In recent weeks we've been hearing a lot about deflation and how damaging it is to an economy. In fact, as the global economy slows, the possibility of deflation rises. Why is deflation so destructive? What are its causes? Perhaps most importantly …

Brent crude, the benchmark for global oil trading, has plunged more than 20 percent from its June high to about $86 a barrel, meeting a common definition of a bear market. Oil prices should rebound to more than $100 a barrel next year as economies …

The International Monetary Fund this month cut its forecast for global economic growth this year to 3.3 percent from 3.4 percent. Even so, the IMF now expects the U.S. economy to grow 2.2 percent this year, up from its June forecast of 1.7 percent.

Suppose we had been told two decades ago that a time would come when the highest short-term intervention rate implemented by the four most important central banks of the high-income countries was just half a per cent. Suppose, too, we were told that …

William Wilson is a senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center. He concentrates on analyzing the economic performance of Asian-Pacific nations and educating Asian leaders in the principles and practices of free markets.

It is easy enough to see how the gold standard as practised between the first and second world wars got the global economy into serious trouble. In its idealised form, the standard was supposed to work in a rather elegant way. Economies on the standard …

Macro Horizons covers the main macroeconomic and policy news events affecting foreign-exchange, fixed income and equity markets around the world, as selected by editors in New York, London and Hong Kong. WRAP: After a week in which Chicken Littles …

The improvement in purchasing managers' surveys, released on Thursday, will ease some worries about the outlook for the global economy, but news that companies in the euro zone cut prices at the steepest rate in almost five years will be of concern to …

What these results tell us is that the global economy reacts immediately and violently to abrupt “oil shocks” but doesn't much care what the oil price does at other times. (As to why the global economy responds only to the “shocks”, my belief is that …