Worldcrunch
-Analysis- RIO DE JANEIRO — Andrew Zimbalist’s Circus Maximus is a book well worth a read. In it, the author — a U.S. economist specialized in the sports industry — argues that there’s a growing consensus among economists that playing host to a mega-event like the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup is a […]
-Analysis- SAO PAULO — Brazil’s leftist Workers’ Party always liked to think of itself as a crusader for the poor. Yet in the wake of the party’s 13 years in power, there are still 73,327,179 citizens living below the poverty line in the country — a staggering 36% of the population. Don’t take it from […]
BEIJING — Much has been made recently about Chinese real estate investors, who spend huge sums snapping up foreign property. Tencent Finance, a Chinese online magazine, published a report on the phenomenon this week, in an article titled: “Those Countries Taken Over By Chinese Property Speculators.” Here’s a breakdown. South Korea: South Korea‘s geographical proximity […]
GENEVA — Imagine a banker getting on a helicopter loaded with bank notes and flying over the whole country, raining money down on the population. This idea came from none other than Milton Friedman. In the late 1960s, as the economy was struggling, the iconic American economist believed that people would jump on the falling […]
RIO DE JANEIRO — If the much-criticized but equally awaited Rio Summer Olympics have had one advantage, it’s that they have shielded the Rio de Janeiro construction industry from the massive layoffs seen elsewhere in Brazil. But as the August launch of the Games approches, so does the fear that some 35,000 workers are going […]
Five centuries after Spanish conquistadors took over Mexico, Mexican billionaires are busy buying up chunks of Spain. After four years of recession, it was the perfect match between cash-rich customers and a needy economy.
In anticipation of international sanctions on Iran being lifted at the beginning of 2016, European executives are chomping at the bit to do business there. But how will a market economy play with the Islamic regime?
BEIJING — China can be proud of its achievements in both business innovation and in creating a technology-driven economy. In recent years Chinese enterprises have taken their place among the heavyweights in the technological sector and, in particular, in the information and communication industry: names such as Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, Tencent and Xiaomi are recognized […]
DUBAI — Unlike other places, where building a new subway line can wind up taking a decade or more, the United Arab Emirates offers a very different approach to major public project deadlines: It meets them. This Gulf metropolis has made itself a regional and global hub for commerce, financial services and investment, and virtually […]
-Analysis- NEW YORK — In the celebrated sci-fi comedy “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” a supercomputer determines that the answer to life, the Universe, and everything is the number 42. The really difficult task, however, is figuring out what the question was in the first place. Sometimes I feel like interest rate hikes are […]
Offering new economic opportunities is at the top of the agenda, though questions about human rights still must be addressed.
Three key factors in the world’s leading economies may slow growth again, and emerging economies could bear the brunt.
The world’s second-largest economy is now Brazil’s top customer for oil, but also its most important buyer of soybeans, iron ore and cellulose.
SYDNEY — Recently in this city’s trendy Darling Harbor district, a new high-end housing project of 581 apartments sold out in just five hours. One third of these flats — costing from 800,000 Australian dollars ($611,000) for a one-bedroom unit to more than 10 million ($7.6 million) for a luxury penthouse loft — were sold […]
RAWABI — Qatari flags, Italian kitchens, WiFi in the streets, green public transport, and apartments for 40,000 inhabitants: Welcome to Rawabi, the first Palestinian city built from scratch. Anwar Hussein, a 48-year-old professor at the University of Bir Zeit, is among the first “pioneer” families who, now that Israeli authorities have finally agreed to connect […]
China is moving into a new phase of both political and economic power that will test both its skills and ambitions far beyond the factory walls.
Germany’s first Sharia-compliant bank wants to revolutionize the finance sector of the European economic juggernaut. Investment in businesses related to alcohol and gambling are prohibited, as is the practice of charging interest, and Muslim and non-
Governments in Latin America and Africa are scrambling to build so-called “stategic trading partnerships” with China. But is it really a win-win situaiton?
