OPINION

BERLIN – The devastation caused by the 2024 flash floods in Valencia, Spain, was so surreal that some images sparked a global debate over their authenticity. In an era when AI technology can produce hyper-realistic fakes, photos showing cars piled haphazardly atop one another in narrow, mud-filled streets seemed almost …

By Paola Subacchi PARIS – As Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax bill heads to the US Senate, investors everywhere are growing increasingly uneasy. On May 16, the credit-rating agency Moody’s downgraded US sovereign debt from its long-held triple-A status to Aa1 – following similar decisions by Standard & Poor’s (in …

Adair Turner LONDON – Many fear that America’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement will undermine the international consensus to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Yet just in the last month, there have been two major steps toward widespread carbon pricing where it is needed most. To be sure, carbon pricing is …

By  Hélène Rey International monetary and financial systems may not be immutable, but nor do they change often. That is why the upheaval spurred by US President Donald Trump’s trade and tariff war is so remarkable – and difficult to decipher. To figure out what is going on, it is …

By Richard Haass NEW YORK – This is hardly a golden era of diplomacy. A ceasefire – let alone a lasting peace – between Russia and Ukraine remains a distant possibility, and neither Israel nor Hamas seems to view a long-term truce in Gaza as a priority. The one bright …

By Kaushik Basu NEW YORK – On March 26, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on all cars and light-duty trucks imported into the United States. This measure took effect on April 3 – one day after the administration rolled out its “reciprocal tariffs” on US trading …

By Stephen S. Roach The world’s major growth engines are about to run in reverse. The policies and uncertainties of US President Donald Trump’s second administration have hit a sluggish global economy with a transformational exogenous shock. Risks are especially worrisome in both the United States and China, which have collectively accounted …

BERKELEY – In his inaugural address this January, Donald Trump framed immigration to the United States as a national security threat, proclaiming, “I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.” He then directed the Department of Defense to draw up a plan to “seal the …

NEW YORK – The end of Pax Americana is clearly in sight. While this has long been the goal of many leftists battling “American imperialism,” it is not really all that strange that a US government of right-wing zealots ultimately took a wrecking ball to the world order. America’s far …

By Antara Haldar CAMBRIDGE – While the end of World War II 80 years ago ushered in an age of reason, Donald Trump’s return to the White House has ushered it out. His MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement promises to take a wrecking ball to the postwar global economic …