Foreign Policy Blogs

Trade & Economics

China’s Relationship with Germany and the High Euro

China’s Relationship with Germany and the High Euro

China’s economy is slowing down. What does that mean for Germany?

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What fate for the EU-U.S. trade deal?

What fate for the EU-U.S. trade deal?

With all the attention turned to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), currently negotiated by the U.S. with 12 Asian countries, few seem to notice anymore the equally important Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States.

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Ben Bernanke’s Monetary Policy: Bubble Double Toil and Trouble ?

Ben Bernanke’s Monetary Policy: Bubble Double Toil and Trouble ?

Bernanke’s speech back in 2002 can help shed some light on the question of how asset prices have been taken under consideration in the past by the Fed. It also helps explain how these prices will affect monetary policy in the future.

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Investing in Emerging Markets with Consumer Protection in Mind

Investing in Emerging Markets with Consumer Protection in Mind

The concept of the fair market and protection for consumers is based on the idea that inefficient and corrupt practices by large private companies and wayward government officials increases the cost to the consumers and the public.

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Corruption Always Foreshadows a Future Economic Downgrade

Corruption Always Foreshadows a Future Economic Downgrade

For both Russia and Brazil, though, it seems like corruption isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

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Foreign Affairs Magazine Presents the Global Economy’s “Up-and-Coming Markets”

Foreign Affairs Magazine Presents the Global Economy’s “Up-and-Coming Markets”

The January-February issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, which is published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), presents a special package on the new “Up-and-Coming Markets” in the global economy. The six markets featured in this special issue are Mexico, South Kroea, Poland, Turkey, Philippines, and the Mekong region. The latter is a region in […]

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High Frequency Trading: A High-Profile Target Once Again

High Frequency Trading: A High-Profile Target Once Again

High frequency trading (HFT) of securities has become a high-profile target on both sides of the Atlantic in recent weeks. On September 2, Italy began imposing a tax of 0.02 percent on many order changes and cancellations that occur within 0.5 seconds of the original order. Later that month, the managers of the world’s largest […]

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Aspiring Entrepreneur? Then Go East, Young Man (or Woman)

Aspiring Entrepreneur? Then Go East, Young Man (or Woman)

  Singapore is the easiest place in the world for small- and medium-sized domestic companies to do business, with Hong Kong and New Zealand trailing immediately behind, and Malaysia and South Korea rounding out the Asia-Pacific region’s representation in the top 10, according to a World Bank study released late last month. The institution’s “Doing […]

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Can Business Help Build International Harmony?

Can Business Help Build International Harmony?

The United Nations Global Compact Says, “Yes, Indeed!” By John Paluszek Is “Business For Peace” a non-sequitur? Not at all, especially  for all who participated in the United Nations Global Compact’s “Business For Peace” launch event during the Compact’s mid-September “2013 Leaders Summit” in New York City. The two-day Summit — with some 1,500 registrants and  […]

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A Candid Discussion with Steve Rhodes

A Candid Discussion with Steve Rhodes

  As the Middle East continues to plunge in a multi-faceted and what appears to be an increasingly regional crisis, there are debates and even hope about the future of entrepreneurship in the region in the face of the Arab Spring. Corruption, the status of women, the Israeli Palestinian conflict, Iran’s nuclear program, and now the specter of […]

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Attracting FDI: Openness Helps, But Opportunity Rules

Attracting FDI: Openness Helps, But Opportunity Rules

    If a country had the most-restrictive regulations on foreign direct investment (FDI) of 55 nations studied, where do you think it would rank among those nations in terms of actually attracting investment from abroad? If you said “First,” you obviously would be flaunting conventional economic theory and engaging in highly counter-intuitive speculation. Further, […]

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SWF Accountability, Transparency: Improvements Noted; More Needed

SWF Accountability, Transparency: Improvements Noted; More Needed

  Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have made progress in improving their accountability and transparency over the last five years, but more can and should be done. That’s the assessment of Dr. Edwin M. (Ted) Truman, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former senior Treasury and Federal Reserve official. Truman’s pioneering […]

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Mining Continues to Polarize

Mining Continues to Polarize

As old as Cortez and colonialism, the quest to satisfy modern appetites underlines economic scarcity and, increasingly, political instability. Mining in less-mature economies runs the same risks as its fossil fuel cousins. Over several days in late May, protestors in Kyrgyzstan cut off power to its Kumtor gold mine, vital to the country’s economy; they […]

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Rich Debates

Rich Debates

As questions of economic inequality elbow their way from the classroom to the headlines of the evening news, the question of tax has become ever more prescient. It was also the topic of the latest installment of the Munk Debates. The simple question was put forward as “be it resolved: should the rich be taxed […]

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“Keynes v. Hayek,” or “Keynes/Hayek”?

“Keynes v. Hayek,” or “Keynes/Hayek”?

Nicholas Whapshott’s 2011 book Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics, is a useful primer for those looking to understand the careers and philosophies of the two foundational economists. Perhaps its most striking insight is that neither seemed as absolute about the fact that his philosophy fit all times as the followers of both […]

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