Schools brief
Putting on weight
Governments can borrow more than was once believed
Hence only muted concern about borrowing to respond to covid-19
Hard work and black swans
Economists are turning to culture to explain wealth and poverty
As a result, the ideas of the earliest economists are being revised and improved
Buck up
Global trade’s dependence on dollars lessens its benefits
Policymakers around the world yearn to be free of the greenback’s grip
Hidden figures
Why does low unemployment no longer lift inflation?
The Phillips curve, the logic of which guides central banks today, has become oddly flat
When big isn’t beautiful
What more should antitrust be doing?
The first of a series on areas where economists are rethinking the basics
Softening the blow
Climate adaptation policies are needed more than ever
People are already suffering from catastrophic losses as a result of extreme weather events like cyclone Amphan
Not-so-slow burn
The world’s energy system must be transformed completely
It has been changed before, but never as fast or fully as must happen now
Bad times
Damage from climate change will be widespread and sometimes surprising
It will go far beyond drought, melting ice sheets and crop failures
Where nature ends
Humanity’s immense impact on Earth’s climate and carbon cycle
Much needs to be done for the damage to be reversed
Projections of the future
How modelling articulates the science of climate change
From paper and pencil to the world’s fastest computers
The problematic politics of climate change
Why tackling global warming is a challenge without precedent
The first of six weekly briefs looks at the history of efforts to limit greenhouse-gas emissions