Visualizing Countries by Share of Earth’s Surface
12/03/2021
Visualizing Countries by Share of Earth’s Surface There are over 510 million square kilometers of area on the surface of Earth, but less than 30% of this is covered by land. The rest is water, in the form of vast oceans. Today’s visualization uses data primarily from the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) to rank […]
Ranked: The Most Valuable Nation Brands in 2020
10/03/2021
Can you remember a year more life-changing than 2020? Over a million lives were lost in the pandemic, oil prices turned negative, and protests swept the streets. At the same time, 10 years of technology advancements seemed to happen in mere months—and now vaccinations are rolling out at a record speed. Below, we round up […]
Visualizing the Most Populous Countries in the World
25/02/2021
Visualizing the Most Populous Countries in the World India’s population is projected to surpass China’s as soon as 2022. While this is consequential on a global economic level, it also leaves other population trends overlooked. For instance, Nigeria is projected to have more people than the U.S., the world’s third-largest country by […]
Global Stars: The Most Innovative Countries, Ranked by Income Group
23/02/2021
The Most Innovative Countries, Ranked by Income Group Innovation can be instrumental to the success of economies, at macro and micro scales. While investment provides powerful fuel for innovation—the relationship isn’t always straightforward. The 2020 ranking from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reveals just that. The above map breaks down the most innovative countries […]
The World’s Most Searched Consumer Brands
18/02/2021
Strong brands create an emotional link with consumers, and tech brands are no exception. In fact, Google, Amazon, Netflix, and even eBay rank as some of the most searched consumer brands worldwide. It’s hard to imagine life without these household names, but how do brand preferences shift and change across internet searches worldwide? This […]
The path forward for sustainable retail
18/02/2021
Retail is undergoing an unprecedented transition. The internet has led to new sales channels and new opportunities to reach out to customers, and globalization has opened markets and introduced new competitors. Then COVID-19 happened, rocking the industry to its core, as stores around the world closed and consumers had no choice but to order online. […]
The CEO agenda for companies in advanced industries
16/02/2021
CEOs and corporate leaders are awash with uncertainty due to the persistent transmission of COVID-19, shifting regional dynamics, fluctuating customer demand, and transformational technology disruptions. For industrial companies—those within advanced electronics, aerospace and defense, and automotive and assembly—the decisions made today about their strategy, products and services portfolio, and sustainable performance transformations could have […]
Reimagining the Balanced Scorecard for the ESG Era
09/02/2021
In August 2019, the U.S. Business Roundtable, the leading gathering for Fortune 500 CEOs, stated that “each of our stakeholders is essential. We commit to deliver value to all of them, for the future success of our companies, our communities and our country.” This re-orientation acknowledges widespread concerns that companies who focus only on their […]
How the Gender Balance of Investment Teams Shapes the Risks They Take
19/01/2021
Women are more risk averse than men on average — at least that’s what research and received wisdom seem to suggest. Women take fewer risks when picking stocks, investing in venture capital, and making acquisitions, for example. There are various explanations for these differences in appetite for risk. The most common one holds that in […]
The next normal arrives: Trends that will define 2021—and beyond
14/01/2021
Businesses have spent much of the past nine months scrambling to adapt to extraordinary circumstances. While the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet won, with a vaccine in sight, there is at least a faint light at the end of the tunnel—along with the hope that another train isn’t heading our way. 2021 […]
How Did Business’s Role in Society Change in 2020?
12/01/2021
The year 2020 was incredibly rough, but with one big bright spot at the end. A once-in-a-century global pandemic — an unfathomable tragedy — devastated lives and economies. But in a miraculous display of scientific prowess, Pfizer, Moderna, and other pharmaceutical companies produced what appeared to be highly effective Covid-19 vaccines by December. After a year of […]
What Will the U.S.-China Relationship Look Like in the Biden Era?
