BERKELEY  —  Back in 1992, Lawrence H. Summers, then the chief economist at the World Bank, and I warned that pushing the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) annual inflation target down from 4 per cent to 2 per cent risked causing big problems.

BERKELEY — When people stormed the Bastille in Paris on July 14, 1789, their purpose was to free inmates whom they saw as political prisoners of the monarchy.

BERKELEY — Very few of the people who voted for US President Donald Trump in the 2020 election are plutocrats who benefitted from his and congressional Republicans’ tax cut, or even wannabe plutocrats who can hope to benefit from it in the future.

BERKELEY — The United States is home to 4 per cent of the world’s population but 21 per cent of confirmed COVID-19 deaths; it accounts for 25 per cent of the Global North’s population but 50 per cent of its excess mortalities, deaths from all causes above the usual rate, register

BERKELEY — Ten years and ten months ago, US President Barack Obama announced in his 2010 State of the Union address that it was time for austerity. “Families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions,” he explained.

BERKELEY — One hears many strange things nowadays, not least because “they” (a complicated term) are flooding the zone with misinformation. Without a shared set of facts upon which to base ethical and policy debates, democracy inevitably breaks down.

BERKELEY — Once again, the United States is standing out as a world leader, but not for any reason anyone would want to emulate. In most of the Global North, the daily COVID-19 infection rate is down to around one per 5,000 people.

BERKELEY — US national income and output in the first quarter of 2020 was 1.25 per cent below what it had been in the fourth quarter of 2019, but still 9.5 per cent above would it would be by the second quarter of this year.

BERKELEY – On April 23, 2020, the United States crossed the threshold of 50,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, making it the world’s worst-hit region. The US has half the population of continental Europe, but three-quarters as many daily deaths.I am not an epidemiologist.