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Kenneth Rogoff
For Kenneth Rogoff's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2006
America's anti-environmentalist streak
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- As an American, I am appalled, ashamed and embarrassed by my country's lack of leadership in dealing with global warming. Scientific evidence on the risks mounts by the day, as most recently documented in England's magisterial Stern Report. Yet, despite the fact that the United States accounts for roughly 25 percent of all man-made global carbon emissions, Americans show little will or inclination to temper their manic consumption.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2006
Can the IMF avert a global meltdown?
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- When world financial leaders meet in Singapore this month for the joint World Bank/International Monetary Fund meetings, they must confront one singularly important question: Is there any way to coax the IMF's largest members, especially the United States and China, to help diffuse the risks posed by the world's massive trade imbalances?
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2006
Big, fat American shopper to the rescue
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- It is appalling that the world has decided to blame the United States for the crushing end to five years of global trade talks last month (the so-called Doha Round).
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2006
Time to consider pumping money into infrastructure
BOSTON -- Any good international investment banker knows that the end of April is a bad time to come peddling his services, for that is when the world's finance ministers return home from the International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, chastened that risks to the global economy could spill over into their own backyards. Ministers are too busy recovering from their trauma to think about paying fat fees for big new international bond issues. Who wants to build up debt if there might be a financial crisis around the corner? Better to keep socking away U.S. Treasury bills, even if the return is far lower than on most other investments.

Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces