Categories
Economy Ideas Society

The French Worker-Slacker Paradox: Why More Hours May Not Be The Answer

The Macron government says France needs to work more — and it has a point. The French people disagree — and they’re not wrong. Here’s why, and how to bridge the gap.

Categories
Economy Ideas

Corruption As The Norm? Why Most Of India Is Yawning At Adani Bribery Charges

India operates in the gap between what society considers morally acceptable and what is legally permitted. While instances of blatant corruption can still shock, the idea of corruption in India is not condemned in its totality.

Categories
Economy

Nigeria: How Africa’s Largest Democracy Is Barely Holding On

With a population of more than 200 million, Nigeria is facing a series of crises: an economy at its lowest, endemic corruption and insecurity throughout a large part of the country. Despite the challenges it faces and its history of military coups, the country is holding firm, but for how long?

Categories
Economy Eyes on the U.S. Geopolitics

State Efficiency? What Elon Musk And Trump Don’t Understand About Government Spending

U.S. President-elect Trump has tasked billionaire businessman Elon Musk with making the government cost-efficient. That may be an admirable objective, but the ideology driving it is wrong-headed… and dangerous.

Categories
Economy Food / Travel Society

Tired Of Overtourism, Spanish Cities Target Short-Term Rentals

Malaga has announced plans to ban the registration of new holiday accommodation in up to 43 neighborhoods of the city, joining a long list of Spanish municipalities fighting mass tourism and its impact on real estate and rent prices.

Categories
Economy Future

AI For Africa? The Best And Worst Of Times

AI could offer a great new way in to the global economy for sub-Saharan Africa. Yet with some 20 million jobs needed to be created annually to absorb the massive influx of young people in the labor market, AI could also create new unemployment.

Categories
Economy Geopolitics

Now Even Elephants Are Fleeing Tunisia

Tunisians are among the largest group of people migrating to Europe due to the lack of decent living conditions in the North African country. But now even animals are being pushed to the brink by the neglect and mismanagement of resources.

Categories
Economy Ideas

Modi’s Support For Indicted Tycoon Adani Could Cost India Dearly

As Indian billionaire Gautam Adani faces U.S. indictment, the implications for his longtime support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration are significant — all the while raising concerns about India’s sovereignty and the costs of protecting influential business allies.

Categories
Economy Eyes on the U.S. Future

Trump’s Victory Marks New Dawn For Crypto — And A Global Spike In Corruption

With a pro-crypto agenda and substantial backing from industry investors, Donald Trump’s presidency is poised to reshape the landscape of digital currencies, promising a future where Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies thrive under favorable regulations and government support.

Categories
Economy Eyes on the U.S. Geopolitics special series Trump And The World

Chinese Ambitions In Latin America Have Caught Washington Sleeping

China has become Latin America’s leading partner, under the nose of the United States, which is busy elsewhere. Xi Jinping inaugurated a Chinese-built megaport in Peru, underscoring Beijing’s growing influence in the region — and the looming showdown with the future Trump administration.

Categories
Economy Eyes on the U.S. Future special series Trump And The World

How Trump’s Return Could Turn Into A Huge Opportunity For European Tech

The United States seeks to strengthen its competitive edge over the European Union through broad deregulation. While this poses a genuine risk, it also presents Europe with a chance to step up and fill a void, globally.

Categories
Economy Food / Travel

The Mysterious Threat To Norway’s Lucrative King Crab Industry

For the past two decades, Norway has developed an industrial and tourist sector around the king crab, a giant crustacean whose leg span can exceed two meters. But this boon for the economy of the great Norwegian north is now in more than a pinch.

Categories
Economy Geopolitics

Capitalism Without Democracy — China Has It, Trump May Try It Too

Many experts are counting on Trump’s economic policies to be a disaster. But that doesn’t have to happen: he could leave the economy to his advisors, and focus his attention on consolidating power.

Categories
Economy Society

How Homeownership Dreams Are Dashed In Zimbabwe

A rent-to-own program aimed to help black citizens obtain property in a post-colonial world. Decades later, many homebuyers are still waiting to call their house their own.

