World Finance, Macro Economics, Global Markets, Mega-Trends
Understanding the Occupy Wall Street movement: A primer Occupy Wall Street, the amorphous series of demonstrations that are reshaping the political debate in many major American cities and in countries around the globe, entered its second month on Monday. Here is a primer to understanding the movement that has mobilized hundreds of thousands of people…
How the West became China’s willing servant Eurozone leaders have brought their begging bowl to China, looking for help in boosting their bailout fund. So what does this say about the shift in the global balance of power? In October 1911, China rose up in revolution. Four months later the last emperor had fallen and…
FROM Seattle to Sydney, protesters have taken to the streets. Whether they are inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York or by the indignados in Madrid, they burn with dissatisfaction about the state of the economy, about the unfair way that the poor are paying for the sins of rich bankers,…
Public officials have been caught repeatedly in usury-related scandals in the wealthy southeastern city of Wenzhou. Not only is it a betrayal of public trust, it exposes an economic system that too often relies on illegal money lending. Recently, a couple of moneylenders from Wenzhou China ran off with 1.3 billion…
A German newspaper said Merkel had concluded Greece was insolvent and was pushing for a mandatory debt restructuring. Three years after the crash of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers, the financial crisis is hitting hard again. If, in the fall of 2008, the whole future of the international financial system – and,…
Those coining the blood of war should have to sacrifice too, even if it is only their profits from war. Immediately after World War One but still during the United States’ military occupations of Russia and China, Hiram Johnson, the former reform governor of California who served in the Senate, spoke…
Knowledge clusters” are being built in France to kick start hi-tech industries In the United States, Europe and in rising powers such as China, there is a growth-hungry drive to invest in hi-tech research and innovation. They are looking for the ingredients that, like Google, will turn a university project into a corporation. They are…
Facebook is squaring with Google in a race for control not only of the social network market, but of the Internet as a whole. Regardless of who “wins,” there’s a danger for users, who bit by bit are losing control of both their digitial profiles – and digital freedom. Do you…
BEIJING – I had dinner with a few senior European financiers and professors in Beijing last week. When we talked about the euro crisis looming over Europe, we couldn’t but agree unanimously: across today’s small globe, all the major countries on the planet simply lack a strong leader. This is the very…
Social Security A monstrous truth September 15, 2011 NO PONZI scheme in the history of the world has ever lasted 75 years. Ponzi schemes depend on garnering an ever-increasing pool of new investors to pay out returns to prior investors. When the potential pool of new investors runs dry, they collapse. This will occur when…