In The News

US Agriculture Is Victim of Broken WTO: Agri-Pulse

Bill Tomson January 18, 2020
Members of the World Trade Organization, 25 years old, express concerns about processes. The WTO can no longer settle disputes of 164 members after the Trump administration blocked appointments of appellate judges to the body that decides cases. The body has one of three minimum judges; dozens of cases are now on hold. “The U.S. ag sector is keen to see suits filed that would challenge the...

Japan, US, EU Propose WTO Subsidy Rules: Jiji

January 16, 2020
The European Union, the United States and Japan are proposing that the World Trade Organization enact new restrictions on industrial subsidies. Analysts see China as the target and suggest that foreign firms cannot compete in China with firms that receive the subsidies. “The three economies hope to win support for the proposal from a wide range of WTO members in the buildup to a ministerial...

The Fall of the God of Cars: BBC

Theo Leggett and Rupert Wingfield-Hayes January 15, 2020
Japan arrested Carlos Ghosn, chairman of Nissan and citizen of Brazil, France and Lebanon, at the Tokyo airport in November 2018, initially charging him for under-reporting deferred compensation and eventually other financial crimes. Ghosn, also CEO of Renault, was known as a cost cutter, credited with saving Nissan from bankruptcy: “The two companies were linked under a strategic alliance first...

Money-Laundering by Video Games: Financial Times

Tim Bradshaw January 13, 2020
Valve, the developer of the popular video game “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,” announced that players wouldn’t be allowed to trade the in-game currency that could be used for buying virtual knives, guns and skins. That was an abrupt action against the rising trend of money laundering by video games, in which criminals could cash in stolen credit cards or use the proceeds of crime for in-game...

Trade War Backfires: Independent

Phil Thornton January 12, 2020
Global trade is tightly interconnected, so tariffs imposed by China and the United States “hit firms in their own countries almost as much as the ones they were aiming at,” reports Phil Thornton for the Independent. Researchers in Switzerland and China studied stock market responses to tariffs announced since 2018 and “found that while the trade war tariffs of the US and China directly hurt...

Hitting Refresh on Privacy Policies: Brookings

Cameron Kerry and Caitlin Chin January 9, 2020
Technology and online applications have developed swiftly and many people still do not realize how much private information they release with every choice and click online. US legislators and policymakers express dissatisfaction with prrivate policies that regard issuance of notices, often lengthy and cryptic, as consent. A Brookings report highlights the problems with privacy policies: over-...

World Bank Warns of Global Debt Crisis: Guardian

Larry Elliott January 9, 2020
Global economic growth continues, fueled by low interest rates and increasing debt. The high interest rates make debt more manageable, but may not stave off financial crisis. “Total emerging and developing economy debt reached almost 170% of gross domestic product in 2018 – or $55tn (£42tn) – an increase of 54 percentage points of GDP since 2010,” reports Larry Elliott for the Guardian. “The...