Barack Obama, re-elected president of the United States, will start his new term in January. Xi Jinping, who will lead China for the next decade, will start his stint soon after. The two will have to become friends if they are to ensure that the global economy’s baby steps towards recovery are not crushed midway. […]
IN SEVEN weeks America‘s federal budget will self-destruct and plunge America back into recession unless Barack Obama can persuade the Republicans in Congress to raise taxes, which they have vowed never to do. So what is he doing between now and then? He’s heading off to visit south-east Asia and attend the East Asian Summit. […]
It’s too bad that Mitt Romney didn’t win. If the Republicans had won, we could finally have known for sure that our suspicion of America‘s imminent demise is correct. “Four more years,” translated into the German viewpoint means little more than a “four-year reprieve.” For the über-watchful among us, the signs of the downfall are […]
It’s not the eco-nomy, stupid! That is the biggest takeaway from the recent presidential election in America. If anything, it was really about identity. As Barack Obama was not of the right colour, his opponents felt that his elevation in 2008 was because they had not stressed identity enough. They would have dearly liked to peel his skin off, […]
LET him savour, for a day or two, a victory that many had said could not happen. No president since FDR had been re-elected with unemployment so high. The country seemed pessimistic and bitterly divided, on racial grounds even more than on economic ones. His best-known achievement, health-care reform, had turned out to be deeply […]
Throughout the campaign season, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama alike insisted that the 21st century must be another American century—that the U.S. should continue to be the world’s predominant military, economic, and political power for generations to come. After ten years of shattered hegemonic dreams, leaders of both parties still feel compelled to declare their […]
The race was tough, but US President Barack Obama has won re-election. The question now, for the United States and the world, is what will he do with a fresh four-year term? To win re-election with a still-weak economy and unemployment close to 8% was not easy. Many leaders – Nicolas Sarkozy, Gordon Brown, and […]
In the end, President Barack Obama won re-election on the issue that was supposed to send him packing: the sluggish U.S. economy. The United States is still digging out from the deepest recession in 80 years, and employers are barely adding enough jobs to keep pace with population growth. Trillions of dollars of household wealth have vanished in […]
Barack Obama, the post-partisan candidate of hope four years ago who became the first black U.S. president, won re-election by overcoming four years of economic discontent with a mix of political populism and electoral math. Obama defeated Republican Mitt Romney, with the Associated Press projecting the president winning at least 303 electoral votes in yesterday’s election, with 270 […]
In theory and on paper, there should be no doubt that the market would much rather have a deregulating, tax-cutting, financially savvy investor in the White House. Mitt Romney is the closest thing to an accomplished businessman to get this far in a presidential race since Ross Perot ran 20 years ago. Yet you can’t help but get the […]
looking beyond borders 