11/01/2021
The sight of Hangzhou’s railway station packed to the rafters during China’s Golden Week holidays in early October was a powerful symbol of the country’s swift recovery from Covid-19. With mobility restrictions long lifted, more than 600 million Chinese crisscrossed the country to visit family and friends — providing an important boost to domestic consumption […]
With vaccines on the horizon, here’s how business leaders can plan ahead |
10/12/2020
Still, many questions remain and in all my years of scenario planning, I’ve never seen uncertainty like that which has arisen from the COVID-19 pandemic. Leaders are in need of guidance as to how to plan for the months ahead. Salesforce has been tracking the many uncertainties surrounding COVID-19 since March and developed a range […]
Poor diets making children shorter, according to new study
08/12/2020
“Our findings should motivate policies that increase the availability and reduce the cost of nutritious foods, as this will help children grow taller without gaining excessive weight for their height,” said Dr Andrea Rodriguez Martinez, the study’s lead author. “Household poverty and food insecurity rates have increased. Essential nutrition services and supply chains have been […]
Consumers with food allergies: A growing market remains underserved | McKinsey
04/12/2020
Around the world, half a billion people, including close to 85 million in the United States, avoid allergens when shopping for food and beverages. The number of American children who experience food allergies has been growing about four times faster than the population has for at least 20 years. They aren’t alone: evidence suggests that […]
In a Pandemic, We Buy What We Know
01/12/2020
llustration by Rocio Egio Back in May, Unilever’s CEO predicted that consumers would eat healthier during the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the CEO of McDonald’s remains confident they’ll return to Big Macs and other familiar favorites. Certainly, both can’t be right. Or can they? Organic and healthy food sales are in fact surging — but so […]
The case for stakeholder capitalism
25/11/2020
None of this could have been done without economic growth. And that is what free-market-oriented economies, in their many different varieties, have delivered better than the alternatives. Think of West Germany versus East Germany; South Korea versus North Korea; or Costa Rica versus Cuba. And yet, there is palpable anger and distrust with the idea […]
This is what the co-founder of LinkedIn says about the future of work
22/10/2020
“One of the things we’ve discovered in our work with the World Economic Forum is the importance of remote learning. Delivering skills at a distance is absolutely essential in a time when so much is changing,” he said in an interview with the Forum. “And frankly, coming together to learn new things is more difficult.” […]
The Post-Pandemic Rules of Talent Management
14/10/2020
Stewart Cohen/Getty Images Over the past decades, rapid digital transformation has enabled organizations to completely reimagine the way they work and manage talent. From reliable video conferencing platforms, to digital collaboration software, to ubiquitous cloud-based connectivity, and a data-centric approach to strategic decision-making powered by the synergy between artificial and human intelligence, an imaginary worker […]
Is Your Executive Compensation Plan Undermining Your Mission?
09/10/2020
Cactus Creative Studio/Stocksy New technologies have been disrupting business for decades, especially since the internet became widespread in the late 1990s. But a new wave of innovation, centered on artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and the internet of things, is now intensifying the pace and magnitude of disruption. AI-powered advances by themselves, according to a […]
What Will the Retail Experience of the Future Look Like?
