In The News

Crumbling Global Order: Wall Street Journal

Greg Ip August 14, 2019
Major shifts in world systems can result in global downturns, argues Greg Ip for the Wall Street Journal. This was the case for the end of the era of cheap oil but not the advent of the internet. Increasing resistance to globalization and open markets fueled by nationalism and populism – and a general decline in diplomacy with Brexit, the US-China and South Korea-Japan trade wars, divisions in...

US Under Trump Leads on Global Dealmaking: FT

Eric Platt, Arash Massoudi and Don Weinland June 27, 2019
The United States is dominating in what the Financial Times calls a record-breaking boom in global mergers and acquisitions. “Ambitious deals by large companies ranging from drugmaker AbbVie to defence contractor United Technologies, to oil group Occidental Petroleum, have driven US activity,” reports a team for the Financial Times. “Buoyant stock markets and cheap financing in the debt markets...

Corruption in European Soccer: The New Yorker

Sam Knight June 11, 2019
The whistle-blowing organization Football Leaks has targeted corruption among dozens of soccer players, executives and clubs since 2015. Portuguese soccer aficionado Rui Pinto has reported on inflated salaries, large-scale tax evasion, controversial and secret deals and rape allegations against a major star. Currently being held for cybercrime charges, the young man leaked more than 88 million...

Chinese Money in Arab World Projects: Economist

June 4, 2019
This decade has witnessed a strengthening of economic ties between a number of Middle Eastern countries and China. While previously the Middle East was seen primarily as a petrol station, explains the Economist, with nearly half of China’s oil supplied by Arab countries and Iran, there was little direct foreign investment. The Economist reports that since 2010, Chinese investment has skyrocketed...

Multinationals Brexit: Global Finance

Andrew Woodman May 5, 2019
Early on, multinational companies suggested they would stick with the United Kingdom through Brexit. But uncertainty since the June 2016 election when voters decided to end membership with the European Union vote and a lack of processes to replace EU regulations is prompting many to end expansion plans. The UK and the EU agreed on extension of the March 29 deadline for leaving. Companies to...

Costs of Global Uncertainty: Project Syndicate

Michael Spence March 27, 2019
Global economic activity is on decline as investors and businesses confront uncertainty. The US-China trade war contributes to the hesitation, as trade partners ponder the costs and benefits of global economic connectivity and players retreat toward old patterns. For example, China’s state-owned enterprises, a target for complaints from the United States and elsewhere over subsidies, have an...

UK to Lose £1 Trillion Financial Assets: FT

Stephen Morris March 21, 2019
Businesses prepare for the chaos of worst-case Brexit scenarios, reports an Ernst & Young Global Limited survey. For financial services companies, that includes plans to transfer £1 trillion in assets from the United Kingdom to Europe. British negotiators struggle to reach a deal that includes freedoms from immigration and European regulations, as desired by just over half of voters in the...