Worldcrunch
-Analysis- After running into some trouble at the end of last week, the virtual currency bitcoin has hit a new high and is now approaching the $12,000-mark, just days after passing $10,000 for the first time. Countless experts are warning that this bubble, like the dotcom bubble before it, will inevitably burst. But until it […]
-OpEd- PARIS — Can a leather ball turn into a bubble? After the extravagant sums of money spent by French soccer team Paris Saint-German to sign Brazilian star Neymar Jr, as well as other splurges by British, Spanish and Italian teams this summer, there’s no avoiding the question: Has soccer become a speculative bubble? The […]
India’s startling announcement last month to swap out most banknotes in circulation — possibly the biggest currency change in decades anywhere in the world — went largely unnoticed outside the country. It was Nov. 8 and most people were captivated by a little election taking place on the other side of the planet. But the […]
NEW DELHI — I am outside the Reserve Bank of India building in New Delhi. It’s 8 a.m. The bank opens at 9 a.m. but more than 300 people have already queued up here. Among them is 60-year-old Mohammad Mustaqeem. He runs a garment shop but hasn’t been able to open it for the last three days. “There’s no business in the market. The only thing for us to do now is to stand in these queues for money because without it we can’t even get food.” “The grocer is now refusing credit so we can’t get milk, we can’t […]
Patrick Jan barely scratches out a living. He is too busy making his childhood dream come true.
A book published recently by French writer Pascal Bruckner cuts to pieces the taboo of money in French society. For him, it’s one of the barriers French needlessly impose on themselves.
“Saving the Planet” isn’t enough. Activists must begin to think about other ways to push people towards an ecological approach to life.
The extreme economic condition that is now practically extinct across the globe could return in Venezuela if a range of corrective measures that are anathema to the socialist government aren’t swiftly instituted.
STUTTGART — Experts are hailing it as a global novelty, and inventors are celebrating it as the “innovation of an era.” The new euro coins that will be released in spring 2016 have a ring of blue plastic minted into them, and the oddity is expected to make them a desirable export. Coins are typically […]
The Church is hugely wealthy and exempt from almost all taxes. But its charitable works are crucial in Greece, ravaged by financial crisis and an inept public sector.
Reflections on the influx of (mostly) wealthy Chinese students enrolling at New York’s Columbia University.
More and more countries are limiting cash transactions and the amount people can carry. Beyond the economic rationale, what are the moral implications?
BEIJING — China’s Prime Minister, Li Keqiang, completed a tour last week of four South American countries — Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile — that marks a turning point between the Asian power and the Latin American region. With his arrival in Brazil on the second day, May 19, Li unveiled a major achievement: a […]
KABUL — Big weddings, music and dancing were banned in Afghanistan under the Taliban. So after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the regime in 2001, Afghans who could afford it began throwing large, loud and expensive weddings. But the government says the tradition has become a burden for grooms’ families, who are obliged to underwrite wedding costs, and the parliament has passed a law to makes lavish and expensive weddings illegal. The new law limits the number of wedding guests to 500 and caps the per-head cost at around $7. “This law will solve huge problems facing young people that make […]
In countries that once invested in free public university systems, higher education is increasingly becoming an investment option turned over to the private sector. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
SHANGHAI — The Ford Motor Company is taking a notably bling-bling approach to this year’s Auto Shanghai 2015 exhibition, leaving the peppy-sporty market to competitors like Toyota and Volkswagen as it angles instead for China’s high rollers. As part of its push for the Asian giant’s upscale markets, the U.S. auto manufacturer debuted its Taurus […]
Located in the middle of the desert, DXB airport now surpasses London’s Heathrow in international travelers. Part museum, part high-end shopping gallery, it’s a global wonder.
PARIS — The odd collection of people visiting the building today includes cartoonists and anti-bomb experts. Also in attendance is the new director of Charlie Hebdo, Riss, whose right arm has been in a sling since one of the bullets fired by the Kouachi brothers shattered his shoulder blade before coming out behind his shoulder. […]
If urban traffic jams and bustling restaurants are symptom of prosperity, long lines outside shops indicate a distorted, depressed economy. This is the current face of Venezuela’s capital.
