In The News

Spiegel Online: Eastern Europeans Tire of Being Sold Inferior Products

Nils Klawitter December 22, 2017
Some products taste better in some places as some manufacturers cut back on expensive ingredients for products destined for less wealthy regions. So there may be less chocolate, sugar or cheese in products sold in Eastern Europe than Western Europe though labels and prices are the same. Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has threatened sanctions, speaking out “for 103 million EU citizens who...

Financial Times: The Real Price of Brexit Emerges

Chris Giles December 18, 2017
Brexit supporters had suggested that Britain, by leaving the European Union, would have more money to invest in health care. Most economists at the time suggested the opposite was true, and updated analysis confirms the bad news: Britain can expect an annual GDP loss between £20 billion and £180 billion. The 2017 growth rate has already slowed to 1.5 percent even as the global economy is...

CNN: Brexit Breakthrough in Brussels

James Masters and James Griffiths December 8, 2017
The European Union and the United Kingdom reached agreement on the latter’s exit while maintaining some ties. “Crucially, the two sides reached a deal on the historically sensitive issue of the Irish border, which had threatened to derail the talks as they reached a critical moment earlier this week,” reports CNN. “Discussions can now move on to the potentially tougher issue of a future trading...

El País: Brussels Pushes for European Version of IMF

Claudi Pérez December 6, 2017
The European Union is proposing its own version of a bailout fund modeled after the International Monetary Fund. “With initial firepower of €500 billion, which could be boosted up to a further 20%, the new European Monetary Fund will bail out member states in exchange for reforms, as the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) has done in the past with Greece, Ireland and Portugal,” reports El País....

Reuters: Source Claims Deutsche Bank Gets Mueller Subpoena

Arno Schuetze and Nathan Layne December 5, 2017
The US rule of law has a long reach. US federal investigators looking into Russian interference of the 2016 presidential election are reported to have asked Deutsche bank for data on accounts held by associates of Donald Trump and his family. “Germany’s largest bank received a subpoena from Special Counsel Robert Mueller several weeks ago to provide information on certain money and credit...

Caixin: Belt and Road Now Leads to Every Central, Eastern European Nation

Fran Wang November 28, 2017
China Belt and Road Initiative is expanding to reach all 16 nations of Central and Eastern Europe. New agreements being signed with Estonia, Slovenia and Lithuania bring “the total number of foreign countries included in the Belt and Road program to 70,” reports Fran Wang for Caixin. “Chinese companies invested more than $9 billion in the 16 countries last year, triple the $3 billion recorded in...

Spiegel Online: The End of the End of History

Klaus Brinkbäumer November 27, 2017
Political systems of the West may no longer be perceived as the most effective way to organize human societies, and Francis Fukuyama’s prediction that democracy and Western values would triumph after the fall of communism in 1989 now seems presumptuous: “in the past 11 years, freedom around the world has receded. Of 195 states only 87 are still free, 59 are partially free and 49 are not free at...