“The failure of economists to forecast recessions is virtually unblemished,” notes Prakash Loungani, assistant director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This includes the economists at the IM

We are in a real-life game of Risk. In 2019, Fiona Hill, an official at the US National Security Council during Donald Trump’s first term, said the Russians had informally proposed a plan whereby they

The new “toys for tots”, or so-called “Trump Accounts” savings programme announced by Donald Trump set our mind spinning. The idea is that the federal government will place $1,000 in an investment acc

In May 2008, I was in Ireland on a holiday I eventually had to cut short because the property and credit bubble had made everything absurdly expensive and blown my budget. One day, I fell into convers

How’s the trade war going? Short answer: as badly as expected. Capricious tariffs have shown the rest of the world that the US cannot be trusted. And they have pushed trading partners away and closer

The Russian threat Controversy of the week “The ...