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Gernot Wagner

Gernot Wagner

Writing for PS since 2016
27 commentaries

Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia Business School, is the author, most recently, of Geoengineering: The Gamble (Polity, 2021).

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  1. Averting Climate Catastrophe Requires Economic Growth
    terzi6_green transition degrowth Getty Images

    Averting Climate Catastrophe Requires Economic Growth

    May 1, 2024 Alessio Terzi & Gernot Wagner show why shrinking the global economy, as envisaged by advocates of degrowth, is a bad way to cut emissions.

  2. The Right Response to China’s Electric-Vehicle Subsidies
    wagner28_ PEDRO PARDOAFP via Getty Images_yellen PEDRO PARDO/AFP via Getty Images

    The Right Response to China’s Electric-Vehicle Subsidies

    Apr 5, 2024 Gernot Wagner & Shang-Jin Wei explains why the United States and the European Union are considering tariffs – and why that’s a bad idea.

  3. What Does Trump Mean for the Climate?
    wagner26_MARK FELIXAFP AFP via Getty Images_texassolar Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images

    What Does Trump Mean for the Climate?

    Mar 4, 2024 Gernot Wagner doubts that a change of power in the United States would derail the long-term trends that really matter.

  4. How to Assess the Outcome of COP28
    wagner25_Sean GallupGetty Images_cop Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    How to Assess the Outcome of COP28

    Dec 13, 2023 Gernot Wagner thinks new climate pledges made in Dubai this year should be welcomed as another small step forward.

  5. What Steel Decarbonization Needs
    wagner24_Sean GallupGetty Images_steel Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    What Steel Decarbonization Needs

    Nov 21, 2023 Chris Bataille & Gernot Wagner detail the policy interventions needed to clean up an indispensable, but carbon-intensive, sector.

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  1. boskin94_Elijah NouvelageGetty Images_voting ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

    Why Voters Are Unhappy About the Biden Economy

    Michael J. Boskin explains why Americans do not share the White House’s rosy assessment of its economic track record.
  2. ginsberg1_Tayfun CoskunAnadolu Agency via Getty Images_january6journalistviolence Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

    Our Freedoms Depend on Press Freedom

    Jodie Ginsberg warns that the increased targeting of journalists and the media is a key indicator of democratic erosion.
  3. balasegaram2_JOHN WESSELSAFP via Getty Images_africaflood John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images

    Climate Change Is a Worse Health Threat Than We Think

    Manica Balasegaram warns that the world is underestimating the extent to which global warming will fuel antimicrobial resistance.
  4. delong259_ChesnotGetty Images_musk Omar Marques/Getty Images

    Musk Has Made Tesla a Meme Stock

    J. Bradford DeLong

    Although Tesla appears to be wildly overvalued compared to rival automakers, its shareholders are betting that they can sell their holdings to a greater fool in the near future, and Elon Musk is eagerly indulging their speculative exuberance. None of it bodes well for company’s workers, suppliers, and other customers.

    worries that the first mover in electric vehicles is increasingly running on bucket-shop hype.
  5. buchholz15_Al Drago-PoolGetty Images_yellen Al Drago/Pool/Getty Images

    The US Treasury’s Bond Blunder Will Cost Gen Z Dearly

    Todd G. Buchholz & James Carter thinks the US should have locked in favorable borrowing rates when it had the chance.
  6. james217_ Christopher FurlongGetty Images_gold Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

    What’s Driving the Global Gold Rush?

    Harold James considers the political factors pushing the price of the “barbarous relic” to all-time highs.
  7. stiglitz333_ Chip SomodevillaGetty Images_bidentrump Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    Global Elections in the Shadow of Neoliberalism

    Joseph E. Stiglitz

    While scandals, culture wars, and threats to democracy dominate the headlines, the biggest issues in this super election year ultimately concern economic policies. After all, the rise of anti-democratic populist authoritarianism is itself the legacy of a misbegotten economic ideology.

    considers what 40 years of anti-government, low-tax, deregulatory advocacy have wrought around the world.
  8. terzi6_green transition degrowth Getty Images

    Averting Climate Catastrophe Requires Economic Growth

    Alessio Terzi & Gernot Wagner show why shrinking the global economy, as envisaged by advocates of degrowth, is a bad way to cut emissions.
  9. varoufakis114_KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEVAFP via Getty Images_germany protests KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images

    Banned By Germany

    Yanis Varoufakis sees in his case an effort to enforce with repression a pro-Israel political consensus that is breaking down.

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