brought huge overall benefits, but earnings for most U.S. workers -- even those with college degrees -- have been falling recently; inequality is greater now than at any other time in the last 70 years. Whatever the cause, the result has been a surge in protectionism. To save globalization, policymakers must spread its gains more widely. The best way to do that is by redistributing income.
See more in Geoeconomics
Global financial instability has sparked a surge in "monetary nationalism" -- the idea that countries must make and control their own currencies. But globalization and monetary nationalism are a dangerous combination, a cause of financial crises and geopolitical tension. The world needs to abandon unwanted currencies, replacing them with dollars, euros, and multinational currencies as yet unborn.
See more in International Finance
The massive growth of hedge funds has sparked warnings of instability and demands that the industry be regulated. But the fear of hedge funds is overblown, based on a misunderstanding of their role in the international financial system. In reality, hedge funds do not increase risk; they manage it -- and policymakers, rather than clamping down, should make sure hedge funds have the tools to perform this function well.
See more in Emerging Markets
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More Money than God
In More Money than God, Sebastian Mallaby has written the first authoritative history of hedge funds—from their rebel beginnings to their role in defining the future of finance. More
Money, Markets, and Sovereignty
In Money, Markets, and Sovereignty, the authors present a fascinating intellectual history of monetary nationalism from the ancient world to the present and explore why, in its modern incarnation, it represents the single greatest threat to globalization. More
The Closing of the American Border
In The Closing of the American Border, Edward Alden goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the Bush administration’s struggle to balance security and openness in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. More
Termites in the Trading System
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system. More
Lessons of the Financial Crisis
In this report, Benn Steil shows that the financial crisis is the inevitable bust of a classic credit boom, and explains how monetary, taxation, and home ownership promotion policy combined with other features of the financial system to fuel an unsustainable buildup in debt. He recommends significant reforms to reverse the debt financing bias and make the system more resilient to falls in asset prices. More
Global Imbalances and the Financial Crisis
In order for policymakers to tackle today’s global economic crisis, this report argues, they must go beyond bailouts and stimulus packages and focus on one of the crisis's root causes: imbalances between savings and investment in major countries. More
