By Natalia Abril Bonilla and Lisa van den Hoven* AMSTERDAM | 12 May 2025 (IDN) — In 2025, it feels like we are in a period of declining optimism. As the recent World Economic Forum Global Risks Report set out, state-based armed conflict, extreme weather events, ‘fake news’ and falling trust – together with deepening […]
Low Birth Rates and Rising Deaths: What Else Could Reverse Russia’s Declining Population
By Kester Kenn Klomegah* MOSCOW | 12 May 2025 (IDN) — How vital is Thomas Malthus’ population theory today? Malthus, an English cleric and scholar, published this theory in his 1798 writings, An Essay on the Principle of Population. He believed that exponential population growth could lead to unprecedented pressure on the land and create […]
Europe the Superpower
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 30 April 2025 (IDN) — The European Union is not going to face a break-up; however, the Ukraine/Russian conflict goes. Big crises come, but they also go. The Euro currency crisis was not dealt with as well as it should have been — austerity was the policy of the […]
How to Avoid Trade Wars – and World War Three
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies* NEW YORK | 29 April 2025 (IDN) — Not a day goes by without a new shock to Americans and our neighbors around the world from the Trump administration. On April 22nd, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgraded its forecasts for global growth in 2025, from 3.3% […]
It Is Time For Asia’s MAGA – A Non-Military Quad Alliance
By Kalinga Seneviratne* BANGKOK | 29 April 2025 (IDN) — The current international tariff saga based on a notion of “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) ideology promoted by President Donald Trump and supported by millions of Americans should, one would hope, trigger Asia’s own MAGA (Make Asia Great Again). The latter is shaping up more the […]
Rising Global Debt Requires Countries to Put their Fiscal House in Order
By Era Dabla-Norris, Vitor Gaspar, Marcos Poplawski-Ribeiro WASHINGTON, D.C. | 26 April 2025 (IDN) — Major policy shifts underway have heightened global uncertainty. The series of recent tariff announcements by the United States, and countermeasures by other countries have increased financial market volatility, weakened growth prospects, and increased risks. They come in the context of […]
World Trade Is on Track to Hit a Record USD33 Trillion In 2024
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA | 5 December 2024 (IDN) — Global trade is poised to hit an all-time high of nearly $33 trillion in 2024. This marks a growth of 3.3% or $1 trillion increase driven by a 7% rise in trade in services, according to the latest Global Trade Update by UN Trade and […]
Sri Lanka: The IMF’s Remarkable Timing and a President’s Mandate for Debt Justice
By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake* COLOMBO | 30 November 2024 (IDN) — At Annual Meetings in Washington in October, International Monetary Fund head Kristalina Georgieva claimed Sri Lanka as a debt restructuring ‘success’ story.[i] Left unsaid was that Sri Lanka’s external debt had ballooned from $26 billion to a purported whopping $100 billion during two years of […]
Behind a Surge in India-Russia Economic Relations
By Rajoli Siddharth Jayaprakash* NEW DELHI | 16 November 2024 (IDN) — In the past decade, the core drivers of India-Russia relations have begun shifting. The traditionally dominant military-technical partnership has declined, with India buying less Russian weapons, technology and military platforms. The economic pillar stagnated as military dealings slowed, with bilateral trade hovering around […]
Evolving Into an “Opportunity Economy” with Participatory Development
By Yossef Ben-Meir* MARRAKECH | 21 October 2024 (IDN) — The commitment of Kamala Harris’ U.S. Presidential campaign to create an opportunity economy—one that lowers costs and strengthens opportunities for working families and small businesses—has established goals that are consistent with observed outcomes of participatory approaches to community development around the world. The participatory approach […]