In The News

Brexit Aftermath: Europe's Zero Hour Presents an Opportunity

Dirk Kurbjuweit June 24, 2016
The European Union is ready to shed a reluctant United Kingdom. The other 27 members could become stronger by moving on and taking advantage of new possibilities. The UK decision does not mean that the EU is a failure or blunder. “The desire for unity developed out of the zero hour following World War II and is a clear rejection of war,” writes Dirk Kurbjuweit. “It is a peace project, and a...

The Financial Plan for “Brexit”? Cross Your Fingers

Peter S. Goodman June 17, 2016
The financial industry is unnerved by polls before the June 23 referendum in Britain on sticking with or leaving the European Union suggesting momentum favors exit. “Like local responders readying sandbags as a hurricane menaces their shores, financial industry overseers have been quietly drawing up contingency plans while surveying the expensive havoc a so-called Brexit is already wreaking,”...

Misplaced Charity

June 17, 2016
The aim of foreign aid is to alleviate poverty, while improving economies, services and governance and minimizing conflict. “Official development aid, which includes grants, loans, technical advice and debt forgiveness, is worth about $130 billion a year,” explains the Economist. Such aid transformed Taiwan and South Korea, but “can also burden weak bureaucracies, distort markets, prop up...

An Alternative to Boycotts or Divestment for Israel

Ian Shapiro and Nicholas Strong May 26, 2016
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault invited international leaders to Paris on May 30 to make plans for reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Peace and economic security go hand in hand. Israel is thriving despite boycotts by some European countries while the economic outlook is dismal for Gaza and the West Bank. “There is little evidence that boycotting Israel will have a...

IMF: Global Corruption Costs Trillions in Bribes, Lost Growth

David Lawder May 16, 2016
Corruption destabilizes governments and the global economy as a whole. “Public sector corruption siphons $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion annually from the global economy in bribes and costs far more in stunted economic growth, lost tax revenues and sustained poverty,” writes David Lawder for Reuters about an International Monetary Fund research report. The indirect costs – erosion of trust and...

US Officials Warn of Looming Crisis in Venezuela

Tim Johnson May 16, 2016
Venezuela should be prosperous in terms of its location and the largest reserves of crude oil in the world. But low oil prices caught such countries by surprise. Foreign oil companies are reducing activity due to low prices and payment struggles. “Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, already struggling to keep his country’s lights on and its stores stocked with basic food, faces a series of...

Of Two Minds on China

Terry Lautz May 12, 2016
A multitude of internal and external economic and social forces push and pull at China, and author Terry Lautz, a Moynihan Research Fellow at Syracuse University, compares China to a fictional animal with two heads and minds facing opposite ways. “One looks toward openness and reform – freedom of expression, unfettered access to the internet and an independent legal system,” Lautz explains. “The...