14/09/2020
RICARDO ARDUENGO/Getty Images The world’s retailers face a host of challenges. Even before the pandemic, many brick-and-mortar retailers were struggling. Now, as we emerge from the liminal space of nationwide lockdowns into new psychological and social territory, shoppers will be anxious about whether visiting stores will increase their exposure to the virus. Adding to the […]
Consumer companies in the “next normal”
11/09/2020
Roiled by the COVID-19 pandemic, many consumer organizations are wondering how they can survive and thrive in a time of unprecedented uncertainty. Even after the pandemic subsides, we face an unpredictable future that demands more flexibility than ever before. But while the COVID-19 crisis is unique to modern history, a look at prior global disruptions […]
Back to school: Lessons for effective remote and hybrid learning
02/09/2020
In much of the Northern Hemisphere, it’s back-to-school season. But this year’s preparations are fraught with added anxiety as educators, public-health officials, and parents try to balance the need to reduce the spread of the coronavirus with the desire to get students into more productive learning environments. The first priority of every school system must […]
3 Behavioral Trends That Will Reshape Our Post-Covid World
27/08/2020
Colin Hawkins/Getty Images Typically, consumers’ supermarket shopping habits are stable and slow to change. When people do dramatically change their behavior around buying food and beverages, it’s usually driven by a major life event such as having a baby, moving to a new town, or changing jobs. The Covid-19 crisis is, of course, changing everyone’s life […]
Reskilling workers for industry 4.0
26/08/2020
Technological progress is enabling machines to complete many of the tasks that once required human beings. That new automation revolution will have a major effect on employment in the coming years. Nearly every job will change, many quite profoundly, and the overwhelming majority of today’s employees will need to develop new skills. Preparing for the […]
These countries top the sustainability rankings
04/07/2020
Climate change poses an urgent threat demanding decisive action. Communities around the world are already experiencing increased climate impacts, from droughts to floods to rising seas. The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report continues to rank these environmental threats at the top of the list. To limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C and […]
How business leaders can plan for the next normal
30/06/2020
Dealing with the coronavirus crisis and its aftermath could be the imperative of our times. Indeed, we have argued that it augurs the “imminent restructuring of the global economic order.” As Ian Davis, one of our previous managing partners, wrote in 2009 in the midst of the global financial crisis: “For some organizations, near-term survival is […]
Confronting Racism at Work: A Reading List
29/06/2020
Lyubov Ivanova/Getty Images Companies must confront racism at a systemic level — addressing everything from the structural and social mechanics of their own organizations to the role they play in the economy at large. We know that diversity programs have historically failed, but there are proven ways to improve hiring programs, interrupt bias at the […]
What Will Happen to Your Business in Hong Kong?
26/06/2020
Didier Marti/Getty Images More than 9,000 foreign firms operate in Hong Kong, among them 1,300 from the United States. So when the Chinese legislature recently passed a new security law intended to prevent “secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference” in Hong Kong, many CEOs and top executives began wondering about the business implications. The U.S. State Department added to […]
A VC’s Guide to Investing in Black Founders
24/06/2020
Illustration by Aaron Marin In the midst of a pandemic, I don’t think we ever expected to see one of the most energized social justice movements in the past few decades. Emboldened by the movement, many are engaging in more frank discussions about the role race plays when it comes to funding opportunities for early-stage […]
Coronavirus and the future of international cooperation | World Economic Forum
23/06/2020
In a matter of months, the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the world almost beyond recognition. And yet the international cooperation that is so essential to confront a shared threat has been nowhere to be found. This should not be a surprise: our failure to respond effectively to the COVID-19 crisis reflects deeply entrenched – and […]
Setting up small and medium-size enterprises for restart and recovery
19/06/2020
Governments’ economic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have included an array of measures to help people and businesses weather the storm. Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) are in an especially difficult position. Plunging demand has forced them to lay off workers, and many don’t have the financial resources to survive in this climate. In many […]
How to scale your digital transformation
04/06/2020
