author - oman observer

We need new ideas to address the three greatest economic challenges of our time: climate change, the erosion of the middle class and poverty. The first is an existential threat to our physical...

As a teenager growing up in Istanbul, I was lucky to be part of a generation that had democratic role models nearby. European countries such as Britain, France, Germany and Sweden fuelled our...

America’s critics have always depicted it as a selfish country that throws its weight around with little regard for others’ well-being. But President Donald Trump’s trade policies have been so...

When economists celebrate the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations next year, US President Donald Trump’s mercantilism will constitute an incongruous...

The world economy awaits with dread the arrival of Donald Trump’s trade tariffs. Trump clearly loves import duties and has promised to raise them for goods from China, Europe, Mexico, and even...

As US president, Joe Biden charted a new economic path for the Democrats by siding unabashedly with the working class and introducing a wide range of industrial policies to reinvigorate manufacturing,...

China’s rise has challenged America’s undisputed hegemony over the world economy – a status the United States has enjoyed since the Soviet Union’s collapse. While some American...

With all major trading countries increasingly resorting to unilateral action to advance their own social, economic, environmental, and security goals, the world economy desperately needs a clear...

I wrote a speculative article in 2000 on what I called “the political trilemma of the world economy.” My claim was that advanced forms of globalisation, the nation-state, and mass politics could...

I wrote a speculative article in 2000 on what I called “the political trilemma of the world economy.” My claim was that advanced forms of globalization, the nation-state, and mass politics could...

Recent elections in France and the United Kingdom, together with America’s current presidential campaign, reflect the dilemmas left-leaning parties confront as they try to fashion new identities and...

A trade war over clean technologies is brewing. The United States and the European Union, worried that Chinese subsidies threaten their green industries, have warned that they will respond with import...

It is common to think of US-China tensions as the inevitable result of stark differences between the two countries. The United States has a fully capitalist market economy, whereas the Chinese...

Conventional economics has always had a blind spot when it comes to jobs. The problem goes back to Adam Smith, who placed consumers, rather than workers, on the throne of economic life. What matters...

With the United States leading the way, the world seems to be entering a new era of economic nationalism, as many countries prioritize their domestic social, economic, and environmental agendas over...

Ishac Diwan is Research Director at the Finance for Development LabLow-income countries are in the throes of a liquidity crunch that is not only undermining their economic development but also...

"The era of free trade seems to be over. How will the world economy fare under protectionism?"This is one of the most common questions I hear nowadays. But the distinction between free trade and...

Economists have long argued that productivity is the foundation of prosperity. The only way a country can increase its standard of living sustainably is to produce more goods and services with fewer...

Commentary on the world economy has never been short of exhortations for greater global cooperation. “What happens anywhere affects everybody ... [so] it is pretty clear that the world needs more...

Two competing agendas are currently vying to shape the United States’ domestic and foreign economic policies. One agenda is inward-looking, focusing on the creation of an inclusive, resilient,...