In The News

Rising Tide

March 7, 2016
As Macedonia, Austria and other European nations tighten borders against refugees fleeing Syria and other conflict zones, Greece must manage a bottleneck. Tent camps and reception camps are over-crowded, and food is in short supply. “Now almost 30,000 migrants are bottled up in Greece” and “local aid agencies worry that 200,000 people may arrive in March alone,” reports the Economist. NGOs and...

The World Is Stuck With Persistent Stagnation

Stephen Roach March 3, 2016
Economists expect the world economy to be more resilient than any of its parts, with recessions typically affecting only a few of the 200 economies at a time. Yet the world is gradually following the pattern of Japan, the world’s third largest economy, in struggling with persistent stagnation, explains economist and Yale faculty member Stephen Roach. For economists, the term “secular” describes...

Africa’s Rising Middle Class – And Why It Matters

Tom Jackson February 25, 2016
There are varying reports on the exact size of Africa’s middle class. Depending on definitions and income levels, the middle class could represent 6 percent or 34 percent of the overall population, reports Tom Jackson for New Africa Magazine. Yet analysts agree that consumer markets, opportunities and technological advances are expanding. The population is young, and the continent’s median age...

False Sense of Security

Nayan Chanda February 9, 2016
Few countries will be insulated from the slowdown of the Chinese economy, even those not intricately tied to the Chinese supply chain. “China did indeed stimulate its way out of the 2008 crisis but now it has to deal with overcapacity and debt,” writes Nayan Chanda, founding editor of YaleGlobal Online, in his column for Businessworld. “For India to be congratulating itself for not being part of...

Africa’s Success Story

John Feffer February 5, 2016
Though Botswana relied almost exclusively on its diamond wealth, its economy has grown steadily since 1966, rivaling China and South Korea’s growth rates. Good governance allowed Botswana to avoid the resource curse that afflicted many of its neighbors. Botswana’s diamond-producing industry is lucrative and provides well-paying, often unionized jobs to locals. Recently, diamond companies have...

Bank of Japan Stuns Global Markets by Announcing Negative Interest Rates

David Scutt January 29, 2016
The Bank of Japan narrowly approved a three-tiered system on rates including one in the negative territory, -0.1 percent for “excess reserves parked at the bank by financial institutions,” reports David Scutt for Business Insider Australia.The move essentially encourages lending and charges banks for storing cash. The central bank also announced further rate cuts may be issued as needed. “The BOJ...

Economists on the Refugee Path

Robert J. Shiller January 25, 2016
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was created in 1950 as a temporary measure to aid an estimated 40 million refugees after World War II. “But the problem never went away,” explains Robert J. Shiller, Yale professor of economics in an essay for Project Syndicate. The UNHCR reports near 60 million “forcibly displaced” people, including 20 million internationally displaced. As...