In The News

Revolution Is Happening in the USA

Ismail Salami October 4, 2011
The Occupy Wall Street movement is hardly a revolution, and rather, the protest movement aims at influencing democratic leaders. Started by small groups of college students, protesters express concern about the dangers of high student debt, excessive corporate profits, family struggles with home foreclosures, widening inequality, environmental degradation all combined with a disturbing lack of...

How to Stop a Second Great Depression

George Soros September 30, 2011
Confidence in the global economy is slipping, as wealthy nations fail to control debt and prevent growing fears over defaults and government bonds once assumed to be safe. In an essay for the Financial Times, financier and philanthropist George Soros urges three bold steps for Europe to allow orderly default by Greece, if necessary, and keep the global markets calm: create a common treasury for...

Going... Going... Greece on the Brink

Maria Margaronis September 22, 2011
The social turmoil, bitterness and political infighting that accompany Greece’s debt crisis could offer a preview for other nations that fail to practice fiscal discipline. In exchange for loans, Greece’s creditors demand that the government cut spending, lay off public employees, reduce entitlements and raise taxes. A series of quick fixes and delays have given savviest creditors time to prepare...

The Great Failure of Globalization

Jeffrey Sachs August 24, 2011
US and European leaders are in denial over realities of global capital markets and competition from Asia, contends Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Sachs argues that rapid globalization, responsible for the sharp economic decline of the west, has disproportionately hurt the unskilled and middle class while benefiting the wealthy. “The path to recovery now...

The Global Era and the End of Foreign Policy

Philip Zelikow August 18, 2011
The world is so connected, with greater wealth and power overall, that foreign policy has shifted from adjusting relations between states to convincing states to adjust internal policies, explains Philip Zelikow, professor and former US State Department counselor, in an essay for the Financial Times. The most pressing modern challenges, like climate change, cybersecurity, famines or terrorism,...

The Eurozone Fights for Survival – Part II

Joergen Oerstroem Moeller August 18, 2011
Lenders are in the habit of putting profits over borrowers’ interests. Many players in the financial markets – the credit markets, banks, economists and analysts – took little notice as small eurozone economies like Greece amassed huge debts based on fiscal records of strong partners like Germany. Massive lending led to crisis, and an abrupt halt, hiking interest rates, aggravated the...

The Eurozone Fights for Survival – Part I

François Godement August 16, 2011
The debt crisis rocking Greece, Portugal or Italy not only threatens the stability of the eurozone, but also raises serious questions about the region’s relations with the world. This two-part series examines the European crisis and its ramifications. In the first article, François Godement, senior policy fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations, points out that minimal attention is...