In The News

Differing Approaches to Immigration on Two Sides of the Atlantic

Michael Mandelbaum April 24, 2014
Politicians opposed to immigration are making electoral gains throughout Europe, and legislators in the United States are also polarized over immigration reform, especially the status of an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants. Michael Mandelbaum, author and international studies professor, argues that “immigration has become a major and contentious political issue in the world’s...

Reform of Bretton Woods Institutions: The IMF Might Not Live to See Its Anniversary

Valentin Katasonov April 24, 2014
A key issue confronting finance ministers and central bankers is reform of the International Monetary Fund. A major element of the system was fixed exchange rates for the currencies of participant countries and credit for countries in need, explains Valentin Katasonov for Global Research, a publication of the Centre for Research on Globalization based in Canada. The idea for the IMF was born 70...

The West’s Financial Arsenal

Harold James April 23, 2014
After Russia’s annexation of Crimea, pro-Russian militants continue efforts to occupy public buildings in Eastern Ukraine and destabilize an interim government. “Putin is attempting to boost Russia’s appeal by doubling Crimeans’ pensions, boosting the salaries of the region’s 200,000 civil servants, and constructing large, Sochi-style infrastructure,” explains history professor Harold James for...

Walgreens Urged to Leave US to Gain Tax Benefit

Ed Hammond April 15, 2014
A small group that owns shares of the largest pharmacy chain retailer in the United States wants Walgreens to relocate to Europe: “investors owning close to 5 per cent of Walgreens’ shares lobbied the company’s management to use its $16bn takeover of Swiss-based Alliance Boots to re-domicile its tax base,” reports Ed Hammond for the Financial Times. “The move, known as an inversion, would...

Don’t Bet Against the Greenback Yet

Erik Britton and Danny Gabay April 10, 2014
The US benefits from its reserve currency status; 85 percent of all global transactions involve the dollar. But the dollar is worth less than half its value from 1973. Two threats to the dollar’s status as reserve currency include stagnation in demand within the United States and the rise of China’s fully convertible yuan, suggest Erik Britton and Danny Gabay for the Asia Sentinel. They analyze...

Paying for the Gray

April 9, 2014
China’s average age for retirement is 53, unchanged since the 1950s. But China’s economy has flourished and the nation’s average life expectancy is 75: “With the number of pensioners set to soar, and the number of young workers able to support them unable to keep up, China has been making long-overdue changes at both ends of the demographic spectrum,” reports the Economist. “Allowing people to...

Shale Industry Faces Global Reality Check

Richard Anderson April 8, 2014
New technologies in shale oil and gas recovery have reduced energy costs in the United States, and governments around the globe consider fracking for energy security. Richard Anderson of BBC News questions if the US trends can be replicated in Europe and elsewhere. Companies tried drilling in Poland with little luck because of geology challenges. Also in Poland, “A punitive tax regime and an...