This brief document introduces the EJW-Mercatus symposium on sovereign debt tipping points and crash dynamics. It explains the motivation for the symposium, chiefly the need for the imaginative formulation and analysis of possible scenarios. The symposium itself contains contributions by Jeffrey...

The presence of iconic superstars declines in many fields of endeavor, and economics is no exception to those principles. As for political orientation, those raised up to relative prominence today fit the spirit of the times.

Thomas Schelling has been one of the, and in many cases the, pioneer in developing the following ideas: coordination concepts, focal points, convention, commitments (including promises and threats) as strategic tactics, the idea that strategic strength may lie in weaknesses and limitations,...