When a team of top executives from a North American bank entered a converted warehouse run by a European telecom giant, they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Engineers were live-coding in small teams with designers and businesspeople and reviewing the results right away with customers. They were making adjustments to feedback on the fly. […]
How to restart stalled digital initiatives and transformations
02/06/2020
At organizations pursuing digital transformations, more than seven in ten survey respondents say the progress of these efforts has slowed or stalled at some point. In their latest McKinsey Global Survey on the topic, 1 1. The online survey was in the field from May 16 to May 31, 2019, and garnered responses from 1,256 C-level […]
Supple supplies – Businesses are proving quite resilient to the pandemic
30/05/2020
IF A VENGEFUL deity were to design a weapon to wield against the global supply chains that characterise modern business, it might well hit on a virus which hit production facilities all around the world. In the face of covid-19, though, the sinews of business have, for the most part, held up remarkably well. Air […]
Driving digital change during a crisis: The chief digital officer and COVID-19
29/05/2020
Amid the humanitarian crisis that has upended lives and cast a veil of uncertainty over the future, one thing is clear: we are living in a much more digital world. As governments around the world institute nationwide lockdowns, the demand for digital services and products, from both customers and employees stuck at home, has hit […]
The digital-led recovery from COVID-19: Five questions for CEOs…
27/05/2020
There’s a popular meme going around that neatly captures the tipping point of digital. It’s a short questionnaire asking who is driving your digital transformation. The first two options are “CEO” and “chief digital officer.” Below that, highlighted with a bright red circle, is “COVID-19.” The coronavirus pandemic is a humanitarian crisis that continues to […]
How the CPG industry can prepare for the next normal
07/05/2020
As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the globe, threatening both lives and livelihoods, consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) manufacturers continue to play an important role: producing essential items we all rely on for our health and well-being. CPG leaders have focused on meeting this demand while guarding the safety of employees and customers. At the same time, forward-thinking […]
How the Coronavirus Crisis Is Redefining Jobs
06/05/2020
Martin Barraud/Getty Images The outbreak of Covid-19 has forced organizations into perhaps the most significant social experiment of the future of work in action, with work from home and social distancing policies radically changing the way we work and interact. But the impact on work is far more profound than just changing where people work; […]
Managing manufacturing organizations during coronavirus
01/05/2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps across the globe, manufacturing organizations face significant operational challenges. Some companies have temporarily shuttered factories in response to government restrictions or falling demand, but others are facing significant increases in demand for essential supplies. Frontline manufacturing staff can’t take their work to the relative safety of their homes. Plant leaders […]
Spain, Italy and France are starting to lift their lockdowns
28/04/2020
Arnaud Bernaert, Head of Health and Healthcare, World Economic Forum, said: “For those European countries where governments have started to ease restrictions, a controlled transition can be achieved with a number of measures. First, there should be clear evidence that COVID-19 has transitioned to a controlled phase. Sufficient health and medical capacity needs to be […]
Rethink Your Relationship with Your Vendors
01/04/2020
We’ve come a long way from the days of horrific working conditions of the industrial age. Yet many companies are still as tough on their vendors as managers were on their employees a century ago. In the gig economy the line between a freelance employee and a traditional vendor has become blurred. Smart companies are […]
Leadership in a crisis: Responding to coronavirus
01/04/2020
The coronavirus pandemic has placed extraordinary demands on leaders in business and beyond. The humanitarian toll taken by COVID-19 creates fear among employees and other stakeholders. The massive scale of the outbreak and its sheer unpredictability make it challenging for executives to respond. Indeed, the outbreak has the hallmarks of a “landscape scale” crisis: an […]
How Chinese Companies Have Responded to Coronavirus
27/03/2020
Thirawatana Phaisalratana/EyeEm/Getty Images As the Covid-19 crisis spreads to new epicenters in Europe and the U.S., companies are scrambling to mobilize responses. There are no easy answers, due to the unpredictability of disease dynamics, a lack of relevant prior experience, and the absence of plug-and-play instructions from government or international authorities. Clearly each local situation […]
Economic conditions amid the coronavirus outbreak..
