In The News

The Shape of Things to Come

Gideon Rose, Jonathan Tepperman January 27, 2014
Investors recognize that a security, business or weather event in one part of the world can quickly influence attitudes and economic activities thousands of miles away. Elite and small investors, even if only through mutual funds, pursue new opportunities around the globe, and closely follow the emerging economies and their relationships with the largest economies, including the United States and...

Leaked Records Reveal Offshore Holdings of China’s Elite

Marina Walker Guevara, Gerard Ryle, Alexa Olesen, Mar Cabra, Michael Hudson, Christoph Giesen January 23, 2014
A report from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists exposes secret offshore accounts among family members of high-ranking Chinese politicians and business leaders. The report is based on 2.5 million leaked files from two firms that assist with high-wealth trusts and banking. “As the country has moved from an insular communist system to a socialist/capitalist hybrid, China has...

China Overtakes US as World’s Largest Goods Trader

Jamil Anderlini, Lucy Hornby January 22, 2014
The world’s second largest economy, China, has most likely overtaken the United States as the world’s biggest trader in goods, based on 11 months of data from 2013. “Trade with the rest of Asia and increasing flows with the Middle East represent a shift in power away from the US, still the world’s largest economy,” reports the Financial Times. Chinese officials anticipate trade and the national...

Will TTIP Harm the Global Trading System?

Katinka Barysch and Michael Heise January 9, 2014
The European Union’s member states form the world’s largest economy followed by the United States. So, the rest of the world is wary about ongoing negotiations for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP. Other trading partners of the US and the EU may have to meet new regulations without having a voice in their making. Or in other areas, the partners may have to deal with two...

Putin’s Gas-Fueled Bailout of Ukraine

David R. Cameron January 2, 2014
Ukraine’s government has decided to link its fortunes to Russia, accepting a bailout worth billions after the European Union and the International Monetary Fund offered mere millions combined with tough conditions. Russia will settle a disputed gas bill, reduce the price of future gas deliveries, end some customs controls and import quotas recently imposed and provide financial assistance in...

The Bad Bargain

Daniel Altman December 27, 2013
Wages are largely stagnant. Data suggest that growing profits earned by corporate investors is coming from shrinking incomes of workers. “Labor's share of national income has been falling slowly since the 1970s in rich countries around the world,” writes Daniel Altman for Foreign Policy. Increasing technology along with global integration and competition has pressured unions and eroded labor...

Who Should Lead the Global Economy?

Harold James, Domenico Lombardi December 24, 2013
The major economies of the United States, the European Union and China all have potential for global leadership. “The bigger an economy, the greater its systemic importance, and the more leverage its political representatives have in international decision-making,” explain Harold James and Domenico Lombardi, with the Centre for International Governance Innovation. The United States, the eurozone...