home > think tank > center for geoeconomic studies > publications
November 17, 2009
Testimony
Michael A. Levi testifies before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on the state of global efforts to combat climate change, prospects for the ongoing United Nations climate negotiations, and climate policy in Europe and India.
See more in United States, India, Europe/Russia, Energy/Environment, Climate Change
October 2009
Op-Ed
Nature
As part of a larger publication, assessing the effectiveness of the economic stimulus, Michael Levi and Adam Segal write that the Department of Energy is pursuing a "prudent and sound" strategy for investing their share. The more pressing concern, according to Levi and Segal, is that Congress may forgo funding the department in favor of more "politically attractive" options.
See more in Financial Crises, Energy, Congress
November 16, 2009
Expert Brief
China's breathtaking economic growth and massive imbalances with the United States have given rise to some myths about the nature of the two powers' relationship that can impede sound policymaking, writes CFR's Steven Dunaway.
See more in United States, China, Economics
November 10, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg.com
World War II was the era of John Maynard Keynes and the 1990s were the era of Milton Friedman. But Amity Shlaes says that because of the effort to pass the health-care bill, the next few years belong to Hayek.
See more in Geoeconomics
November 4, 2009
Op-Ed
Nikkei Financial Daily
Roger Kubarych says that a recovery based solely on improved productivity won't gain much traction unless workers share in the gains.
See more in Financial Crises, International Finance
November 3, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Amity Shlaes says that the Israeli military has played a surprising role in Israel's record of innovation.
See more in Economics
November 2, 2009
Academic Module
This module features teaching notes by CFR Senior Fellow Michael A. Levi, author of Deterring State Sponsorship of Nuclear Terrorism, along with other resources to supplement the text. In this Council Special Report, Dr. Levi assesses the state of nuclear security in several vulnerable countries and examines how different deterrent threats would affect the dynamics of cooperation and competition to improve nuclear security.
October 2009
Other Report
This Squam Lake Working Group Paper endorses legislation that would give authorities the necessary powers to effect an orderly resolution of large complex financial institutions. As part of this authority, every such institution should be required to create “living wills” that would help authorities address the difficulties that might arise in a resolution.
See more in Financial Crises, Geoeconomics
October 27, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Amity Shlaes discusses the factors that contribute to alumni donations.
See more in Economics
October 20, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Amity Shlaes argues that senior entitlements preclude U.S. fiscal reform, starting with Social Security.
See more in Economics
October 2009
Other Report
In this CGS/IIGG Working Paper, Jeffry A. Frieden reviews the historical record on the political fallout from the unraveling of macroeconomic imbalances. He warns that the coming adjustments may test the capacity of national governments and international institutions to maintain an open international economic order.
See more in Financial Crises, International Finance
October 19, 2009
Op-Ed
Financial News
In Benn Steil's October column in Dow Jones' Financial News, he shows that the U.S. only calls for floating exchange rates when it believes the dollar will float down rather than up, and argues that this self-interested inconsistency is encouraging China and America's other major creditors to move away from non-discriminatory multilateral trade as they seek to lessen their dependence on the dollar.
See more in Financial Crises, Trade
October 18, 2009
Article
Washington Post
Edward Alden writes that the Department of Homeland Security "has yet to become a whole that adds up to more than its parts," reviewing books by its first two secretaries, Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff.
See more in Defense/Homeland Security, Terrorism, Organization of Government
October 13, 2009
Op-Ed
Bloomberg
Both parties seem to agree that the way to get Americans back to work is to create the right incentives. But Amity Shlaes argues that there may be too much "nudging" going on. Perhaps having too many "choice architects" is making the recovery unsatisfying.
See more in Geoeconomics, Labor
October 13, 2009
Op-Ed
Forbes Online
This year's Nobelists demonstrate the United States' success in science. But Edward Alden argues that we are jeopardizing this success through shortsighted immigration restrictions that make it difficult for the most talented and ambitious scientists to come here and remain.
See more in United States, Geoeconomics, Immigration
October 13, 2009
Expert Brief
China's continued impressive growth is by no means assured, writes CFR's Steven Dunaway. Without basic changes to its economic model, including rule of law reforms, it could face considerable struggles, he says.
See more in China, Economic Development, Trade
October 6, 2009
Op-Ed
Financial Times
Matthew Slaughter writes that as the crisis and recession recede, U.S. policymakers must refocus on persistent structural problems, particularly income inequality.
See more in Geoeconomics, Trade
September 29, 2009
Op-Ed
Amity Shlaes says that Barney Frank's ideas to make the mortgage market "safe" will yield more primitive and fewer mortgages which won't entirely capture buyer potential.
See more in International Finance
September 26, 2009
First Take
G-20 leaders in Pittsburgh agreed to a coordinated effort to reduce the imbalances that contributed to the global economic crisis. But CFR's Marc Levinson writes any changes in policy will be slow in coming.
See more in United States, International Organizations
September 24, 2009
Interview
CFR's Roger M. Kubarych says the G-20 summit will find leaders relieved that the worst of the global economic crisis is over but divided over substantive changes to the world's financial architecture.
See more in Economics, Financial Crises, International Organizations
Subscribe to "This Month in Geoeconomics" newsletter.
In Money, Markets, and Sovereignty, the authors present a fascinating intellectual history of monetary nationalism from the ancient world to the present and explore why, in its modern incarnation, it represents the single greatest threat to globalization.
In The Closing of the American Border, Edward Alden goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the Bush administration’s struggle to balance security and openness in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
In Regional Monetary Integration, Peter B. Kenen poses an important question: Should various country groups follow the lead of the European Monetary Union and form similar full-fledged monetary unions?
In contrast to conventional wisdom, the growth in government spending and heightened regulation during the Great Depression may have done much to slow economic recovery.
In this report, Benn Steil shows that the financial crisis is the inevitable bust of a classic credit boom, and explains how monetary, taxation, and home ownership promotion policy combined with other feaures of the financial system to fuel an unsustainable buildup in debt. He recommends significant reforms to reverse the debt financing bias and make the system more resilient to falls in asset prices.
In order for policymakers to tackle today’s global economic crisis, this report argues, they must go beyond bailouts and stimulus packages and focus on one of the crisis's root causes: imbalances between savings and investment in major countries.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.