27/03/2020
In McKinsey’s newest survey on economic conditions, conducted during the first week of March, the coronavirus outbreak overshadowed all other threats to the global economy. 1 1. The online survey was in the field from March 2 to March 6, 2020, and garnered responses from 1,152 participants representing the full range of regions, industries, company […]
How Bad Times Bring Out the Best in People
25/03/2020
Ryan McVay/Getty Images It’s easy to look around and see how the Covid-19 crisis has brought out the worst in some people — from hoarding thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer to crowding bars and restaurants despite public-health guidelines. But such irresponsible behavior, I believe, is more the exception than the rule. Time and again, individuals and […]
Enterprise agility: Measuring the business impact…
25/03/2020
Enterprise agility was desirable and is now becoming essential. Agility across a whole enterprise combines speed and stability; helps role clarity, innovation, and operational discipline 1 1. Michael Bazigos, Aaron De Smet, and Chris Gagnon, “Why agility pays,” McKinsey Quarterly, December 2015. ; and can produce positive outcomes for organizational health and performance. Although the […]
Grocery retail during the coronavirus crisis: What food retailers should do…
24/03/2020
The epidemiological numbers of COVID-19, caused by the coronavirus, are becoming outdated by the hour. While events are rapidly evolving, a few things are becoming clear: Two scenarios are most likely: a delayed recovery or a prolonged contraction. Regardless of which scenario plays out, food retailers will need to think ahead and be prepared to […]
The drive toward sustainable packaging
25/02/2020
Sustainability—particularly regulatory and public concerns around single-use packaging waste—is combining with other powerful trends 1 1. Cost pressure, e-commerce and digitization in general, and shifting consumer preferences—for details see David Feber, Daniel Nordigården, and Shekhar Varanasi, “Winning with new models in packaging,” May 2019. to drive major changes in consumer packaging. Regulators are moving on […]
What are the most talent-competitive countries in the world?
24/02/2020
Over the past few years, an increasing number of countries have adopted AI strategies. To ensure that AI is a force for good, these strategies must be value-based and principle-led. From a labour market point of view, efforts should be geared to integrating rather than replacing the human factor. Adaptive talent – those skills that […]
How can we manage distractions in the workplace?
20/02/2020
Are they two sides of the same coin? The affliction and the cure? Eyal doesn’t see it that way. “Hooked was about how to build good habits,” he says. “I didn’t write it for Google or Facebook or the gaming companies. They’ve known these techniques for a very long time. What I wanted to do […]
Getting practical about the future of work
18/02/2020
What story will people tell about your organization over the next ten years? Will they celebrate an enthusiastic innovator that thrived by adapting workforce skills and ways of working to the demands of the new economy? Or will they blame poor financial or operational results, unhappy employees, and community disruption on a short-sighted or delayed […]
The new social contract in the 21st century..
12/02/2020
Life has changed substantially for individuals in advanced economies in the first two decades of the 21st century as a result of trends including disruptions in technology, globalization, the economic crisis of 2008 and its recovery, and shifting market and institutional dynamics. In many ways, changes for individuals have been for the better, including new […]
What Makes You “Multicultural”
01/02/2020
Microzoa/Getty Images You’ve heard about multicultural societies and groups, but have you thought about multicultural individuals and what they bring to organizations? Multicultural individuals — such as Chinese-Canadians, Turkish-Germans, or Arab-Americans — commonly think, perceive, behave, and respond to global workplace issues in more complex ways than monocultural individuals. Some multicultural individuals translate these differences into […]
The assumptions that underpin modern economics need reviewing. This is why…
30/01/2020
Rather than offering a specific critique or solution, I want to draw attention to some foundational issues concerning the evaluation of economics. What makes assessing the discipline so challenging is the very nature of the subject, which is a strange mixture of science and commonsense. This is the reason for many policy mistakes by politicians […]
Greta Thunberg is not alone: Meet the 10 teenage campaigners at Davos 2020
23/01/2020
For the first time in its history, the World Economic Forum will welcome teenage change-makers to the Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters to boost collaboration between the generations. Here are 10 of them… Canadian Autumn is an Eagle Clan Anishinaabekwe from the Wiikwemkoong First Nation in Northern Ontario. She has been a “water warrior” since the […]
How Corporate Cultures Differ Around the World
20/01/2020
Jonathan Kitchen/Getty Images Building upon the integrated culture framework we presented in “The Leader’s Guide to Corporate Culture” (written with our collaborators Jeremiah Lee and Jesse Price), we launched an online assessment to allow HBR readers to explore their own organizations’ cultural profiles. We received over 12,800 responses from across the globe between December 2017 […]
4 ways to build businesses that put people and planet over profits | World Economic Forum
