Foreign Policy Blogs

Trade & Economics

Price Manipulation in Global Energy Markets

Price Manipulation in Global Energy Markets

As the U.S. Senate’s permanent committee on Investigations begins an examination of the role of Traders, speculators and Hedge Fund managers in world energy markets, economists and policymakers make a compelling case that price behavior in global energy markets violate basic priciples of economic supply & demand.

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Accountability, Fairness and Financial Security

For too long, the rules of Wall Street have been written by the bankers themselves. This year, that has to change. Americans for Financial Reform is a coalition of nearly 200 national, state and local consumer, employee, investor, community and civil rights organizations that have come together to spearhead a campaign, in the public interest, for real reform in our banking and financial system.

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Taking Calculated Risks

Taking Calculated Risks

Recommended Sites: Calculated Risk – finance & economics blog

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China Muscles-In on Iraq Oil Reserves

China Muscles-In on Iraq Oil Reserves

China’s oil giant, Sinopec announced plans for a $7 Bn takeover of Addax petroleum, an international oil firm of Canadian origin. The merger muscles China into the Iraqi oil game, directly competing with U.S. interests.

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NYPD: Black, White and Blue

NYPD: Black, White and Blue

It happens all too often. Having established clear patterns over the years — the Black police officer turns out always to be the victim of “friendly fire” — such incidents can no longer be dismessed away as “tragic” incidents. It must stop, now. The latest victim was heroic NYC police officer Omar J. Edwards of Brooklyn, NY, shot and killed by a fellow white NYC police officer Andrew Dunton, in a case where Officer Edwards, dressed in plain clothes, was mistaken as a criminal when he was actually in the act of preventing a crime.

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Whistling Past Graveyard of Financial Reform

Whistling Past Graveyard of Financial Reform

As President Barack Obama announces his ‘New Financial Foundation’ package of banking and financial industry reform, skepticism about the plan; and whether the administration is squandering political capital on a missed opportunity for BOLD changes is coming from every quarter.

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First BRIC Summit's New Global Economic Vision

First BRIC Summit's New Global Economic Vision

The first Economic Summit meeting of the so-called BRIC group of Emerging Market nations — Brazil, Russia, India and China — and it is intended to underscore the rising economic, political and military might of these four major developing countries and their rising chorus demanding a greater voice in global matters.

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How Wall Street Ruined Capitalism

How Wall Street Ruined Capitalism

Nobel winning Columbia University economist, and former World Bank president Joseph E. Stiglitz examines how Wall Street’s culture of ‘cowboy capitalism’ and its risk-taking propensities have ruined the American brand of capitalism. He is featured in the July 2009 issue of Vanity Fair magazine.

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New U.S. Regulatory Framework Emerges

New U.S. Regulatory Framework Emerges

The Obama administration is set to release its propsed new regulatory scheme for the U.S. financial system coming off the heels of the changes agreed upon by world leaders at the London G-20 Summit in April.

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The Chinese Yuan & Post Capitalism Currency

The Chinese Yuan & Post Capitalism Currency

Discussion of U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s trip to China this week, and the Economy Foreign Policy interests of both nations are dependent upon each other as China seeks to create a greater role for its currency, the Yuan (renmienbi) at the expense of the U.S. greenback.

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Moral Hazards & The Need for Failure

Moral Hazards & The Need for Failure

Moral Hazard, the idea that companies will engage in highly risky behavior that jeopardizes the system that they otherwise would, when they are aware that “too big to fail” assurances of government bailout shifts the burden to taxpayers. Because of this dilemma, companies ought to be allowed to fail as a necessary trauma of capitalim.

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Arab Central Bank Emerges in the Middle-East

Arab Central Bank Emerges in the Middle-East

  Here’s an interesting development that I missed earlier this month, but remains very relevant: It appears the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional group of middle-eastern Arab states have agreed tentatively to create a central monetary council that will evolve into a new Gulf Central Bank representing middle-east Arab states.  Not surprisingly, the largest member […]

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Bye, Bye Miss American Pie

Bye, Bye Miss American Pie

    …Drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry.” Those words ring with such prophetic irony now – that is if the levy had been retaining a history of American automobile prowess. Or that’s at least what one might feel after reading Kendra Marr’s 18 May Washington Post article titled, “As […]

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Booms & Busts Law of Diminishing Returns

Booms & Busts Law of Diminishing Returns

Interesting article by noted economic historian Niall Ferguson from the New York Times magazine, Sun 17 May 2009.

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Women With Clarity & Insight on Bank Crisis

Women With Clarity & Insight on Bank Crisis

Elizabeth Warren of the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) and Arianna Huffington, Founder of HuffPo share uncanny, common sense clarity and insight on financial markets crisis. They get it.

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