money

  The yield on France’s 10-year government bonds has risen to 4.9 percent. Rising government bond yields reflect diminishing trust in public finances, with France emerging as the greatest concern. Investors are demanding greater compensation for the risk of lending to the French government. This risk premium makes debt servicing more expensive, while issuing new […]

  Seventeen thousand years ago, deep inside a cave in what is now the Dordogne, someone lifts a shallow stone lamp filled with melted animal fat and touches a flame to the wick. Light spills across the rock. The painter starts to work, and the bulls and horses of Lascaux begin to appear on the […]

  At its best, the scientific method is one of the most reliable tools humans have devised for generating knowledge. It has earned the authority and trust it commands because it is built to correct itself continuously. A claim, or “hypothesis,” is proposed, then tested. If it survives the initial test, it invites others to […]

A better law is welcome. But if legal text can’t tie a government’s hands, the fix has to be structural, not textual. On August 26, Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies approved a sweeping rewrite of the BCRA’s charter, 144 votes to 102, with 9 abstentions. The bill now moves to the Senate. It would bar the […]

  Argentina has had more IMF programs than almost any country in history. The count depends on how one tallies arrangements, waivers, and extensions, but the number exceeds twenty. The pattern is consistent: a crisis, a program, initial stabilization, eventual collapse, and a return to the Fund. The standard explanations cycle through familiar territory — […]