Policymakers gather in Bangkok with oil near $100 a barrel, the second energy shock in four years, and 3.4 billion people living in countries that spend more on interest than on health or education. The advice governments receive has not changed. Protect the headline deficit, cut investment first, wait for rates to fall. New for @ProSyn, published alongside the first policy brief on fiscal rules from the Global Council on New Economics for the 21st Century, which I co-chair with Deputy Prime Minister of Spain @carlos_cuerpo. Op-ed ➡️ project-syndicate.org/commen… Policy brief ➡️ neweconomicscouncil.org/

Progressives need a new economic playbook. The grand challenges of our time, from climate to AI to the rise of populism, will not be met by an economics that only knows how to fix markets once they have already failed. Speaking on the productivity puzzle this afternoon at Reinventing Europe, produced by @ProSyn with @AXA in Paris, alongside @Ph_Aghion, @thomasbuberl and @Domanski_Andrz. I will be discussing why Vice President of Spain @Carlos_Cuerpo and I are launching the Global Council on New Economics for the 21st Century to Bangkok next week, at the @IMFNews and @WorldBankGroup Annual Meetings, focused on exactly that question.

Climate resilience is usually invisible until it fails. Swimmable rivers are a version people can see, use and defend. Treat clean water as climate infrastructure and you build the firms, skills and supply chains to keep it that way, while cutting the cost of inaction. New in @ProSyn on Swimmable Cities ➡️ project-syndicate.org/commen…