Comment & Opinion - Columnists Archives

16 May 2018
The Balkans are an odd man in Europe. Its income level is much lower than the average income level of Western and Central Europe. This is a well-known fact but is worth of another…
08 May 2018
Whatever the issue, the US president’s response is: me. Whether it is about Iran or North Korea, trade with China or Mexico – policy watchers have to understand that their…
17 April 2018
Like revolutions in the past the on-going AI revolution will produce winners and losers. The first industrial revolution in the 18th century changed the world of production…
06 April 2018
Why we can't explore global health without accounting for everyday energy needs. Any concern about global health today is a concern about energy. These two domains belong…
20 March 2018
Capital: The explosion of Delhi by Rana Dasgupta. Penguin Books. It is the story of Delhi, the city of imperial courts, colonialist city-planners and above all of administrators…
13 March 2018
Scott L. Montgomery helps outsiders to understand America’s gun debate. I have been asked by colleagues in Europe, once again but more insistently, about guns in America. After…
09 March 2018
(I am publishing early and somewhat modified versions of self-contained sections  from my forthcoming book “Capitalism, alone”, Harvard UP, hopefully 2019. They may be a bit…
19 February 2018
Branko Milanovic poses an age of old question.  It is Saturday evening and snowing in New York. I have nowhere to go, I do have things to do (my book!) but my memories take…
06 February 2018
Branko Milanovic revisits his earlier readings of Adam Smith. Under the influence of Amartya Sen, we have been “nudged” towards a reassessment of the relative merits of “The…
05 February 2018
Scott L. Montgomery explores how North Korea's drive to aquire nuclear weapons is bound up with its energy needs.  North Korea is a failed energy state. In 1948 when…