https://www.scmp.com/rss/327991/feed Jason Furman, professor of the practice of economic policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, was chairman of president Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com In 2008, as the global financial crisis was ravaging economies everywhere, Queen Elizabeth, visiting the London School of Economics, famously asked, “Why did nobody see it coming?” The high inflation of 2021 – especially in the US, where the year-on-year increase in consumer prices reached a four-decade high of 7 per cent in December – should prompt the same question. Inflation is not nearly as bad as a financial crisis. And whereas financial crises may be inherently unpredictable, forecasting... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3163900/us-inflation-hits-39-year-high-how-did-forecasters-get-it-so-wrong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3163900/us-inflation-hits-39-year-high-how-did-forecasters-get-it-so-wrong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Jan 2022 05:30:09 +0000 One of the central challenges facing the world’s advanced economies is slowing growth. Over the past decade, growth rates in the advanced economies have averaged 1.2 per cent, down from an average of 3.1 per cent during the previous 25 years.  History shows that slower economic growth can make societies less generous, less tolerant and less inclusive. So, it stands to reason that the past decade of sluggish growth has contributed to the surge of a damaging form of populist nationalism that is... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2155961/evidence-clear-anti-immigration-bad-economic-growth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2155961/evidence-clear-anti-immigration-bad-economic-growth?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Jul 2018 07:00:00 +0000