As uncertainty over Japan's fiscal stimulus roiled the yen and domestic equities, Prime Minister Abe was forced to announce his fiscal intentions earlier than he initially intended.  The JPY27 trillion (~$265 bln) package.   The details are far from clear, which...

  Populism has become a defining feature of the political landscape on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition, populists succeed by “instilling fear of various real or imagined dangers.”     Populism has become a defining feature of the political landscape...

The upheaval sweeping through Zimbabwe comes with a new economic and political reality – the informalisation of the country’s economy. In Zimbabwe today, the informal sector is the economy. The upheaval sweeping through Zimbabwe comes with a new economic and political reality – the informalisation...

Surveying democratic election results around the world, it’s clear the high water mark for globalisation has been met. Free trade, always-questionable economics, is no longer good politics and in many ways has jumped the shark. Surveying democratic election results around the...

  Donald Trump has been bashing free trade for much of his campaign. However, in recent weeks he’s taken his anti-trade tirades to a whole new level in lashing out at the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal that was signed by its 12 Asia-Pacific members but...

On 10 July, Japanese voters will go to the polls in the triennial upper house election. The candidates will be all-too-familiar faces; the party leaders wooden; and policy menus unpalatable. The contest is for only half the seats and voters...

The Leave Campaign’s relentless focus on immigration has seen a rise in hate crime and been acclaimed by Far Right groups across the EU. Members of the victorious Leave Campaign in June 23’s referendum on EU membership (Brexit) claimed to...

  pixinoo / Shutterstock.com     pixinoo / Shutterstock.com Tech giant Apple last week told Politico it would withhold support for the Republican National Convention due to comments made by Donald Trump. Apple competitors Google and Facebook are still supporters though, with...

The 2016 triennial House of Councillors or upper house election is set to test Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policy and popularity. Although the House of Councillors is less powerful than the House of Representatives, past prime ministers have been forced...

  Back in 1991, the eminent political scientist Samuel Huntington pointed out that democratic transitions around the world often come in waves.  He pointed to a “third wave” of democratization that began in the 1970s with Spain and Portugal and...

The UK has decided to seek a divorce from the EU after a 43-year rocky marriage.  It was not an overwhelming decision.  Brexit won by 52%-48% margin, seemingly too small for such a momentous decision. The UK has not decided...

Sterling has been sold beyond the panic low seen when it became clear that UK voters were choosing to leave the EU though nearly every economists warned of at least serious short- to medium-term negative economic implications.  Sterling has been...

In January 2016, Tsai Ing-wen made history after being elected as Taiwan’s first female president. Several women before her such as Park Geun-hye in South Korea, Ying-luck Shinawatra in Thailand and Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar have all risen...

We showed that younger age cohorts in the UK are more inclined to vote to stay in the EU than their elders.  However, some suggested that this consideration is blunted by the fact that the younger people are less likely...

Last year families of the Sandy Hook shooting filed a potentially precedent-setting lawsuit. They sued the manufacturer of the AR-15 rifle that Adam Lanza used to gun down 20 schoolchildren and their teachers in a small town in Connecticut in 2012. Last...