Worldcrunch
WASHINGTON — I loved Amazon when it first appeared. It was the 1990s, and I was living in Italy and then China, two countries that are strongly monolingual with a scarce number of foreign-language bookstores. Rome for instance, with three and a half million inhabitants at the time, had a couple of English bookstores and […]
Policymakers have, for the most part, learned to avoid fiscal deficits. And yet, growth numbers (with the exception of certain states) have been stagnant at best.
Will slow growth rates persist in a global dynamic of ‘secular stagnation?’ Or will the IT revolution set off new bursts of productivity?
NEW DELHI — A year after the Harvey Weinstein story first broke, India’s own #MeToo movement is finally taking off. Working women are coming forward on social media with stories and details of various forms of sexual harassment and misconduct. These stories, painful as they are to process, are necessary to read so as to engage with some important questions that they raise: What is it that keeps the perpetrators of sexual harassment and misconduct continually in positions of power? What keeps victims silent? And above all else, what steps need to be taken to remedy this? One often overlooked […]
Jair Bolsonaro is threatening to curtail rights and liberties, and bring the army back into politics. He’s also the front-runner heading into Sunday’s presidential election.
A worsening economy in Argentina may cause political shifts before the 2019 presidential elections.
The flood of people fleeing Venezuela’s dire economic and political situation is more than any one country can handle. But so far, there’s been little effort to organize a coordinated reaction.
-Analysis- CARACAS — Artificial Intelligence is opening up new opportunities for the economy and society. But it will also affect millions of human jobs, and thus poses a huge challenge for public policymakers, warns a 2016 White House report on AI’s projected impact on the U.S. economy. Among other things, the report predicts that AI […]
-OpEd- MADRID — Since September 2015, when the UN General Assembly launched its 2030 Agenda — a plan to reach 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within 15 years — the concepts have been gaining momentum worldwide. The ultimate purpose of the SDGs is to eradicate poverty, and slowly but surely, people are realizing their importance […]
Proposed changes to the trilateral trade accord could scare off investors, hurt Mexican automakers, and sour relations with Canada, analyst Luis Rubio argues.
Spare a thought for the globe-trotting European stock salesman. Europe’s equities have seen 25 straight weeks of fund outflows, according to Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, wiping out all of 2017’s inflows. It’s the only region recording meaningful outflows this year — even emerging markets, performing far worse, can’t make that claim. So why can’t Europe get any love? The push factors are obvious: From Brexit to the Italian budget, Europe is still a continent that has a reputation for in-fighting for global investors. At the same time, the pull factors are lacking: Economic and earnings growth is decent but unimpressive […]
Rising tariffs between the U.S. and China may boost trade between China and Latin American states, but ultimately this could harm their economies if all China wants is energy and commodities.
By allying themselves commercially, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru have created a massive consumer base — just what new, home-grown tech firms need to grow and prosper.
Donald Trump’s all-out trade war has a singular source of ammunition, even as China is pushing to make the RMB a global currency on par.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador promises to give Mexico an extreme socialist makeover. But he also wants to keep doing business with the U.S. and boost investor confidence.
The bulk of Mexico’s 122 million people remain mired in poverty, and with little chance to escape it. Even the middle classes struggle to be upwardly mobile. Food for thought, for incoming Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
A waste processing center in the Argentine capital turns almost half the city’s refuse into reusable materials such as compost, wood chips and plastic pellets.
There are three candidates but really just two choices in Sunday’s presidential election in Mexico: Move forward? Or try to recreate the past?
BEIJING — The exhibition was called “Secret,” and opened in the Wuhan Art Museum in April. And what was in the show? The personal information of the 346,000 citizens of the central Chinese city of Wuhan that the artist Deng Yufeng had bought on the black market. Previously treated with a special chemical, certain parts […]
TOKYO — Since Japan“s fiscal year starts in April each year, it is in May that the country’s major corporations announce their financial statements for 2017. Most top Japanese companies have had notably great results. The net profits of Toyota and Mitsubishi, for example, hit new all-time highs for their three and ten-year results respectively. […]
-Analysis- BUENOS AIRES — As then President Juan Domingo Perón made clear in a 1951 speech, concerns in Argentina over the price of the U.S. dollar are nothing new. “I ask you this,” he said. “Why do you want dollars? Who’s ever seen a dollar?” Perón posed the question to political opponents who were complaining […]
The U.S. trade deficits that have prompted the Trump administration to raise tariffs have a result of the universal use of dollars and are unrelated to ‘unjust’ trading practices.
