In a recent Financial Times article, various business executives expressed deep regret for their “Faustian bargain” with US President Donald Trump.
They should go ahead and express even deeper regret for their contribution to the serious undermining of democracy — not just in the US, but everywhere else.
Continue readingPrime Minister Boris Johnson will surely say that he got “Brexit done”, as he promised. However, in a sense, Brexit is only just beginning.
The European Central Bank (ECB) seems to be wading deeper into political territory, opening an interesting debate on what exactly is the role of central banks.
The ECB recently published a guide to the banks under its supervision, explaining how it expects them to consider risks related to climate change and the environment in their business strategies and their risk management.
By Michael Brett
So Boris, as he likes to be called, hopes he can reassemble a disjointed Britain. Under his benign leadership families that were torn apart by violently differing views on EU membership can be restored to harmony and domestic bliss.
The 29 million-odd people WHO DID NOT VOTE TO LEAVE THE EU in the 2016 referendum are to be dragged out willy-nilly to satisfy the 17.4 million who voted to leave. This is widely hailed as democracy.
Brexit rules the waves (which, incidentally, can only be used in future to transport goods at the cost of a hell of a lot more paperwork, restriction and delay). We will be poorer in the future than we would have been as EU members. Even the would-be leavers are forced to concede this.
How on earth did we land in this situation?
By Sourajit Aiyer
It is often said that money makes the world go round. Nowhere is this more ingrained than in the battles for oil, power and arms. The news of Saudi Arabia and its key allies severing connections with Qatar following the ongoing rift between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members shocked the world. Here are three theories about this issue.
I once heard a very funny story about how a little girl learned about sharing: her mother, after giving her a chocolate bar, asked her to give a quarter of it to a friend. “This, Mary, is sharing. It is important that you learn how to do it,” the mother said.
The mother then turned to a friend she was having a conversation with. They continued chatting, but were soon interrupted by the daughter’s crying. “Sweetie, what’s the matter?” asked the mother, astonished. Big tears running down her cheeks, the little girl answered: “Mary is learning to share!”
By Sourajit Aiyer
This article was originally published in Society for Policy Studies’ South Asia Monitor, India.
The United States was the sole superpower after the bipolar Cold-War ended with the Soviet Union’s demise. Then, China started flexing its geopolitical muscle using its manufacturing boom-led foreign exchange to woo developing nations. It is fast expanding its military presence in its neighbourhood.
Russia has become assertive again, and is expanding its influence in Eurasian and Middle East regions, backed by the might of its defence establishment. It is quite a coincidence that the superpowers are often the biggest producers and exporters of defence arms.
By Sourajit Aiyer
This article was originally published by Foreign Policy News USA.
Can the Chinese economic engine really be hit? It is undergoing a transformational change currently, from investment-driven to a consumption-driven one, but that would still enable it to run at a decent speed.
Here are three distinct themes that can severely hit the Chinese engine in the years to come:
Appetite for mergers and acquisitions in the power and utilities sector has reached a two-year high as investor confidence remains elevated, a survey by EY shows.
Oil prices have softened despite heightened geopolitical tensions, but there is a limit to how low they can go.