The Gatekeeper
Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics and the Fight for a Better Future by Paul Krugman. Norton, 444 pp., £13.99, February, 978 0 393 54132 8 Paul Krugman’s latest collection of essays, Arguing with Zombies, first appeared in January 2020. Not only was it quickly buried by Covid, but he missed out on a thing all too rare for a pundit: the opportunity to declare victory. A year later, in Joe Biden’s Washington, Krugmanism rules. The gigantic scale of the $1.9 trillion Biden rescue plan, and now the proposed $2 trillion infrastructure investment programme, are testament to a rearrangement of the relationship between economic expertise and politics in the Democratic Party, a rearrangement which Krugman anticipated and for which Arguing with Zombies makes a powerful case. In the 1990s the lines were clearly drawn. The Democrats were a party of fiscal rectitude and trade globalisation. They had the weight of academic economic
Janet Yellen and Mario Draghi Have One Last Job
The U.S. treasury secretary and the Italian prime minister have spent decades shaping this economy. But can they control what comes next? In recent years, the world has been regaled with stories about the crisis of expertise. The era of the liberal technocrat was over, we were told, killed off by the financial crisis and populism. But if democracies find it hard to live with expertise, it seems they can’t live without it either. At the start of 2021, two of the most contentious capitalist democracies in the world, Italy and the United States, turned to familiar experts to chart a way out of novel political situations. If there is such a thing as a technocrat, Janet Yellen, the new U.S. treasury secretary, and Mario Draghi, Italy’s new prime minister, are it. For the last 30 years, both Yellen and Draghi have held positions of
Europe’s decarbonisation challenge? ‘Wir schaffen das’
In the 18th century, Europe was the cradle of the fossil-fuel revolution. Now, we are calling time on the energy sources which have hitherto defined modern history. If we achieve net-zero carbon-dioxide emissions by 2050, it will be a remarkable achievement. If we do not, we have reason to believe that the basic conditions of our existence will be in question. Even in the best case, stabilising with 1.5-2C degrees of warming, the world will be a much more dangerous and unpredictable place. The stakes are huge. But how big is the transition required? In hard times, realism all too easily shades into pessimism. Reasonable evaluation of worst-case scenarios gives rise to gothic imagining of catastrophe. We are, after all, setting ourselves to defy the laws of thermodynamics—converting a civilisation based on concentrated energy to rely instead on the power of the wind and the
How the Pandemic Changed Europe
An interview with Isaac Chotiner on the the vaccine rollout and shifting politics in the E.U. Isaac Chotiner: Europe has faced a number of challenges in the last dozen or so years, from the financial crisis, to Brexit, to the rise of right-wing populism. Do you see the stumbles around
The Fragility of Europe’s China Strategy
In its dealings with Beijing, the United States has turned to classic grand strategy with the aim of safeguarding its primacy. In contrast, the EU has been pursuing a less consistent, but much more suitable multi-track approach. China’s latest actions may push the Europeans to full alignments with the US—which
Where is Britain in its economic history?
A conversation with Ben Judah with the Atlantic Council on Britain since 1990, the megatrends framing Brexit and the historical role played by the Bank of England shaping the present. View the recording here: https://www.pscp.tv/b_judah/1zqKVXrQZWpJB
Talking Politics Podcast – The Tragic Choices of Climate Change
David talks to Helen Thompson and Adam Tooze about the choices facing the world in addressing climate change. Can we transition away from fossil fuels while maintaining our current ways of living? Will weact in time if we also insist on taking our time? Can the West uphold its values
Inflation: Sind die Sorgen berechtigt?
Mit Beginn des neuen Jahres mussten Verbraucher mehr Geld beispielsweise für Süßwaren, aber auch Benzin oder Diesel ausgeben. Die Inflationsrate lag in Deutschland nach Zahlen des Statistischen Bundesamts im Februar bei 1,3 Prozent. Wirtschaftsredakteurin Lisa Splanemann und Wirtschaftshistoriker Adam Tooze sprechen über die Frage, inwieweit etwas Wahres in derzeitigen Inflationssorgen
Chartbook
Sign up below for Adam’s bi-weekly newsletter, which includes economic data, images, & stories that matter.
Look out for Adam’s next books, Shutdown: The Global Crises of 2020 coming to print in 2021, and Carbon, out in 2023.
Discussion with Wolfgang Schäuble
WEF 2020: Why Protests Are An Integral Part Of Democracy
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer – Is a 2nd Great Depression Coming?
Bitcoin: Das neue Gold?
Adam Tooze on Wages of Destruction and the Nazi economy
Crashed to Corona 7: Responding to the global epidemic
The Gatekeeper
Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics and the Fight for a Better Future by Paul Krugman. Norton, 444 pp., £13.99, February, 978 0 393 54132 8 Paul Krugman’s latest collection of essays,
Janet Yellen and Mario Draghi Have One Last Job
The U.S. treasury secretary and the Italian prime minister have spent decades shaping this economy. But can they control what comes next? In recent years,
Europe’s decarbonisation challenge? ‘Wir schaffen das’
In the 18th century, Europe was the cradle of the fossil-fuel revolution. Now, we are calling time on the energy sources which have hitherto defined
How the Pandemic Changed Europe
An interview with Isaac Chotiner on the the vaccine rollout and shifting politics in the
The Fragility of Europe’s China Strategy
In its dealings with Beijing, the United States has turned to classic grand strategy with
Where is Britain in its economic history?
A conversation with Ben Judah with the Atlantic Council on Britain since 1990, the megatrends
Chartbook
Sign up below for Adam’s bi-weekly newsletter, which includes economic data, images, & stories that matter.
Look out for Adam’s next books, Shutdown: The Global Crises of 2020 coming to print in 2021, and Carbon, out in 2023.
Discussion with Wolfgang Schäuble
WEF 2020: Why Protests Are An Integral Part Of Democracy
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer – Is a 2nd Great Depression Coming?
Bitcoin: Das neue Gold?
Adam Tooze on Wages of Destruction and the Nazi economy
Crashed to Corona 7: Responding to the global epidemic
"a majestic narrative tracing the prehistory and destructive path of the crisis across the planet"
– Yanis Varoufakis, The Guardian
“The prose is clear. The scholarship remarkable.”
– Martin Wolf, Financial Times
“But whatever happens next, Crashed is likely to stand the test of time as the best history of 2008 written in the decade afterwards.”
– Duncan Weldon, Resolution Group