In The News

Anticipate Another Global Depression? FT

June 6, 2020
High employment rates accompany the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns. Global economists assessed the possibility of economic depression for the Financial Time. Full recovery depends on availability of treatments and vaccines and maintenance of trust. Robert Zoellick, former World Bank president, reminds that the 1930s Great Depression caused more than economic pain: “It metastasised to a loss of...

Tiananmen Vigil in Hong Kong: SCMP

June 5, 2020
Thousands gathered in a Hong Kong park and other locations to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, reports South China Morning Post. Authorities had banned mass gatherings to prevent the spread of Covid-19, but police did not stop the vigil. “The show of defiance came on a politically charged day as the legislature passed a law criminalising disrespect for the national...

US Rivals Return Fire on Human Rights: Reuters

Cate Cadell, Humeyra Pamuk and Parisa Hafezi June 4, 2020
More than a week of protests over the death of a handcuffed man in police custody bring global scrutiny of US policies and racial relations, and “nations stung by American criticism over the years return fire and accuse Washington of double standards,” reports Reuters. China and Iran, criticized for human rights abuses by the US secretary of state, spoke out against police treatment of George...

UK Collision Course With China: Bloomberg

Alan Crawford June 4, 2020
The United Kingdom stands up to China on multiple fronts even while negotiating Brexit. “Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has criticized Beijing’s planned imposition of a security law on the former British territory of Hong Kong, and is taking steps to exclude Huawei from its fifth-generation mobile networks by lining up potential replacements,” reports Alan Crawford for Bloomberg. The...

Pentagon Sends Troops to DC: Stars and Stripes

Corey Dickstein June 3, 2020
Protests sweep throughout the United States after a handcuffed man died in police custody in Minneapolis. Onlookers filmed and pleaded with police officers to stop, after one held his knee to the back of the man’s neck for more than eight minutes. Some extremists disrupt the peaceful protests, and Donald Trump, stating he wanted to end rioting and property destruction, ordered active-duty troops...

Argentina in Default: Buenos Aires Times

June 3, 2020
Two rating agencies, Fitch and S&P reduced Argentina’s bonds to default status after the nation missed a $US500-million payment. Negotiations for debt restructuring are underway, with the hopes of agreement and possible rise in the bond rating. A lower rating forces nations to pay higher interest rates. Argentina’s public debt is 90 percent of GDP at the end of 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic has...

How We Broke the World: NYT

Thomas L. Friedman June 2, 2020
Global insecurity has intensified with the gradual dismantling of protections. “Over the past 20 years, we’ve been steadily removing man-made and natural buffers, redundancies, regulations and norms that provide resilience and protection when big systems – be they ecological, geopolitical or financial – get stressed,” explains Thomas Friedman for the New York Times. Obsession with short-term...