SAN FRANCISCO — For decades, the foundational narrative of modern finance was built on a singular, frictionless premise: globalization. The conventional wisdom dictated that capital markets would inevitably march toward greater integration. Borders would blur, transaction costs would plummet toward zero, technology would democratize access, and a unified global financial…
CAMBRIDGE — For the better part of a decade, the diagnosis of America’s democratic distress has enjoyed a seemingly airtight consensus among populists, progressives, and policy wonks alike: the system is broken because the economy is rigged. According to this reigning paradigm, the root cause of the nation’s profound political…
CAMBRIDGE — It has become a standard refrain across living rooms, cable news studios, and academic halls across the United States: the American political system is broken. For years, diagnosticians of the American malaise have pointed their fingers at widening economic divides. The prevailing narrative suggests that the root cause…
By Jeffrey Frankel Cambridge | September 25, 2026 Main Facts The United States political system is suffering from a profound and deepening crisis of governance, characterized by unprecedented polarization, legislative gridlock, and a complete breakdown of bipartisan consensus. While conventional political discourse frequently attributes this decay to runaway economic inequality…
ITHACA, NEW YORK — Over the past decade, scholars, economists, and journalists have observed the relentless march of digital technology with a complex mixture of hope and profound anxiety. There is hope because of the measurable rise in living standards, the democratization of information, and the medical breakthroughs that the…
BERLIN — Until this month, a far-right, openly ethnonationalist party had never come so close to winning an absolute majority in an election in the Federal Republic of Germany. Now that it has, and with similarly pro-Russian forces on the rise in France, all Europeans must prepare for the worst.…
BERLIN — For decades, the Federal Republic of Germany stood as the undisputed industrial powerhouse of Europe—an export-driven titan built on the twin pillars of mechanical engineering, automotive mastery, and cheap, reliable energy imports. Today, however, Europe’s largest economy finds itself at a historical crossroads. As its traditional growth model…
