Markets

 30 September 2011. There have been many rogue traders in the course of financial history. Bernard “Bernie” Madoff operated the world’s largest Ponzi scheme and was sentenced to 150 years behind bars in June 2009. One would imagine that a recent...

29 September 2011. He who laughs last laughs best. For decades, European countries were the colonial masters of Africa, dividing the continent at their own whim and exploiting the abundant resources available for their own purposes. Yet today, there has...

  Despite being contrarian to Islamic beliefs, opium production is one of the biggest industries for the war-torn country. Afghanistan alone is responsible for supplying more than 90 percent of the world’s opium, the raw material for manufacturing heroin to...

27 September 2011. A crisis of confidence envelops the global economy today. Too much debt is denting confidence – in turn holding back spending, investment and job creation. In these circumstances, we need collective action for global recovery along four...

 26 September 2011. The massive contagion spreading across euro zone countries have morphed into an urgent problem for policy makers. Some claim the euro is too big to fail, others assert that it is too big to bail. The pros...

21 September 2011.  Human trafficking is a global industry worth $32 billion and places millions of vulnerable people from poor countries in servitude, but the number of successful prosecutions is still pitifully small. 21 September 2011.  Human trafficking is a...

20 September 2011. Global markets are in unchartered territory. A series of austerity measures have been announced, but the news coming out from Europe and the United States continue to bear the same consistent note of pessimism. The risks ahead are...

19 September 2011. Unemployment in the US has remained above 9 percent for 22 of the last 24 months. While some are supporting additional stimulus, others are calling for UK-style austerity. With Nobel-prize winning economists on either side of the...

14 September 2011. The obvious solutions to economic stagnation have been tried and have failed. Clearly, more innovative ideas are needed to reinvigorate the economy. The latest proposed solution making its round have been to use a sharp, contained bout...

The G-20 lost it way after 2009 when its member states abandoned efforts to coordinate global economic policies for national solutions. Going alone though has reached its limits. The way forward to sustained growth and employment is not through a...

The events of September 11 2001 forever altered the course of human history. Till today, Americans continue to bear the bulk of the cost for the tragedy – both economically and socially. However in the aftermath of 9/11, it has...

7 September 2011. Belgium has not had a government in over 15 months. Yet their economy somehow managed to outperform those of the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, Finland, and Switzerland in the last quarter of this year. Are government...

  6 September 2011 Iraq’s economy is recovering fast. Despite ever-present threats to its political, social and economic stability, the IMF still expects its GDP to grow by 12.5 percent in 2011 – largely on the back of increased oil...

The scale of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March was far greater than even the authorities’ worst nightmare scenarios foresaw. Now, nearly half a year after the crisis, Japan has a rare opportunity to undertake the comprehensive...

The mad pursuit of corporate profits is threatening us all. To be sure, we should support economic growth and development, but only in a broader context: one that promotes environmental sustainability and the values of compassion and honesty that are...