project-syndicate

If current trends continue, the Chinese state will find itself exposed to a political succession crisis, a weakening economy, and a lack of resources to exercise power domestically and project it externally. It would be a perfect storm, with far-reaching global repercussions.

When we talk about "reinvention" we often overlook what works, noted WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in her closing keynote. This is true of the global trading system, which has proven surprisingly resilient in recent years, and of the European economy, which might not have a tech giant to rival those in the US or China, but remains a global trade powerhouse and a ...

Civil-society oversight is the cheapest insurance in sovereign finance, because it enables independent scrutiny long before a default. But given that a borrowing government will never volunteer to fund the people who audit it, global decision-makers must do so using agreements for stolen-asset recovery and sovereign-debt treatments.

Pouring public investment into poorer towns and cities might be politically beneficial, but the economic returns of indiscriminate largesse would be limited. A better approach would concentrate investment in areas with the potential to become high-productivity hubs, such as large peripheral cities.

An internet populated and run by AI agents will need not just reliable data but also a broader information ecology capable of questioning its own inputs and transmitting corrections where they are needed if information changes. But whether this will serve private interests or the public good remains to be seen.