With Castro’s retirement as Cuban President, Cuba is left to face ongoing issues of the communist party — primarily the shambling economy.
BERLIN — Donald Trump’s protectionist push is prompting a trade war with the entire world — Germany included, as his announcement last month about steel and aluminum tariffs made abundantly clear. But that, it turned out, may have just the tip of the iceberg. He’s now threatening Germany’s most important industry: auto manufacturing. On Friday […]
Prospects of a rising dollar in 2018 could push developing countries like Argentina to take conservative measures like raising interest rates and curbing deficits.
The city in the U.S. midwest has found a different way to make it in the modern economy.
The economic and political tragedy unfolding in Venezuela should be a call to action for the rest of the region’s countries, especially with the early presidential election (April 22) looming.
Bitcoin has proved popular in Colombia, especially in small retail operations. But is it being used by criminals?
At first glance, it looks as though leaders of the world’s most powerful countries learned the lesson from the 1930s: Closing the borders is harmful. But in reality, protectionism has taken on new forms.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is breaking with recent U.S. convention by portraying China as a rival that wants to undermine American prosperity. But it may take more than an aggressive tone to change the complex relationship between two economies that are joined at the hip. In a new national-security strategy released Monday, the White House lumped China with Russia as powers seeking to “challenge American power, influence, and interests,” and attempting to erode the country’s security and prosperity. “We will attempt to build a great partnership with those and other countries, but in a manner that always protects our […]
The sale and trade of women in Syria is not a wanton and senseless consequence of war. It is a consequence of a war economy in which nearly all warring parties and even civilians use women to secure profit, weapons, access or leverage in negotiations.
-Analysis- PARIS — The Catalan flag fluttered alongside the European flag and its 12 stars on Oct. 27, when Catalonia declared its independence from Spain. But Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, didn’t appreciate this tribute to Europe. “We shouldn’t insert ourselves into what is an internal debate for Spain,” he warned. “I […]
Boats will soon be capable of sailing without captains on board. The first tests will take place next year.
The Marxist leader killed in an ambush in 1967 achieved icon status as a warrior for the revolution. But it’s his proposals about the economy that have lasting value.
Will China’s unfulfilled promises of real market reforms finally come to pass? Eyes on the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party, opening on Oct. 18.
With the arrival of tech-heavy, self-driving vehicles, makers of traditional cars will have to adapt. But so too will everyone from real estate agents to insurers and tax collectors.
China, for one, sees the incumbent German Chancellor as the ‘mother if not grandmother’ of all of Europe. Her likely victory will be good news for her nation, and the planet.
The West is in relative decline, especially compared to Asia, but no obvious alternative ‘system’ has emerged.
DETROIT — Outside Detroit, plans have been in the works for two years to transform the outdated Lakeside Mall into an open-air center with green space and a waterway. With the property in foreclosure and its ownership in limbo, the blueprints will have to be flexible. The mall’s troubles have spiraled since landlord GGP Inc. stopped paying the mortgage last year and then failed to find a buyer for the property amid turmoil in the retail industry. The center’s value, already less than the $135 million loan, was slashed another $25 million in February. Officials for the city of Sterling […]
NEW YORK — For six months now, almost all the news about Uber has been bad. Even before then, the ride-hailing company’s combative executive team displayed a remarkable facility for generating negative headlines, but since former Uber engineer Susan Fowler went public in February about seemingly systemic sexual-harassment problems at the company, it’s just been one disaster after the other. Ugly lawsuit over allegedly stealing autonomous-car secrets from Google parent Alphabet? Check! Revelations of a concerted effort to evade regulators around the world? Check! Embarrassing video of co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick rudely berating a diver? Check! Board […]