It’s not just our leaders who are in a crisis – Democracy itself is failing
Are the following intimations of a global crisis in the legitimacy of western democracy? Ireland’s confidential budget plan, unseen by the Irish electorate, is leaked by European finance officials to...
View ArticleWorld Bank: China faces Europe risk, soft landing possible
In a semi-annual East Asia and Pacific economic update, the World Bank nudged up its 2011 growth forecast for China but expects growth to moderate from next year as overseas economies slow and Beijing...
View ArticleDarkening skies on the road to durban – Part I
Confronting an environmental future that promises more unstable climate, the nearly 200 nations convening in Durban for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have no easy answers. The world...
View ArticleThe eurozone and the US: A tale of two currency zones
Europeans think it is all very unfair. They point out that, in aggregate, the eurozone is in no worse an economic position than the US: its public finances are in better shape than the US’s, and its...
View ArticleShould the Fed save Europe from disaster?
Unless Germany agrees to the full mobilization of the European Central Bank very fast, the eurozone will spiral out of control. As The Economist put it, “The risk that the currency disintegrates within...
View ArticleThe Euro Area is coming to an end: Peter Boone and Simon Johnson
Investors sent Europe’s politicians a painful message last week when Germany had a seriously disappointing government bond auction. It was unable to sell more than a third of the benchmark 10-year...
View Article‘Germany as isolated on Euro as US was on Iraq’
Market participants and EU politicians are starting to sound more apocalyptic in their warnings about the euro crisis as yet another make-or-break summit, on Dec. 8 and 9, draws near. Meanwhile the...
View ArticleThe Brazil–Africa Narco Nexus
The vicious drug cartels in Colombia and Mexico regularly make headlines, but there has been remarkably less public attention to the growing role of Brazil—and Brazilian organized crime —as a major...
View ArticleWhile the world waits, the clouds of war are gathering over Iran
While Europe remains preoccupied with its own slow-motion crisis, and other global powers continue to be mesmerized by the bizarre spectacle of European officials’ myriad efforts to rescue the euro...
View ArticleTurkey can’t afford over-involvement in Syria
EAST LANSING: Since 2002, Turkey’s leaders have basked in the glow of their rising profile in the Middle East and Europe. During the past decade Turkey has transformed into the world’s16th largest...
View Article
