Back to podcastsMartin Wolf
- Grim truths Obama should have told Hu
- Obama should have made clear the need for China to revalue its currency and rebalance the global economy when he met Hu Jintao, says Martin Wolf. He could reasonably threaten punitive action, such is the need for change
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Download mp3- Victory in the cold war was a start as well as an ending
- Has capitalism failed, as communism did? No. Some transition countries are in crisis; but transition itself is not. Liberal democracies and market economies can reform and adapt. They have shown these qualities before. They must do so again, says Martin Wolf
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- Time for a debate on immigration
- Diversity brings social benefits, but also costs, arising from declining trust and erosion of a sense of shared values, says Martin Wolf
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- Private behaviour will shape our path to fiscal stability
- It is idiotic to discuss the reduction of the huge fiscal deficits, without considering the nature of the offsetting adjustments in the private and external sectors. Some adjustments would be desirable, but others would be extremely perilous, says Martin Wolf
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- How mistaken ideas helped to bring the economy down
- The era when central banks could target inflation and assume that what was happening in asset and credit markets was no concern of theirs is over. Not only can asset prices be valued; they have to be, argues Martin Wolf
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- Why curbing finance is hard to do
- There is a way of making finance safe. But it would be radical: deposits would be 100 per cent reserve backed; and the liabilities of other investment vehicles would be adjusted for the market value of their assets at all times. Banking would disappear, argues Martin Wolf.
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- How to manage the gigantic financial cuckoo in our nest
- This recovery has been no accident. When central bank money is almost free, prices of risky assets are recovering, competitors have disappeared or are weakened, making money is a relatively simple matter for the strong survivors, argues Martin Wolf
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- Rumours of the dollar’s death are much exaggerated
- Recent figures have proved that the dollar’s fall is a symptom of success, not of failure. All the same, the dollar-based global monetary system is defective. It would be good to start building alternative arrangements, says Martin Wolf
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- Britain’s phoney debate on slashing spending
- In deciding what to do about the UK's general government deficit, we must recognise the uncertainties: we do not know how big the “structural” fiscal deficit is; we do not know how long correction can be delayed before investors lose confidence; and we do not know how far a fiscal tightening will weaken aggregate demand. But the costs of being too optimistic are likely to be higher than of being too pessimistic. That should determine how policymakers respond.
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- Finding a route to recovery and reform gets tough now
- The economy is back on track, but it is too soon to celebrate victory, says Martin Wolf. Rebalancing, reform and regulation are still needed, none of which will be easy. Resistance from the banks is already threatening to poison the political debate
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- Why narrow banking alone is not the finance solution
- Demanding that banks act as narrow utilities solves the problem of the financial system taking control of the power to print money, but would need to be paired with a ban on other forms of banking. Such radical ideas may yet be entertained, says Martin Wolf
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- This time will never be different
- Martin Wolf welcomes a seminal empirical study of the frequently repeated cycles of euphoria, panic and default in public debt and global finance
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- Why Vince Cable’s mansions tax is right
- Only in a country both besotted with property and determined to tax the middle classes, rather than the hugely wealthy, would people object to this obviously just idea, says Martin Wolf
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- Why China must do more to rebalance its economy
- Remember how poor hundreds of millions of Chinese still are. Then consider that the net transfer of resources abroad was equal to a third of personal consumption. China needs to increase consumption, and that means revaluing the currency, says Martin Wolf
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- Do not learn wrong lessons from Lehman’s fall
- No normal profit-seeking business can operate without a credible threat of bankruptcy, says Martin Wolf
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- Wheel of fortune turns as China outdoes the west
- China has emerged as the most significant winner from the global financial crisis. At the end of 2008, many questioned whether China would achieve its growth target of 8 per cent in 2009. Who now dares to do so?, asks Martin Wolf
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- Turner is asking the right questions on finance
- The debate is the right one but the more one analyses the debate and what is happening, the more difficult it is to believe that a safer and more responsible industry is emerging, argues Martin Wolf
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- Why it is still too early to start withdrawing stimulus
- The rescue of the financial system, unprecedented monetary easing and fiscal expansion have indeed put a floor under the world economy. But it is too early for the Group of 20 leading economies to pat themselves on the back, argues Martin Wolf
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