Now that the dust has settled from the climate change conference in Copenhagen last December, it’s a good time to step back and take stock. Policymakers and the public had high expectations for the summit and its conclusion left many confused and disappointed. But while the meeting did not reach consensus among all 192 countries [...]

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How much European democracy is too much?
In a move to bring the European Union closer to its citizens, the Lisbon Treaty established the “European Citizens’ Initiative” (ECI) two years ago. This innovation would let one million EU citizens—or about 0.25 percent of the European Union’s adult population—petition the European Commission, [...]

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I talked Sunday about Move Your Money with Guy Raz of NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered (summary; audio). We covered a lot of ground, from what’s in it for individuals to shift towards community banks and credit unions (better service and lower costs, in many cases) to how this [...]

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With all the current attention to the reappointment vote on Fed Chairman Bernanke, we would direct people to our recent paper, "Do Markets Care Who Chairs the Central Bank?", forthcoming in next month’s issue of the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking. In it, we make the first ever assessment of [...]

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At the broadest level, Thursday’s announcement from the White House was encouraging—for the first time the president endorsed potential new constraints on the scale and scope of our largest banks and said he was ready for “a fight.” After a long, tough argument Paul Volcker appeared to have finally [...]

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At this stage in the electoral cycle, Democrats should be running hard against big banks and their consequences. Some roots of our current economic difficulties lie in the Clinton 1990s, but the real origins can be traced to the financial deregulation at the heart of the Reagan Revolution—and all [...]

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Few political arrangements have been as tested by the economic and financial crisis as the European Union. The European Union is a relatively recent endeavor, with its origins in 1950. It has developed over a period of peace and near-uninterrupted growth. But many have predicted that faced with a [...]

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On January 14 President Obama announced that he would ask Congress to impose a “financial crisis responsibility fee” on the 50 largest financial institutions. The fee (hereafter referred to as the tax) would be applicable to all financial institutions with more than $50 billion in consolidated assets. If it [...]

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Backed by the Chinese government, Chinese companies have been acquiring equity stakes in natural resource companies, extending loans to mining and petroleum investors, and writing long-term procurement contracts for oil and minerals. These activities have aroused concern that China might be locking up natural resource supplies, gaining preferential access to [...]

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The big banks are pretesting their main messages for bonus season, which starts in earnest next week.  Their payouts relative to profits will be “record lows,” their people won’t make as much as in 2007 (except for Goldman), and they will pay a higher proportion of the bonus in stock [...]

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