In the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, investment capital became far scarcer and efforts to ensure SWF transparency and accountability gave way to competition for their capital. Far from a source of apprehension, SWFs have become beneficiaries of fiscal incentives designed to encourage investment in Europe. Read Here – Project Syndicate Abu Dhabi’s […]
Politicians routinely bemoan the loss of good blue-collar jobs. Work like that is correctly seen as a pillar of civil middle-class society. And it may yet be again. What if the next big blue-collar job category is already here—and it’s programming? Read Here – Wired
19 million more jobs! Yes, that’s the number of additional jobs that would have been created had ‘average’ cities performed as well as their competitive counterparts. 75% of these jobs would have been in the private sector. What is a competitive city? How does a city become one? Is your city competitive? Read Here – […]
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the opening plenary of the 2017 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos. Here are 10 quick takeaways from the 50-minute address, which touched upon globalization, protectionism, world economy and China’s development among other subjects. Read Here – Xinhua
Trends such as rising income inequality and societal polarisation triggered political change in 2016 and could exacerbate global risks in 2017 if urgent action is not taken, according to the Global Risks Report 2017 Read Here – World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2017
Had there been no financial crisis in 2007/08 with all the consequences that came with it, the economic outcomes—and, therefore, political history—of the last eight years would have been markedly different. We can talk about globalisation and income inequality until we are blue in the face, but these issues alone don’t explain what’s happening, and […]
The sheer range of known unknowns for 2017 — the outlook for China’s economy, the effect of populism on European politics, the scattergun policy-making of president-elect Donald Trump — makes a low level of uncertainty unlikely to persist. Read Here – BloombergView
Even before Donald Trump enters the White House and formally abandons a U.S.-led trade deal that represented a cornerstone of his country’s economic policy in Asia, Chinese President Xi Jinping will get a chance to prove his willingness to step into the leadership vacuum. Read Here – Bloomberg
Escaping the liquidity trap means engineering a dramatic rise in expectations for future demand growth. It means a clear departure from past practice: a regime change. And whether the tool used to engineer the shift in expectations is monetary or fiscal, it cannot occur without strong political support. Read Here – The Economist
A Trump victory could be followed by a rapprochement with Russia. This could mean lifting of Treasury sanctions on the Kremlin and a boost to investment in Russian energy assets. Does any of that sound bullish to the oil price? More investment in Russian infrastructure surely means more oil capacity from the world’s largest producer, […]
looking beyond borders 