A Global Transcendence of Change – What The 99% Really Want: Joseph Stiglitz
Across the world, protestors are agitating for change. On one level, the protesters are asking for little: a chance to use their skills, the right to decent work at decent pay, a fairer economy and society. Their hope is evolutionary,...
A New Russian Empire: What Exactly Is Putin Planning?
If Russia has its way, a Eurasian Union (EuU) will be formed by 2015 – comprising of Russia and many of its former territories under the old Soviet Union regime. The EuU, while not a recreation of the Soviet Union,...
The Blame Game: If The Banks Didn’t Cause The Financial Crisis, What Did?
For a few years now, the banking industry has shouldered much of the blame for the massive financial crisis that is threatening the health of the global economy, while many others have been quick to point out the glaring lack...
Reclaiming Economics As A Moral Science
Many believe that science is about innovation that can improve the living conditions of humanity. For decades, the study of economics was conceived and taught as a “moral science,” until the fateful day Cambridge University decided to categorize economics under...
Capitalism’s Pallbearers: The Companies That Run, & Could Destroy, The Global Economy
Systems analysts have shown that a “super entity” of interconnected transnationals dominate the world economy. Their political power is such that even politicians fear the consequences of breaking their monopoly. But unless something can be done, the whole system is...
Capital Controls & Currency Wars: Will The G-20 Get It Right?
In April this year, the IMF published a preliminary set of guidelines for capital controls that would impose a “code of conduct” for governments that wished to regulate the flow of capital in and out of their capital accounts. It...
America’s China-Centric Blame Game Is Absurd: Stephen S. Roach
China-bashing in the US has now reached unprecedented levels. While China does account for 42 percent of America’s trade deficit, few realise that the US actually also runs deficits with 87 other countries. At the same time, most of the...
Can The Financial Stability Board Live Up To Its Name? :Olin Wethington
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) was formed in the midst of the global financial crisis in order to coordinate urgent international regulatory-reform efforts and ensure greater financial stability and global consistency of rules. Yet today, the FSB continues to be...
Is Occupy Wall Street Bringing Back “Real” Capitalism?
Modern capitalism, as we know it, is a sick and distorted perversion of its true origins. Since the 1980s, the form of capitalism that has dominated western economies has been one where large corporations and most financial institutions are...
The American Economy Is In Danger of Stalling: Mohamed El-Erian
Stall speed is a terrifying risk for an economy like that of the US, which desperately needs to grow robustly. However, The private sector alone cannot and will not counter the risk of stall speed. What is desperately needed is...
Development, But At What Price? Lessons from the Happiest Place in Asia
At last month's UN General Assembly, Bhutan's Prime Minister denounced what he called a “monster of a consumerist market economy” that “enslaves humanity and thrives on the insatiable nature of our greed,” urging instead for an alternative form of economic...
Economic Bogeymen Are Threatening Our Long-Term Recovery: Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Despite the need for strong and sustained fiscal stimulus in many countries, today's political leaders seem to be held hostage by financial interests and associated media, ideologists, and oligarchs. As a result, the main threat that now confronts us is...
Appetite For Self-Destruction: Have Rating Agencies Lost The Plot?
If Moody’s, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s had a decent public relations consultant he/she would advise a calm period of low profile, or, in other words, the exact opposite strategy to the headline-chasing frenzy that appears to have gripped...
Why Inequality Will Only Lead To Our Downfall: Nouriel Roubini
Any economic model that doesn’t properly address inequality will eventually face a crisis of legitimacy, as today's global protests are now demonstrating. Unless the relative economic roles of the market and the state are rebalanced, the protests of 2011 will...
The Libyan Fallout – Lessons For Global Sovereign Wealth Funds: Efraim Chalamish
The Libyan Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund in which Muammar el-Qaddafi’s regime allegedly stashed and misused Libya’s oil wealth, has cast a dark shadow on SWFs all across the world. While no one should infer from the Libyan case...