After many years of false starts, the Japanese economy may finally be set to boom—or at least to enter a period of sustained growth with a sharply rising stock market.

Europe is now battling an acute systemic debt crisis that threatens the global financial system and the global economy. This worsening crisis constitutes the largest single threat to the US economy and its financial system

We need good economics over politics, now more than ever. That means sensible tax reform, a Fed focus on maintaining liquidity, and rationalization of the European monetary system.

A full-fledged international role for the yuan, as a store of value as well as a medium of exchange and unit of account, is highly unlikely in the near term.

As Washington struggles to reach an agreement on the proposed bailout, and Wall Street awaits its future, AEI scholars offer insights into what is needed to protect the financial system.

While it is indeed true that no man--or nation--is an island, especially not in a world of highly integrated financial markets, it is important to be clear that the southern European crisis was not inevitable; it sprang mainly from the failure to implement the fiscal discipline required of nations that participate in a single currency area.

While markets have been obsessed with Europe's debt crisis, they have failed to notice potentially more ominous developments. The United States and Europe are heading toward deflation, a classic prolonger of crises.

The experimental-drug phase of monetary policy has begun, and Japan is leading the way with a round of quantitative easing. Facing the looming threat of deflation, the United States will soon follow Japan’s lead.