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.

BERKELEY – Even to US President Donald Trump’s most ardent critics, his administration’s disastrous response to the COVID-19 pandemic has come as a surprise.

BERKELEY — Back in September 1994, the Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman actually wrote about one of US President Donald Trump’s current nominees to serve on the Federal Reserve’s seven-member Board of Governors.

BERKELEY — I was not surprised when leading Democratic primary contenders began endorsing a “wealth tax” along the lines of what has been proposed by my University of California, Berkeley, colleagues Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez.

BERKELEY — Since 1900, human technology and organisation have been evolving at a blistering pace. The degree of change that occurs in just one year would have taken 50 years or more before 1500.

BERKELEY — I recently received an email from my friend Mark Thoma of the University of Oregon, asking if I had noticed an increase in commentaries suggesting that a recession would be a good and healthy purge for the economy, or something along those lines.

BERKELEY — Global superpowers have always found it painful to acknowledge their relative decline and deal with fast-rising challengers. Today, the United States finds itself in this situation with regard to China.

BERKELEY — Will the imminent “rise of the robots” threaten all future human employment? The most thoughtful discussion of that question can be found in MIT economist David H.

BERKELEY — The next global downturn may still be a little way off. The chances that the north Atlantic as a whole will be in recession a year from now have fallen to about one in four. German growth may well be positive this quarter, while China could rebound, too.