Categories
Economy

Is The Chinese Economic Miracle Over? These Five Key Signs Say It Is

China’s economy is doing badly. The party leadership will not tolerate criticism of its course, but is looking for ways out of the crisis. These five problems could hinder China’s growth for a long time.

Categories
Economy Future Geopolitics Green

Can Serbian Environmentalists Block Europe’s Richest Lithium Mine?

A $2.4 billion project to exploit lithium deposits in Serbia’s Jadar Valley could cover 90% of Europe’s current lithium needs. But the plan has sparked protests across the country and created an unlikely coalition of opposition, which President Aleksandar Vučić’s government has sought to suppress.

Categories
Economy Geopolitics Ideas

Worms And Blackouts: Cuba’s Dark Reality Of Missed Opportunities

Cuba’s current energy crisis is a dramatic illustration, symbolic and otherwise, of the overall downfall of a country that could have followed the successful models of its Asian cousins. Faced with a socioeconomic dead-end, record numbers of Cubans are fleeing the country.

Categories
Economy Eyes on the U.S. Geopolitics

Meet The Palm Beach Billionaires Bankrolling Trump’s Return To The White House

Since Donald Trump made Mar-a-Lago his permanent home, the super-rich enclave of Palm Beach, Florida, has become the heartbeat of the MAGA movement — and its fundraising campaign. Heike Buchter, U.S. correspondent for the German daily Die Zeit reports on the billionaires there who support him and his tax policies.

Categories
Economy Society

Hospitals Without Doctors: The Decline Of Italy’s Public Healthcare System

Years of budget cuts and a sluggish economy have pushed Italy’s public healthcare system to the brink. As doctors and nurses flee the country in search of better pay, it is in communities along the border with Switzerland where the cracks are most visible.

Categories
Economy

The Vacant Apartments Of Shaoguan, Symbol Of China’s Real Estate Crisis

China’s real estate crisis is hitting small, unattractive cities like Shaoguan hard. This city of 3.3 million residents in the far south of the country has a stock of empty apartments that could take 10 years to sell.

Categories
Economy Food / Travel Green special series

Turkey’s Hazelnut Trap: Why Nutella Is Eating Up All The Profits

Turkey is the top world producer of hazelnuts. Yet, very little trickles down to its producers, and to Turkey in general. One Italian company, in particular, reaps the rewards of its harvest.

Categories
Economy

Why India Has Failed To Overtake China As The “New Factory Of The World”

Ten years after the launch of the Modi’s “Make in India” program, India’s industry problem has deepened — just like its dependence to China.

Categories
Economy Ideas

Economics Nobel, A View From The East: Revenge Of The State

Honoring the research of Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson marks a comeback for the importance of public institutions in economics.

Categories
Economy Future Society

Why Big Pharma Refuses To Take On The Threat Of Antibiotic-Resistant Germs

Millions of people could die from antibiotic-resistant germs in the near future. But there are very few new antibiotics in the research pipelines of the big pharmaceutical companies, which are focused on developing more profitable drugs. What is behind this blatant injustice — and what can be done about it?

Categories
Economy Geopolitics Russia-Ukraine War

The Other Enemy That Could Force Russia To Accept Defeat: Low Oil Prices

Since the end of the 20th century, the idea has spread that there’s a fundamental link between energy prices and Moscow’s ability to carry out military aggression. After all, low energy prices were one of the factors behind the economic collapse of the USSR.

Categories
Economy Geopolitics

China-Germany: Trying To Avoid A Head-On Collision Over Electric Cars

Germany is trying to avoid tariffs on Chinese electric cars because it is interested in selling its own cars to China — and wants to avoid direct confrontation. But the European Union has decided to impose new tariffs. All of this may wind up as a full-fledged new trade war between China and Germany.

Categories
Economy Russia-Ukraine War

Privilege v. Patriotism: How Russia’s Nepo Babies Dodge War Mobilization

The offspring of Russia’s elite were used to luxury loft apartments, expensive cars and carefree living. So how did Putin’s successive drafts of new troops impact them? As independent Russian news platform Vazhnyye Istorii found out, life essentially continues as normal.

