The world economy is on the brink of epochal change

The world economy is like a supercomputer that churns through trillions of calculations of prices and quantities, and spits out information on incomes, wealth, profits, and jobs. This is effectively how capitalism works—as a highly efficient information-processing...

BRICS in 2025

A global technological revolution is under way, with China at the helm. China’s leaders call it the mobilization of “new quality productive forces,” referring to “great changes unseen in a century.” In the increasingly hamstrung West, each headline-grabbing advance is...

The business of betting on catastrophe

The pandemic bonds — a financial device made up by one of the world’s most powerful institutions, the World Bank — can seem like a great idea for raising money to fight pandemics. Money is pooled ahead of time, rather than waiting for governments to pony up monies to...

Thinking long-term about infrastructure

Imagining long-term futures is hard, but it is more necessary than ever, as we wrestle with decisions about how best to adapt to the long-term effects of climate change. It is hard because significant change tends to happen on generational timescales, and long term...