Comment

Japan’s experience holds lessons for Europe, the main one being that stimulus policies, though necessary in the short run to support demand, can't address long-term structural deficiencies. A column by Kenneth Rogoff.

Just as health-care systems in the developing world need to be strengthened, we also need to build up capacities to develop new solutions for similar challenges when they arise. A column by Muhammad Hamid Zaman.

Too few economists have recognized that Beijings politically difficult reforms, aimed at reducing the savings rate, are necessarily constrained by pressures on China’s external imbalance. A column by Michael Pettis.

A weak German economy makes the necessary structural adjustments in the eurozone periphery much more difficult. That heightens the temptation in these parts to put the blame on Berlin. A column by Daniel Gros.

The argument of the Juncker-proposal is compelling: Europe needs to invest in its infrastructure. Misallocation can be prevented by installing an indepedent supervisory commission. A column by Barry Eichengreen.

Although the economic costs of income inequality are substantial, the political costs may prove to be the most damaging and dangerous. A column by Laura Tyson.

The governance structure of the American central banking system is antiquated. The New York Fed is too close to Wall Street. Reforms are long overdue. A column by Simon Johnson.

As a society, the benefits we have received from information-age technology have been neutralized by the envy and spite that results from living in a world that is ever more unequal. A column by J. Bradford DeLong.

A price of $60 a barrel would create severe problems for Russia in particular. By contrast, it is obvious that oil-importing countries would benefit greatly – as they already are. A column by Martin Feldstein

With the recent monetary easing, Beijing is drawing a line in the sand to prevent an excessive drop in growth, because a cyclical disruption might threaten the longer-term structural reforms. A column by Stephen S. Roach.

The EU-Commission must make its choice: either explain why the SGP rules must be followed even now, in the face of deflation, or argue that the current environment calls for a fiscal stimulus. A column by Daniel Gros.

The US dollar’s resurgence, while promising, is only a first step. It is up to governments to ensure that the currency re-alignment supports a balanced, stable, sustainable economic recovery. A column by Mohamed A. El-Erian.