“Rebooting Franco-German cooperation” By Sophie Pornschlegel, courtesy of EPC The alliance between France and Germany has significantly deteriorated in 2019, with little to no hope for improvement in 2020. They have no one to blame but themselves: Germany has shown a lack of ambition and vision in European policy, while Macron made tactical errors with […]
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The Sake-Scotch Pact: New EU-Japan alliance forming
“A Surprising New Alliance: Europe and Japan” Courtesy of CEPS Almost surreptitiously, Europe and Japan are discovering they have a great deal in common, joining up to defend free trade, democracy and the rule of law. For decades, low-grade commercial friction and political indifference marked the relationship. Japan’s powerful car industry frightened […]
Don’t loosen bank rules for Green New Deal
“European green finance is expanding, a discount on bank capital would discredit it” By Alexander Lehmann, courtesy of the Bruegel Institute The Commission’s ‘European Green Deal’ sets out massive investment needs in a variety of areas, amounting to potentially 1.5 per cent of the EU’s annual GDP. If these targets are to be […]
Beware AMLO’s authoritarian tendencies
“AMLO and the “Fourth Transformation” in Mexico” By Roberto Salinas-León, courtesy of the Cato Institute According to Enrique Krauze, Mexico’s prominent classical‐liberal intellectual, new “winds of authoritarianism” are sweeping across Latin America, characterized by all‐mighty caudillos who ascend to political power via democratic means, but who then seek to concentrate control over a tightly knit polity […]
Don’t buy the Treasury’s Chinese currency hype – then or now
“US Treasury’s Currency Report on China is a Case Study in Political Manipulation” By Daniel Griswold, courtesy of Mercatus Center The US Treasury’s semi-annual report issued this week on the exchange rate policies of China and other major trading partners is an exercise in intellectual gymnastics. The report reiterates that China was indeed a currency […]
Washington Beyond The Headlines: New Trade Deals Will Bolster Strong U.S. Economy
By Andy Blom, TES Washington Editor January 16, 2020 A BIG week in Washington! Impeachment staggers forward as the House finally sends articles of impeachment to the Senate. Of course, this is the government at work, so it’s all about process and now this will drag on for an indeterminate amount of time. […]
Where’s The Beef?
By Christian Hald-Mortensen With delicious animals increasingly under fire for their part in climate change, the market for meat substitutes is growing fast. Old and new brands alike are racing to provide environmentally conscious consumers plant-based or lab-grown alternatives. So how can the discerning buyer separate the meat from the chaff? Christian […]
Chile’s new constitution cannot be drafted under threat of violence
“Minimum guarantees for a constituent process” By Mariana Canales, courtesy of IES Chile and El Libero 2020 begins under the shadow of October 18. This new year will be shaped by the hangover of the crisis that began with the burning of the Santiago metro, a crisis that seems never to end. Today […]
The race for (even) better batteries
“Why Businesses Are Building a Better Battery” By Jen Maffessanti, courtesy of the Foundation for Economic Education Batteries are everywhere: in our cars, cell phones, remote controls, laptops, flashlights, toys, tools, solar farms—the list is practically endless. Batteries are amazing, and humans have been using them for centuries. But they have their limitations […]
New finance rules: Too much information?
“MiFID II: Too much consumer protection?” By Benedikt Schmal and Alexander Fink, translation by Anna-Maria Köhnke; Courtesy of IREF The recently updated European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, commonly abbreviated as MiFID II, is supposed to enhance consumers’ protection. Adjustments of regulatory background questions aside, the EU aims to improve “protection of investors by prohibiting the […]