In this issue, Brad DeLong, of the University of California, Berkeley, offers an analysis of Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers’ controversial claim that the United States and Europe face a bleak economic future unless government provides an ongoing boost. Staci Warden, of the Milken Institute, concurs with the mainstream view that “Bitcoin’s core value proposition as a substitute for regular currencies is, frankly, questionable.”

Barry Eichengreen, another economist at Berkeley, steps back from the speculation about the prospects for the Chinese renminbi as a global currency to ask why it matters. Charles Castaldi, a former NPR journalist, takes a trip back to his native Italy to assay the country’s prospects in the midst of Europe’s financial agonies.

William Gale, Aaron Krupkin and Kim Rueben of the Brookings-Urban Institute Tax Policy Center in Washington examine state governments’ obsession with supply-side tax policy.

Alvin Roth, a Nobel economist who is the author of the new book, Who Gets What – and Why, explores “matching markets,” in which price alone can’t balance supply and demand – think of markets for everything from marriage to college admissions to donated kidneys.

Thomas Krause, a consultant on workplace safety, argues that the first step in reducing unnecessary hospital deaths is to measure the horrific toll accurately.