Economics

Cheap oil was supposed to boost consumer spending, but instead consumers spent less as incomes fell.  According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. GDP grew at just a 2.6% annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2014, far below...

For the West, democracy is not only a core value but also represents the best possible form of government for all nations.  This notion determined how the Western media perceived, interpreted and covered events in the 2014 Hong Kong protest....

The water level continues to rise in the Northern Aral Sea thanks to the Kokaral Dam and 13-kilometer dike at the southern edge of the recovering lake. As the northern part of the Aral Sea, once the world’s fourth-largest lake,...

The UN needs a new strategy to address human rights violations in North Korea: a strategy that goes beyond a simplistic dichotomy of good versus bad and right versus wrong. The UN needs a new strategy to address human rights...

Although unemployment claims have fallen to their lowest point in fifteen years, home sales are tumbling as price gains make homes unaffordable for millions.Throughout 2013 and 2014, housing saw steady price gains while low interest rates, which fell markedly throughout...

Silicon Valley has become a synonym for innovation and, with its ecosystem of super-moneyed venture capitalists, it is world renowned as a hub for new products and software. Europe meanwhile has struggled to produce the likes of Facebook, Amazon or...

The Federal Reserve expects inflation to rise gradually to 2%, leaving time for the central bank to wait before raising interest rates.The Federal Reserve said Wednesday afternoon in a statement that low energy costs were keeping inflation muted, which was...

Home prices and home sales continue to rise, while consumer confidence unexpectedly surged to its highest point since 2007.Consumer confidence surged to 102.9 in January, up over 10% from its December levels. According to the Conference Board, the consumer confidence...

When we think about income and wealth inequalities we are tempted to lay blame on the old way of doing things. In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty picks out inherited money as a driver of unsustainable disparities between...

In a documentary that aired recently on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's popular The Fifth Estate program, an allegory of Vladimir Putin was presented. The wily Russian president was described growing up in a shabby St. Petersburg apartment, where he would...

On 22nd January 2015, European Central Bank announced its plan to revive Eurozone’s stagnant economy agreeing to pump in €60 billion ($69 billion) per month thus grabbing headlines. Quantitative Easing (QE) is not an unfamiliar policy in the financial world....

The Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting concludes Wednesday.  To the extent the FOMC meeting is ever routine, this should be it.  Its forward guidance evolved at the end of last year.  The “considerable time” between the end of the asset purchase...

After several months of dismissing disinflationary trends, the European Central Bank has affirmed that it will do whatever it takes to reach its inflation target.After prices fell in the Eurozone by 0.1% on a month-to-month and 0.2% on a year-to-year...

As the demonizing of Syriza gives way to post-electoral analysis, its victory appears anti-austerity, not anti-EMU.  Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and a small conservative party, Independent Greeks, have agreed in principle to form a coalition.  The period of political...

Reasonable people can debate some of the details, but there was little doubt that last week's big event, the ECB's asset purchases, was widely anticipated.  Nevertheless, what is striking is the repeated surprises by officials over the past several months. ...