Articles
I have written articles, op-eds, and book reviews for many publications, including the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, Wired, the Financial Times, The Observer, The Telegraph, Reuters; and the New Statesman.
I currently write a column on economics, finance, and markets for Reuters Breakingviews.
For an archive of my other articles, columns, and op-eds, click here.
For an archive of my book reviews, click here.
A couple of recent pieces are below.
The Unaccountability Machine by Dan Davies
The Financial Times | 4 April 2024
Waiting to board a flight recently, I witnessed a stark example of a phenomenon at the heart of The Unaccountability Machine. A fellow passenger had been refused boarding and was pleading with the airline attendant. The attendant was obviously sympathetic — but the refusal was company policy. It was as frustrating for her as for the passenger, but there was unfortunately nothing she could do.
We were witnessing what Dan Davies calls an “accountability sink”: a situation in which a human system delegates decision-making to a rule book rather than an identifiable individual. If something goes wrong, no one is held to account.
The starting point of Davies’s entertaining, insightful book is that the uncontrolled proliferation of accountability sinks is one of the central drivers of what historian Adam Tooze calls the “polycrisis” of the twenty-first century. Their influence reaches far beyond frustrated customers endlessly on hold to “computer says no” service departments. In finance, banking crises regularly recur — yet few individual bankers are found to be at fault. If politicians’ promises flop, meanwhile, they complain they have no power. The Deep State is somehow to blame.
You can read my review of the book here.
The Financial Times | 4 April 2024
Waiting to board a flight recently, I witnessed a stark example of a phenomenon at the heart of The Unaccountability Machine. A fellow passenger had been refused boarding and was pleading with the airline attendant. The attendant was obviously sympathetic — but the refusal was company policy. It was as frustrating for her as for the passenger, but there was unfortunately nothing she could do.
We were witnessing what Dan Davies calls an “accountability sink”: a situation in which a human system delegates decision-making to a rule book rather than an identifiable individual. If something goes wrong, no one is held to account.
The starting point of Davies’s entertaining, insightful book is that the uncontrolled proliferation of accountability sinks is one of the central drivers of what historian Adam Tooze calls the “polycrisis” of the twenty-first century. Their influence reaches far beyond frustrated customers endlessly on hold to “computer says no” service departments. In finance, banking crises regularly recur — yet few individual bankers are found to be at fault. If politicians’ promises flop, meanwhile, they complain they have no power. The Deep State is somehow to blame.
You can read my review of the book here.
Multipolar world opens up surprising safe havens
Reuters Breakingviews | 17 Nov 2023
A quarter of a century ago, then-French Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine coined a new term to describe the United States: “l’hyperpuissance” – the world’s sole “hyperpower”. It was the guarantor of global security, the rule-maker for global trade, and the undisputed international hegemon. Today, the “Pax Americana” lies in tatters; free trade is a fading dream; and summits such as this week’s meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden set the world agenda. The days of America’s undisputed global dominance are over. Geopolitically, we live once more in a multipolar world.
Yet in international finance, the unipolar moment is more extreme than ever. The U.S. dollar remains the de facto global currency, while the United States is in a league of its own as the world’s biggest net debtor. Take the country’s net international investment position (NIIP) - the benchmark metric of a nation’s overall balance sheet, which subtracts the sum of foreign investors’ financial claims on it from its own investors’ claims abroad. In June 2023 this stood at -$18 trillion, or a deficit equivalent to 67% of U.S. economic output. That is more than double the deficit of 33% a decade earlier, and more than seven times larger than in 2007. No other economy comes close when it comes to soaking up the savings of the world.
How did this astonishing disconnect between geopolitics and international financial flows develop – and how long can it last?
You can my answers here.
Reuters Breakingviews | 17 Nov 2023
A quarter of a century ago, then-French Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine coined a new term to describe the United States: “l’hyperpuissance” – the world’s sole “hyperpower”. It was the guarantor of global security, the rule-maker for global trade, and the undisputed international hegemon. Today, the “Pax Americana” lies in tatters; free trade is a fading dream; and summits such as this week’s meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden set the world agenda. The days of America’s undisputed global dominance are over. Geopolitically, we live once more in a multipolar world.
Yet in international finance, the unipolar moment is more extreme than ever. The U.S. dollar remains the de facto global currency, while the United States is in a league of its own as the world’s biggest net debtor. Take the country’s net international investment position (NIIP) - the benchmark metric of a nation’s overall balance sheet, which subtracts the sum of foreign investors’ financial claims on it from its own investors’ claims abroad. In June 2023 this stood at -$18 trillion, or a deficit equivalent to 67% of U.S. economic output. That is more than double the deficit of 33% a decade earlier, and more than seven times larger than in 2007. No other economy comes close when it comes to soaking up the savings of the world.
How did this astonishing disconnect between geopolitics and international financial flows develop – and how long can it last?
You can my answers here.