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Chile: how free trade debilitated a nation

August 30, 2021August 30, 2021 by David Li

“…when anyone has attained the summit of greatness, he kicks away the ladder by which he has climbed up, in order to deprive others of the means of climbing up after him”. In this insightful article, David explores just how the United States kicked away the ladder to Chile’s prosperity.

The embargo has gotta go

April 4, 2016 by Eddie Go

For decades, the Cuban economy has been constrained under strict communist rule. Eddie Go makes an economic case for re-establishing trade and other economic relations between the U.S. and Cuba in light of Obama’s historic visit to the island.

The prisoners dilemma – the economic issues of America’s for-profit prisons

February 21, 2016October 8, 2014 by Phillip O'Riordan

Phillip O’Riordan examines America’s for-profit prisons and highlights the economic incentives influencing how they operate.

U.S mobility: moving in the right direction?

June 6, 2016June 7, 2014 by Yannis Goutzamanis

Has the American Dream really ceased to be a reality? Yannis Goutzamanis critically considers whether there have been changes to the socio-economic mobility in the United States in the recent decades.

Simple gifts: celibacy and communism

October 13, 2019April 12, 2014 by Elijah Lim

Elijah Lim reflects on the story of American Shakerism: though celibacy and communism were the two cornerstones upon which the Shaker communes were founded, they were what eventually led to their decline.

City upon a Hill

October 12, 2019March 15, 2014 by Elijah Lim

The year was 1630. A fleet of ships carrying about 900 Puritans from England sailed across the Atlantic.[1] In every sense, it was a journey away from the Old World to the New. Aboard the flagship, the Arbella, leading Puritan John Winthrop delivered a lay

Still uncharted territory – post-crisis central banking

October 12, 2019February 14, 2014 by Marco Madzzar

With Janet Yellen firmly in the reigns of the world’s largest central bank, many are looking to the legacy left by her predecessor Ben Bernanke. Love or loathe him, Bernanke undoubtedly pioneered a new style of central banking based on large scale direct market intervention, mainly through policies such as quantitative easing. With the policy now being scaled down, it is useful to ask whether QE and more broadly whether the Federal Reserve has been successful in supporting the US recovery.

The US government shutdown – any end in sight?

February 16, 2016October 9, 2013 by Chris Weinberg

What a joke.

Really, there isn’t anything else that can be said about the latest fiscal crisis in the United States. With the federal government shutting down most operations on the 1st of October, as the House of Representatives (controlled by the Republicans) and the Senate (controlled by the Democrats) couldn’t agree on a Continuing Resolution for the 2014 fiscal year.

Permanent Crises, Bitter Politics and Weak Policy – The New Reality of US Budgets

February 16, 2016August 6, 2013 by Chris Weinberg

Christopher Weinberg sheds light on the worrying plight for American politics, set in motion by the clashes between Democrats and Republicans. Whether the role President Barack Obama has in achieving bipartisan consensus is an achievable one is certainly something that Weinberg causes one to call into question.

Bank of Japan’s monetary policy: Japan and Australia

February 16, 2016April 21, 2013 by Aziel Goh

Last year on December 26^th, Shinzo Abe assumed office as Japan’s current Prime Minister and immediately began fulfilling his electoral campaign promises of bringing sweeping economic reform and output growth to the world’s third largest economy. After suffering decades of lacklustre output and many failed attempts to induce growth, Abe’s policies, both currently implemented and in the pipeline, are the biggest things to hit Japan since Godzilla itself.

The Fiscal Cliff – Where are we at?

February 16, 2016December 8, 2012 by Chris Weinberg

No one ever said being President of the United States was an easy job, and that has certainly been the case for the newly re-elected, President Obama. After a bitterly fought re-election over Republican nominee, Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney, he was literally back to work the next day, beginning the negotiating to avert the Fiscal Cliff.

As I wrote in my article for ESSA’s Equilibrium about this topic, the Fiscal Cliff will involve the expiration of numerous tax cuts, unemployment benefits and across-the-board discretionary spending cuts; a scenario many economists fear will significantly inhibit economic growth in 2013, the exact opposite of what the American economy needs as it slowly emerges out of a sluggish economy recovery and into a more sustained period of economic growth.

America Votes – 15 Days To Go

February 16, 2016October 21, 2012 by Chris Weinberg

How things change. In my last article on the Presidential Election, from the United States, I suggested that the election hadn’t really engaged the voting public, with the coverage at the time focusing on the missteps within Mitt Romney’s campaign and the support the President was receiving in public polling.

But with the Republican’s exceptional performance in the first Presidential Debate and the President’s seeming disinterest the election was thrown back into tossup status.