Markets

Back in 1992, Standard and Poor’s downgraded Canada’s triple A credit rating to AA+ amid concerns over its fiscal health. But in just six years, the budget was balanced and Canada won its prized AAA rating back within a decade....

Over the last 25 years, the share of poor people in developing countries has been cut by half, while impressive development successes have been witnessed in countries once thought beyond help, thanks to effective developmental aid. But, while these results...

Poverty rates are on the rise in the Western world, as recession, rising fuel costs and austerity cuts to social welfare benefits, take their toll on the most vulnerable people. But rather than trying to alleviate the problem, most continue...

The mounting problems that continue to plague the US and the eurozone has left many people worried. These problems have also led to numerous paradigm shifts that could potentially alter the face of the entire global economy. With uncertain times...

The year 2011 has been a roller coaster ride of sorts. It began with the Tunisians toppling their authoritarian regime, which we soon realized was a catalyst for what many have labelled the “Arab Spring.” What we then saw was...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a multilateral free trade agreement that aims to further liberalise the economies of the Asia-Pacific region. While the economics of the TPP is important, the strategic component is even more so. This is the second...

  In just one month, both Greece and Italy have made dramatic changes to their governments. The technocrats are now in charge, with the governments from both nations seeing fit to appoint un-elected officials into power in a desperate attempt...

Germany and the ECB have less power over the eurozone's peripheral countries than they seem to believe. If they continue to insist on concentrating all the pain of economic adjustment in the periphery, the monetary union’s slow-developing train wreck will...

Reading some economists, it might seem that the answer to all current problems is to tax the richest 1 percent and redistribute to everyone else. But if governments tax their rich more, they should do it with the aim of...

The European Union was formed by high-minded elites who believed that closer economic integration and interdependence between nations would result in fewer military conflicts that stemmed from nationalism.  However, the financial crisis that has engulfed the continent has since revealed...

Barclays Chief Executive Bob Diamond surprised many this month when he admitted on a lecture broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Today that banks had done a “poor job” of explaining how they contribute to society and that many people had...

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,...

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,...

 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...

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...