In The News

Bloomberg: The Saudi Oil Blunder That Will Keep Costing

Leonid Bershidsky May 30, 2017
On May 25, 14 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), along with 10 other oil-producing nations led by Russia, agreed to a deal that would limit oil production until March 2018. OPEC nations represent just over 40 percent of global oil production, reports the US Energy Information Administration, with Saudi Arabia and Venezuela among OPEC’s largest producers. With...

Bloomberg: China's Downgrade Could Lead to a Mountain of Debt

May 30, 2017
Moody’s Investor Services lowered China’s sovereign debt rating by one level in late May for the first time since 1989. The company cited high levels of corporate debt mostly held by state-owned enterprises as the cause. With an increase in the yield premium on bonds, Chinese companies face higher interest rates when borrowing money, indicating greater risk. Hence, raising capital for investments...

Brookings: Should We Be Worried About Cleantech Foreign Investment? It’s Complicated

Rachel Barker, Ryan Donahue, and Brad McDearman May 23, 2017
Innovation in cleantech, or clean technology, could make America’s energy sector more efficient, cheaper and safer. Due to its high-risk, high-reward nature, cleantech relies on venture capital investment for funding, but that has been steadily declining. Hence foreign mergers and acquisitions may help the US “protect its status as a global innovation leader,” note Rachel Barker, Ryan Donahue and...

Caixin: One Belt, One Road as China’s 21st Century Marshall Plan?

David Vines May 17, 2017
China could be on its way to leading the global economy, helped by One Belt, One Road. David Vines, writing for Caixin, compares the initiative to the Marshall Plan during the last century, which benefited Europe and Japan. China, with big investments in infrastructure, could emerge as a leader in setting rules and standards for global governance, but Vines points to two risks: First, “The Belt...

Climate News Network: UK Nuclear Industry Faces Brexit Fallout

Paul Brown May 17, 2017
Nuclear power is the source about one-fifth of the United Kingdom’s energy, and the government has shifted support in subsidies away from solar and wind toward nuclear power with plans to construct more. “However, the industry relies on foreign companies − based both in the EU and outside − that provide parts, fuel and raw materials,” reports Paul Brown for Climate News Network. France’s ETF owns...

Project Syndicate: Will Economic Illiteracy Trigger a Trade War?

Jeffrey D. Sachs April 28, 2017
An introduction to economics defines a nation’s deficit or surplus – “The current-account balance, measuring the balance of trade in goods, services, net factor income, and transfer payments from abroad, is equal to national saving minus domestic investment.” The Trump administration is mistaken about the source of the US deficit, overlooking the low US rate of saving and instead blaming Germany...

Harvard Business Review: One Cost of Increased Globalization – More Industrial Accidents

Robert G. Blanton and Dursun Peksen April 27, 2017
Economic globalization— trade, foreign direct investment and low tariffs—has a twofold effect in making costly, environmentally harmful and deadly industrial accidents more probable, according to professors Robert G. Blanton and Dursun Peksen in a discussion of their study in Harvard Business Review. First, there is more room for error as byzantine international supply chains straddle countries...