The past year had lots of bad news, which had us saying lots of bad words, new and old: Ebola, jihadism, selfie. But as a reminder that local and national events often still hold sway, the Word of 2014 in Portugal was corrupção. Corruption was indeed on the lips and minds of Portuguese, as the […]
The past few years have seen Switzerland forced to reveal secret banking details to national authorities. That means a brutal job for the bankers of Geneva
The U.S. currency is stronger on world markets than it’s been in years, which could fundamentally undermine emerging economies that have borrowed trillions in dollars.
The midterm elections were a stinging defeat for Barack Obama. But it was also a wholesale indictment of U.S. politics, which is both disturbing and confounding when viewed from abroad.
Even as President Sirleaf is criticized by some, one opposition parliament member has decided to donate his own time and money to work directly with those affected by the outbreak.
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.
Children as young as four are the main breadwinners for some families in the Syrian capital.
In a small country like Israel, land is finite and costs continue to rise. Burials are expensive, and the rich and poor are laid to rest depending on their means.
In Switzerland, famous and infamous for its secretive banks, the digital currency Bitcoin is already arriving in the real economy.
KHARKIV — There’s a critical situation in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, and it doesn’t involve human rights. If the city zoo doesn’t get more money by Monday, officials say the animals there will begin to die of starvation. Zoo director Aleksey Yakovlev says that there is a pregnant elephant named Tandy who is […]
Six months from kickoff, two economic assessments, pro and con, as the world’s most popular sporting event lands in the ‘B’ of BRICS.
NEW YORK — Because of several successive business trips plus my holiday in the United States, I have been living from one hotel to another for more than two weeks. Obviously I’m also obliged to dine out. What this means in terms of personal finances is that even before paying the hotel or restaurant bills, […]
Though physical money will still be around for a while, the spread of digital money is inevitable for four basic reasons: efficiency, hygiene, durability – and anonymity.
SANA’A — Antar Al-Aldharij pins his opponent down on the mat without using a dagger or a rifle. Yemen“s national judo champion, who trains every afternoon in a gym just outside of the capital, Sana’a, just needs the strength of his arms and bare hands. Al-Aldharij and his teamates share the small room of just […]
BEIJING — The Chinese capital likes to dazzle visitors with the biggest and best projects in the world. Consider, for example, the Olympic Park built for the 2008 games. It is spread over nearly 12 square kilometers, intersected by a canal that, seen from above, resembles a dragon. The park is an exhibition of the […]
AP Worldcrunch DES MOINES – Powerball luck has struck three times — once in Minnesota and twice in New Jersey — for the multistate lottery’s latest massive jackpot. Sue Dooley, senior drawing manager production coordinator for the Multi-State Lottery Association, said late Wednesday night that three tickets matched all six numbers and would split the […]
ROME – Italy won’t be the new Saudi Arabia, but few realize that it does have its own small treasure trove of oil and natural gas, underground and under the seabed. There is, however, one condition required to benefit from it – not saying “No, grazie!” Italians will only see the gushing of oil and […]
ROME – Springtime at her villa must have been something beautiful indeed. Livia was the wife of the emperor Octavian, also known as Caesar Augustus, and her villa was surrounded by a breathtaking landscape that was unparalleled anywhere in the surrounding areas of Rome: hills, fields, and the Tiber river flowing by. Built along the […]
PARIS – Should the 500 euros bill be taken out of circulation? A study by Merrill Lynch raised the question, and it is not a small question, as those bills comprise one-third of the total monetary value of bills currently in circulation, that is to say some 300 billion euros. Still, the bills are very […]
CHINA TIMES, ECONOMIC DAILY (Taiwan); XINHUA (China) WUHAN – In a booming economy, even the dead can help you turn a profit. Friday was Tomb Sweeping Day, or the Qingming Festiva, in China. Set officially as a national holiday on April 4 or 5, this has traditionally been a family day on which people pay […]
BERLIN – With all its other problems, the euro is also getting unexpected — and “underground” — competition from a new virtual currency. It’s called the bitcoin, and in case you haven’t heard, it is the most ambitious (and to-date, successful) attempt to create a new online currency, generated by the calculations of thousands of […]