our economic future

What Export-Oriented America Means Tyler Cowen
The logic of globalization implies that the U.S. economy will become more export-oriented. But what does that really mean for American society and politics—especially if we succeed?

The Once and Future Dollar Barry Eichengreen
The reserve currency status of the U.S. dollar, for good and for ill, will erode neither quickly nor dramatically. But change it will.

Underwater Recession Joy A. Buchanan, Steven Gjerstad, & Vernon L. Smith
The Fed’s post-September 2008 monetary policy hasn’t worked as usual to stimulate a recovery. The reason lies in the unprecedented depths of the housing collapse. Conclusion: The United States must export its way to robust growth, as other countries have done.

The Population Boon Philip E. Auerswald
Common knowledge about the relationship between demographic pressures and economics is commonly wrong. Under current, and especially future, social and technological circumstances, the more people the better.

asian horizons

China's Corporate Leninism John Lee
The stakeholder model of China’s full integration into the current liberal global order fails to reckon with the worldview and political interests of the Chinese Communist Party.

When America Leaves: Asia after the Afghan War Rajan Menon
The U.S. exit from Afghanistan will have far-reaching strategic implications for all of Asia. The American preoccupation with a narrow conception of these implications ill serves the U.S. national interest.

Rising Sun in the New West Mayumi Fukushima, Richard Rosecrance & Yuzuru Tsuyama
For more than a century, Japan has pioneered global political trends. That it is now gravitating, truly for the first time, towards a revitalizing democratic West speaks volumes.

Behind the Mountains Konrad Muller
Seen from Kazakhstan, China looms as a change-maker and a potential big problem. Pro-Russian sentiment in Central Asia is thus more than just nostalgia.

essays

Peace Prize Follies Jay Nordlinger
The Nobel Peace Prize has a checkered history, to put it mildly. Here’s why.

reviews

Nice Things about Detroit John G. Rodwan, Jr.
It’s not easy to find a silver lining in Detroit’s dramatic decline, but some intrepid optimists still battle the storm.

All That Money Can Be Damir Marusic
A little economic history goes a long way to show how money and debt interact. The Tea Party movement may have strange ideas about public policy, but its instincts on basics are not that far off the mark.

Our Polarizing Culture: A Conversation with Charles Murray The galvanizing and controversial author of Coming Apart discusses reactions to his latest work and defends the libertarian perspective.

Retroview: Our Hero? Ian Campbell
Thomas Carlyle hated the cocksureness of ideology, worried that the best of human qualities were being mangled by unbridled technology and commercialization, and struggled to reconcile a loss of traditional religious belief with the need for faith. Can anyone think of a reason to read such a 19th-century relic today?