Markets

The U.S. pivot to Asia has undergone considerable challenges ever since it was first announced in November 2011. Ultimately it is highly unlikely to achieve its main aim – to compel China to accept U.S. leadership in the region. President...

 Abe's reform plan, now in its critical phase, will be derailed if tensions persist, both at home and abroad. After two "lost decades", Japan began its bold but risky reforms a year ago. The new governor of the Bank of...

The concept of environmental capital is throughly entrenched in policy dicussions but largely missing from mainstream economic curriculums. This column argues environmental externalities, climate change, and constraints on natural resources will constantly and deeply affect humankind’s future. The teaching of...

  Contrary to logic, resource-rich countries in Africa have tend to experience less economic growth in the long run than those deprived of natural riches. To reverse this trend, NGOs have been campaigning for greater transparency and accountability in the...

Although not the world’s top military spender, India has been the world’s largest arms importer since 2010. The need to modernise has indeed been one major reason for India’s status as top spender on arms imports. But there are other...

The Cold War has not made a comeback. Rather, the geopolitics of new risks is taking off. The Ukraine crisis is just a tip of the iceberg. Ukraine – On Lifeline Support Despite a tentative agreement on de-escalation in Geneva,...

The world of the popular HBO series Game of Thrones bear striking similarities to that of Western Europe during the 18th century. But whereas the Industrial Revolution saw a rapid advancement in Europe’s society and economy, Westeros has remained the...

Even as ECB officials continue to play down the generalized risk of deflation in region and claim that inflation expectations remain anchored, experts are calling on the central bank to undertake unconventional measures to combat weakness in price pressures that...

The large influx of foreign workers into Singapore has begun to cause tension between immigrants and locals. The obvious solution for the Singaporean government, would be to drastically decrease the number of foreign workers. But here there is a problem:...

 If America’s distributional game continues to create a few big winners and many who consider themselves losers by comparison, the losers will try to stop the game – not out of envy but out of a deep-seated sense of unfairness...

To navigate the U.S. away from the huge monetary stimulus, the Federal Reserve has initiated tapering. But in an integrating world, the emerging economies, especially India, China and Brazil, will see collateral liquidity damage. How will the Fed enforce its...

The rising tensions between China and Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands has led some experts to draw parallels with the Sarajevo incident, which sparked off World War I in Europe. Yet while is a significant risk that the conflict will...

In the eyes of many commentators, the US dollar’s reign as the global reserve currency is under threat from two angles. The first comes from within the US—a permanent deficiency in demand or secular stagnation; and the second from the...

For a year, President Xi Jinping and Premier have talked about the Chinese dream, while outlining massive reforms to pave the way for the realization of the dream. As the Two Sessions took place in Beijing, China’s leaders took a...

The EU – whose most powerful members manifestly do not want to extend EU membership to Turkey – is once again going through the ritual of reconsidering the country's application for membership. There are huge pluses and glaring minuses involved...