16/12/2019
For people working in social enterprise and impact investing, this is not news, although it is very much welcome. However, the bigger and still-outstanding question remains: will this be merely a press release that achieves little beyond a season’s-worth of good PR, or will it lead to tangible, substantive change? On the one hand, there […]
Brexit: The bigger picture | Rethinking UK talent for the long term
13/12/2019
Just as British employment levels have reached record highs, the indicators show that the prospect of Brexit has been stemming the flow of foreign talent from the European Union into the United Kingdom and has prompted many EU nationals already there to look elsewhere for career opportunities. For companies operating in the United Kingdom, that […]
Davos Manifesto 2020: The Universal Purpose of a Company in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
10/12/2019
i. A company serves its customers by providing a value proposition that best meets their needs. It accepts and supports fair competition and a level playing field. It has zero tolerance for corruption. It keeps the digital ecosystem in which it operates reliable and trustworthy. It makes customers fully aware of the functionality of its […]
Is China the next frontier for the meatless industry?
07/12/2019
China’s “free from meat” market, which includes plant-based products meant to replace meat, has grown 33.5% since 2014 to be worth $9.7 billion last year, according to . It predicts that the. U.S. plant-based “meat” makers targeting China like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat Inc will need to battle homegrown rivals which are developing local […]
How inclusive design can reconnect people with government
06/12/2019
What’s not to love about Scandinavia? Not only is the region among the world’s most prosperous, healthy, and educated, but it has also given us cultural gems such as ABBA’s pop ballads and Stieg Larsson’s bestselling crime novels, including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Scandinavian design, too, has rippled across the world. Danish architect […]
Sovereign wealth could fund the SDGs
05/12/2019
The striking fact is that funding is available, but it is not flowing to where it is needed. The total investment available is approximately $98 trillion, including commercial banks, investment banks, insurance and public pensions, sovereign wealth funds, equity funds and public global funds, such as donors, foundations and endowments. This mounting finance gap is […]
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is redefining the economy as we know it
03/12/2019
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) upends current economic frameworks. Who makes money – and how – has changed. Demographics have changed. Even the skills that brought our society to where we are today have changed. Leaders must account for these transformations or risk leaving behind their companies, their customers and their constituents. The top three […]
In our digital age, taxation needs to become more mobile..
22/10/2019
For a government to levy corporate tax on a foreign firm, tax rules require a “nexus” or link between the taxpayer and the taxing jurisdiction, typically in the form of physical presence such as offices or workers. In our digital world, firms can interact with users and create value in a country without needing to […]
Successful Singapore – the secrets of the world’s most competitive economy | World Economic Forum
18/10/2019
In the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Competitiveness Report, Singapore scored 85 points out of a possible 100, placing it above the US, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Switzerland in the top five. It was awarded more than 90 points in four of the 12 gauges used to rank the 141 countries and scored more […]
A small group of world leaders are standing together against inequality
03/10/2019
This exciting group is brought together by the Prime Minister of Sweden, Stefan Löfven, a former trade union leader who leads a nation that at times has felt like a lonely voice in a world of rising inequality. Standing with him were leaders such as the President of Ethiopia – a woman president of one […]
Why Africa’s Industrialization Won’t Look Like China’s
16/09/2019
eyegelb/Getty Images China designed and executed a policy that shrank the industrialization process in a mere 25 years — something that many economies took at least a century to do. That redesign has brought immense dislocation in global commerce and industry, enabling China to become one of the world’s leading economies. China’s success has led […]
Ranking 42 Countries by Ease of Doing Digital Business
14/09/2019
Paul Taylor/Getty Images The World Bank’s annual Doing Business survey has been described by some as the “World Cup” or “Olympics” for governments competing to make their countries attractive to businesses. The ranking measures how easy it is to do business in a country by examining regulatory environments and is enormously influential: it has inspired […]
Research: How Political Connections Help (and Hurt) Chinese Startups
10/09/2019
David Bokeh/Getty Images New ventures need resources to survive, let alone thrive. In emerging markets, their survival also depends on their ability to deal with what academics call the “institutional void” — the lack of strong market intermediaries ensuring the smooth flow of business. In this void, where rules are loosely interpreted, and information hard […]
The Gap Between Large and Small Companies Is Growing. Why?
