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Katharina Pistor

Katharina Pistor

Writing for PS since 2000
29 commentaries

Katharina Pistor, Professor of Comparative Law at Columbia Law School, is the author of The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality (Princeton University Press, 2019).

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  1. Good Governance Is a Bad Idea
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    Good Governance Is a Bad Idea

    Aug 9, 2023 Katharina Pistor thinks the obsession with technocratic goal-setting and box-ticking has become a dangerous distraction.

  2. How the Public Loses Out When Politicians Cash In
    pistor27_ Kay Nietfeldpicture alliance via Getty Images_shcroder Kay Nietfeld/picture alliance via Getty Images

    How the Public Loses Out When Politicians Cash In

    May 24, 2022 Katharina Pistor sees former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s conflicted interests as symptomatic of a bigger problem.

  3. From Shock Therapy to Putin's War
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    From Shock Therapy to Putin's War

    Feb 28, 2022 Katharina Pistor offers a reminder of the West's own role in smothering Russian democracy in its crib.

  4. The EU Court Punts on the Rule of Law
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    The EU Court Punts on the Rule of Law

    Feb 21, 2022 Katharina Pistor worries that the recent ruling against Poland and Hungary sets the stage for more legal hair-splitting.

  5. The Legal Gift that Keeps on Grifting
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    The Legal Gift that Keeps on Grifting

    Dec 15, 2021 Katharina Pistor shows how corporations are awarding shareholders through jurisdictional arbitrage, rather than real returns.

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  1. skidelsky191_Hollie AdamsGetty Images_rorystewart Hollie Adams/Getty Images
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    The New Anatomy of Britain

    Robert Skidelsky laments the decline of UK institutions and the increasingly limited scope for meaningful action.
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    Financing Our Survival

    Vera Songwe

    Between now and the end of this decade, climate-related investments need to increase by orders of magnitude to keep the world on track toward achieving even more ambitious targets by mid-century. Fortunately, if done right, such investments could usher in an entirely new and better economy.

     explains what it will take to mobilize capital for the net-zero transition worldwide.
  3. ito31_EVELYN HOCKSTEINPOOLAFP via Getty Images_modibidenlulag20 Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
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    Whither the G20?

    Takatoshi Ito

    Following the latest G20 summit, the G7 should be thinking seriously about deepening its own ties with more non-aligned countries. If the Ukraine war drags on, and if China continues to threaten to take Taiwan by force, the G20 will be split between friends of the BRICS and friends of the G7.

     sees the grouping as increasingly divided between friends of the G7 and friends of China and Russia.
  4. kitaw1_Per-Anders PetterssonGetty Images_africamining Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images
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    Making the Most of Africa’s Strategic Green Minerals

    Marit Kitaw explains how the continent can move beyond resource extraction to build green industry.
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    America Must Join Europe’s Climate Club

    Gary Yohe & Roger Kuhns urge US policymakers to create a carbon-pricing policy in line with the bloc’s emissions-reduction plan.
  6. ydeng1_ Feng LiGetty Images_chinapolicecorruption Feng Li/Getty Images
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    Measuring Corruption in China

    Yongheng Deng & Shang-Jin Wei outline a novel approach to assessing the extent and scope of the country's graft problem.
  7. tyson115_ Chip SomodevillaGetty Images_local reporters Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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    To Protect Democracy, Revive Local Journalism

    Laura Tyson & Lenny Mendonca identify promising new models and philanthropic initiatives geared toward supporting independent media.
  8. sjohnson2_ GHIEducation ImagesUniversal Images Group via Getty Images)_chemo GHI/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
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    How to Achieve Universal Cancer Care

    Sonali Johnson urges governments worldwide to include the disease in national health-insurance schemes.
  9. roubini181_mmxxmmGetty Images_digitalclimate mmxxmm/Getty Images
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    What Climate Finance Needs

    Nouriel Roubini & Reza Bundy explain what it will take to channel private capital and savings toward sustainable development.

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