The economic crisis of 2008 and the uncertain recovery that has followed did not result in large-scale protectionism as some expected. There have been worrying signs of the traditional propensity of nation-states to turn inwards when the global economic outlook is bad, but for the most part,...
GENEVA: Protectionism has been described as "the dog that didn't bark" in the long, troubled night of the financial crisis; remarkable precisely because of its absence.
In the years since the crisis erupted, the world economy has borne witness to...
Losing one’s intelligentsia is not just the bane of developing countries. Germany, which boasts the largest economy of Europe, has sent so many of its sons and daughters to America in academic capacities that now Germans make up the third-largest group of foreign academics in the US. In raw...
More and more highly qualified academics are fleeing Germany because the long-term prospects for the country's academic elite are not very appealing. One in seven students who complete a doctorate in Germany...
Strong education systems contribute to strong economies. Every three years the Programme for International Student Assessment, PISA, tests the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in math, reading and science. More than 80 countries have participated, and many obsess about rankings....
Read the essay.
Read more about the PISA test from the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development.
Top Ranked Nations for PISA issued in 2015:
Science: Singapore, Hong Kong and Macao
Reading; Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada
Science:...
China's regulators and central bankers are trying to control the country’s debt and reduce associated risks, and in turn this may reduce economic growth. explains Michael Pettis, finance professor, in an opinion essay for Bloomberg: “there's a big difference between China's...
The trade war between the world’s two largest economies is escalating, even as talks continue in Washington, DC, and neither China nor the United States wants to back down. The US is raising tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports from 10 to 25 percent, and China promised to retaliate. Leaders...
Populists claim to represent the fears and desires of ordinary people, and nationalist forces who generally express little interest in global standards or governance are organizing around a shared hostility toward Muslims and other immigrants. Azeem Ibrahim, director of the Displacement and...
United by fear: Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met in June to discuss worries about migration and Muslims; the yellow vest movement that began in France and spread to Canada gains traction by opposing...
Citizens around the globe understandably want to honor and protect their culture, expressed through language, food and art, from “foreign” influence – although such influences were often essential in creating traditions. The second article of this two-part series examines Italy’s battle against...
No kebab, no fried rice: Despite bans in some city centers, a kebab shop outside Rome remains open(top); Chinese signs on an establishment in Prato's Chinatown are covered up
MILAN: No matter where one goes in the world, a trace of Italy – pizza...
For the world’s second largest economy, Japan takes a decidedly backseat approach to involvement in global affairs. While there are no rules to force global intercourse, Japan-specialist Edward J. Lincoln believes that as a key beneficiary and user of global public goods, Japan should become more...
NEW YORK: At the recent Copenhagen climate summit, Japanese negotiators were virtually invisible, at least as reported in the media. Japan is often described as playing a much smaller role in global affairs than one might expect of the world’s...
