The world economy goes Hollywood

If there is one useful conclusion that economists and investors can draw from the crazy year that has just ended - indeed, from the whole crazy decade since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 - it is this: As they say in Hollywood, "Nobody knows anything." In the film industry,...

Girdling gridlocks: From an age of mass production to the denial of mass consumption

Rarely in living memory has any calendar year started so engirdled by gridlocks, predicting even more cut-throat policy actions. The world's two largest economies have locked horns over asymmetric trade opportunities; the third largest, Japan, by dismantling age-old restrictions on immigration to permit residency, particularly to Asians, may be opening...