Categories
Economy

Legacy Of Leadership: Ratan Tata’s Death Marks The End Of An Era

The “titan” of Indian business, Ratan Tata, has died at 86. Under his leadership, the Tata Group evolved into a global powerhouse, renowned for its integrity and expansive reach.

Categories
Economy Geopolitics

What The Chinese Stock Market Says About Xi Jinping’s Thirst For Power

The Shanghai stock market soared following the announcement of an economic recovery plan, but then ran out of steam. It’s a symbol of the Chinese people’s wavering confidence amid mounting crises and Xi Jinping’s grab for absolute power.

Categories
Economy Russia-Ukraine War

Fozzy, The Ukrainian Supermarkets Resisting The Russian Invader

Founded by four amateur musicians with a passion for rock, Ukraine’s largest holding company, which includes supermarkets and banks, has paid a heavy price for the war. But that has not stopped Fozzy Group from using its economic power to serve its threatened homeland.

Categories
Economy Eyes on the U.S. Future

Country Folk Vs. Silicon Valley: The Rural County Fighting Big Tech’s New City Project

Tech’s biggest fortunes are funding a project to build a new city of 400,000 people just an hour outside of San Francisco. But the residents of the region’s most rural county are resisting.

Categories
Economy Food / Travel Green

How French Winegrowers Are Trying To Save Vineyards From Climate Change

While wine consumption is declining and operating costs increasing, winegrowers also face increasingly frequent and extreme climatic hazards. Is this the last straw? As the sector is preparing for a new uprooting plan, some winemakers are looking into ways to adapt to the new market needs and climatic conditions.

Categories
Economy Women Worldwide

Women Abused In “Made In India” System — Blame Top European Fashion Brands Too

Women who are garment workers for well-known European labels face frequent gender-based violent harassment, caste-based discrimination, wage theft, forced termination, and other forms of labor and human rights violations. The laws simply don’t help.

Categories
Economy Society

Hanoi-To-Bavaria, Vietnamese Pay The Price To Chase Their “German Dream”

Many young Vietnamese pay huge sums to get a training position in Germany. Only very few of them have any idea what they are getting themselves into. It’s a troubling twist to the eternal struggles of the immigrant journey.

Categories
Economy Green

Will The New Sri Lankan President Tear Down Adani’s Plans For A Massive Wind Farm?

The outgoing Sri Lankan government had signed an agreement in secret for the Indian conglomerate Adani to build a wind farm in the north of the country. Now the newly elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake arrives with plans to scrap the massive project.

Categories
Economy Geopolitics

Mexican Judicial Reform: Boost To Democracy Or Gift To Drug Cartels?

Mexico’s ruling party has reformed the constitution, forcing judges to run for office, supposedly to make them accountable to the people. But given the country’s history and singular problem with crime, it may turn them instead into ordinary politicians vulnerable to bribery and mob terrorism.

Categories
Economy

How China Is Bringing Its Tech Billionaires Back Into The Communist Party Fold

The resurgence of China’s richest tech billionaire might seem like a positive signal of a more permissive market environment. But it’s worth remembering that Beijing remains the ultimate authority to regulate and mobilise market resources.

Categories
Economy

With China’s Upwardly Mobile, Crashing Out Of The Luxury Market

New reports indicate that luxury sales in mainland China have fallen by approximately 10% so far this year, and talking to those who used to buy European brand bags and clothes, it’s going to be virtual austerity for the foreseeable future.

Categories
Economy

Wolfsburg Postcard: Wealth, Wheels And Anxiety In Volkswagen’s Company Town

No place says Volkswagen like Wolfsburg. The city and the brand live in symbiosis, and for a long time, this has been beneficial to both. Now, the times of prosperity might be over. A visit to the quiet and historically prosperous corner of western Germany.

Categories
Economy Geopolitics Ideas

The Misery Paradox: Unpacking Cuba’s Eternally Broken Economy

Cuba is approaching a state of economic collapse and has turned to the UN for food assistance for the first time in its history. While Havana blames the U.S. embargo for its economic woes, the reality is quite the opposite.

Exit mobile version