RIO DE JANEIRO — The sign outside this modest hair salon in the Rio das Pedras favela, or shantytown, of Rio de Janeiro reads “Belos Fios” (“beautiful hair”). Inside, customers can find Matrix hair color products stacked behind the salon’s two only chairs. This is just one of some 30 small salons, most of them […]
PARIS — The stage is set in the middle of the vast, empty and decidedly cold shed of the Halle Freyssinet, a building formerly used as a shipment hub for trains and trucks near the Austerlitz railway station in Paris. After the presidential lectern is installed, with French and European flags in the background, in […]
France knows the place, China has the money, and now a major joint investment fund for Africa is in the works between Paris and Beijing to help drive the continent’s economic expansion.
Chinese public and private enterprises are looking abroad, and expanding ever more into higher technology industries. It will reshape the future for China, and the world.
Peru, in particular, has had a key role since 1992, when it became the site of China’s first foreign investment. China also likes the fact that Lima puts so few ‘controls’ on commerce.
Haiphong, the third largest Vietnamese city, could become a new Asian transport hub to compete with Hong Kong and Singapore.
The once sleepy coastal city is now buzzing with activity, and foreign investors.
With Argentina’s economy in crisis, Miami real estate has become a nice refuge for well-off Argentines to protect their money from devaluation. But it’s not just about the beaches
Looking to build their branding and attract a more global audience, Chinese companies are increasingly eyeing the major European soccer leagues.
SEOUL — Thanks to the popularity of South Korean television series in China, a wave of Chinese capital is flowing to South Korea. For the first half of this year Chinese investment to South Korea reached $70.8 million, an increase of more than 600% compared with the same period last year. Investment in real estate […]
The emirate of Qatar is tiny, but it wields disproportionate power in the world, where it maintains complicated and often troubling relationships. Just ask Israel.
BEIJING — What is holding back trade expansion with Southeast Asian countries? And why are they always turning to the U.S. whenever something happens? These two questions capture Chinese central concerns as voiced at the recent “China-ASEAN-East Asia: Cooperations and Challenges” forum, an event held by the think tank on China’s public policy Anbound Consulting. […]
China is set to supplant the US as Latin America’s preeminent outside economic power: it remains to be seen if that is a good thing.
Though chances still remain low, Israel wants to be prepared as threats grow of a major global boycott of its goods, like what happened in South Africa in the 1980s.
The new freedom of the Asian nation, also known as Myanmar, has drawn global investors in a race to profit from new development. But Burmese workers and farmers suffer the side-effects.
Six months from kickoff, two economic assessments, pro and con, as the world’s most popular sporting event lands in the ‘B’ of BRICS.
-Op-Ed- MEXICO CITY — I am no energy specialist, but after reading and listening to experts in recent months, I have learned about the fundamental requirements that should drive any major energy-sector reform. Can smart energy policy become the most powerful platform for Mexico’s economic growth? Ramón Espinosa, an analyst at the Inter-American Development Bank […]
Thailand saw a record of capital infusion from abroad in 2012, but the country needs critical upgrades, as it remains totally dependent on technology from outside its borders.
Over the past 15 years, global investors have experienced a series of bubbles: the Internet bubble in 2001, the real estate and credit bubbles in 2008, and then gold this year. The expansions and adjustments of these bursting bubbles seem to have already become commonplace. Though many governments with troubled economies have tried to face […]
Not prone to emotional effusiveness, the Finnish have developed a particular taste for euphemisms: “Naturally, this is a day of big change for Finnish industry,” Premier Jyrki Katainen affirmed modestly last Tuesday, when the country’s best-known company, Nokia, sold its mobile phone outfit to Microsoft for $7.2 billion. That is about 15 times less than […]
By 2034, there will be 400 million people in China over age 60. And now, it seems, the state has finally decided to open up the business of caring for the elderly. What that means.
RANGOON – Down Pyay Road, in the middle of a huge traffic-jam, children walk between old Japanese cars in the stifling heat and humidity. Like in other cities of emerging Asian countries, the children walk through the busy streets to sell soda cans and jasmine flower bouquets that are supposed to help cool down the […]