10/09/2019
Gandee Vasan/Getty Images Research and news headlines are replete with the idea that traditional large companies can’t innovate, and that smaller digital companies will render many larger ones extinct. While we’ve seen numerous startups of the last thirty years not only disrupt businesses but become the megacorporations of today, we wondered whether this disruption is […]
These 5 industries can drive digital financial inclusion
02/08/2019
Digital payments are no different. Cards and digital wallets are tools; it’s the act of using these tools for making payments that gives them impact. In the past decade, the world has made tremendous progress in expanding access to digital financial services to those at the base of the pyramid, but this has not been […]
The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means and how to respond
25/07/2019
We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. We do not yet know just how it will unfold, but one thing is clear: the […]
Britain’s constitutional time-bomb – The next to blow
19/06/2019
BRITONS PRIDE themselves on their “unwritten” constitution. America, France and Germany need rules to be set down in black and white. In the Mother of Parliaments democracy has blossomed for over 300 years without coups, revolution or civil war, Irish independence aside. Its politics are governed by an evolving set of traditions, conventions and laws […]
America is deploying a new economic arsenal to assert its power – Weapons of mass disruption
17/06/2019
WHEN DONALD TRUMP arrived in the Oval Office he promised to restore America’s might. His method has turned out to be a wholesale weaponisation of economic tools. The world can now see the awesome force that a superpower can project when it is unconstrained by rules or allies. On May 30th the president threatened crippling […]
Why the European Union should not ditch bilateral investment treaties – Foreign-investment disputes
15/06/2019
AFTER THE fall of the Berlin Wall and before central and eastern European countries began joining the European Union in 2004, officials in Brussels strongly encouraged bilateral investment treaties (BITs) between the bloc’s members and their neighbours to the east. BITs are inter-governmental agreements that govern disputes between foreign investors and host states. Their purpose […]
Are the ideas of John Maynard Keynes making a comeback?
12/06/2019
John Maynard Keynes, the British economist whose theories dominated the industrial postwar West, argued for government spending as a means to counteract slow economic growth. Especially during a recovery from a recession or depression, he reasoned, private demand is insufficient, so extra spending by government is needed to ensure that aggregate demand remains high enough […]
New Zealand has unveiled its first ‘well-being’ budget
10/06/2019
Based on the idea that gauging the long-term impact of policies on the quality of people’s lives is better than focusing on short-term output measures, the initiative has five priorities for 2019: aiding the transition to a sustainable and low-emissions economy, supporting a thriving nation in the digital age, lifting Māori and Pacific incomes, skills […]
Europe and America must work to stop their relationship unravelling – Transatlantic relations
20/04/2019
THE ATLANTIC OCEAN is starting to look awfully wide. To Europeans the United States appears ever more remote, under a puzzling president who delights in bullying them, questions the future of the transatlantic alliance and sometimes shows more warmth towards dictators than democrats. Americans see an ageing continent that, though fine for tourists, is coming […]
China may soon run its first annual current-account deficit in decades – The big flip
12/04/2019
THAT CHINA sells more to the world than it buys from it can seem like an immutable feature of the economic landscape. Every year for a quarter of a century China has run a current-account surplus (roughly speaking, the sum of its trade balance and net income from foreign investments). This surplus has been blamed […]