Romer (2000) provides an alternative model to the AS/AD and IS/LM models that abandons the LM schedule by having the short-term interest rate set by the central bank. His framework acknowledges the critical role of the central bank in determining short-term interest rates, which moves mainstream...

This paper uses hysteresis to develop the concept of policy lock-in and lock-out. Policy changes may near-irrevocably change the economy's structure, thereby changing the distribution of wealth, income and power. That may lock-in policy by changing the political equilibrium. Exit costs that...

In the arguments over how best to rebuild Iraq, too little attention has been given to channeling the benefits of its oil reserves. In fact, too many nations have squandered their natural resources. This economist proposes an interesting plan to ensure that some proportion of oil revenues in...

The model on which the world's most influential financial institutions base their development policies emphasizes export-led growth and supplyside development. It pays no attention to developing the domestic demand of economies, yet it is critical to growth. A fundamental political obstacle to...

Alan Greenspan will retire soon, and many analyses, most of them swooning, will soon be upon us. This economist offers an original and perhaps lasting postmortem on Greenspan's reign. He believes that Greenspan has been responsible for a new business cycle whose foundation is financial boom and...

Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, as well as other Fed governors, has spiritedly maintained that it is not the job of the central bank to restrain bubbles in asset prices. But this economist argues that, in the real world, asset prices should very much be under the Fed's purview.

Is there any hope in the breakdown of trade talks at Cancún? Surely, the developing nations found a new more solidified voice. The so-called Group of 21 may now be a vital force. This economist seeks to trace the outline of a new path for world trade and economic development.

We no longer pay adequate attention to reducing unemployment, argues the author. This is one key reason that wages no longer keep up with productivity growth. Monetary, fiscal, and exchange rate policy must be reoriented, he writes.

In this ongoing debate on social security, the author offers his final riposte. Instead of buying stock, why not finance social security through the estate tax?