In The News

Brazil “to Write Off' African Debt

June 13, 2013
Amid expansion of economic ties with Africa, Brazil will restructure almost $900 million worth of debt with 12 African countries: oil- and gas-rich Congo-Brazzaville, Tanzania and Zambia as well as Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal and Sudan. The South American giant has also opened 19 new embassies in Africa in the...

The New New World

June 13, 2013
As the debt crisis lingers in Europe, many countries cease to be magnets for mobile hands and brains. Confronting high unemployment rates at home, Europeans are shedding a fear of relocation, and new talent is heading toward developing countries with fast-growing economies like Mexico and Brazil. According to the World Bank, remittances from Brazil to Portugal are now greater than those from...

Turkish Stock Market Falls 10.5% as Demonstrations Escalate

June 12, 2013
Following several days of intense protests in Turkey, the country’s largest stock index, fell 10.47 percent and the lira dropped to a 16-month low. The protests were originally sparked by plans to transform an Istanbul park into a shopping center, but have since expanded into concerns over government policies with a religious bent. Foreign investment in the country had received a needed boost...

China: The Dark Side of Growth

Yanzhong Huang June 6, 2013
In just three decades, China has been transformed from one of the world’s poorest nations to the world’s second largest economy. But rapid growth imposes long-term environmental, health and social costs, and other nations should be wary of emulating China’s model, cautions Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. Smog choking Beijing and other cities...

Bitcoin Will Continue to Function Beyond the Reach of Government and Law

James Ball June 5, 2013
Bitcoin is a novel currency that lacks government backing and is instead defined by mathematical rules, thus putting it largely out of the reach of law enforcement. According to James Ball of the Guardian, Bitcoin’s potential was recently exposed by an investigation into Liberty Reserve out of Costa Rica. Liberty Reserve is accused of a $6 billion money laundering scheme as “a popular hub for...

Europe’s Double Jeopardy

Nayan Chanda May 24, 2013
Reliance on austerity measures could still push Europe into recession. But political leaders are responding to criticism from the International Monetary Fund and others – that austerity failed to deliver economic relief. An end to belt-tightening could improve consumer demand, increasing hiring and government revenues, but an aging population and large numbers of unemployed youth pose challenges...

How Austerity Kills

David Stuckler, Sanjay Basu May 15, 2013
Suicide, long correlated with high unemployment rates, is on the rise in the wake of government austerity. “People looking for work are about twice as likely to end their lives as those who have jobs,” note David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu in an opinion essay for the New York Times. The two conducted research on health trends in countries enduring economic crisis and found that gradual, targeted...