Economy and Finance

Image credit: Caribbean News Global (CGN)

There's a Hidden Economic Trendline That Is Shattering the Global Trade System

Viewpoint by Marshall Auerback and Jan Ritch-Frel

Marshall Auerback is a market analyst and commentator and Jan Ritch-Frel the executive director of the Independent Media Institute. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK (IDN) – Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers has recently conceded: "In general, economic thinking has privileged efficiency over resilience, and it has been insufficiently concerned with the big downsides of efficiency." Policy across the globe is therefore moving in a more overtly nationalistic direction to rectify this shortcoming.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 04 July 2020

We Won't Have a Truly Global Economy Until People Start Taxing It That Way

Viewpoint by Marshall Auerback

The writer is a market analyst and commentator. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK (IDN) – Major talks between the United States and the European Union to establish a shared tax framework for multinational companies broke down on the issue of seeking to secure an agreement on digital taxation. Big tech, which is heavily a U.S. creation, has long been in the sights of European economies, as their profits and revenues have soared and they have increasingly become major components of the 21st-century economy.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 01 July 2020

Photo: The Pentagon U.S. Department of Defense building Credit: Wikimedia Commons

If We're Going to Defund Militarized Police Departments, Why Not Add the Pentagon?

The U.S. military’s budget, like so many police department budgets, is bloated, and diverts our tax dollars into forces of domination and violence. Now is the time to question our spending priorities at the local and federal level.

Viewpoint by Sonali Kolhatkar

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 22 June 2020

Image: EU building. Credit: Samynandpartners, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikimedia Commons.

The European Union Still Hasn't Considered an Economic Proposal That Can Save It

Viewpoint by Marshall Auerback

The writer is a market analyst and commentator. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NEW YORK (IDN) – On May 5, Germany's constitutional court ruled that parts of the European Central Bank's bond-buying operations to avert a mounting economic depression were illegal. In the wake of that decision, many new proposals have surfaced. First, the European Central Bank (ECB) added a further €600 billion to its earlier announced pandemic emergency purchase program (PEPP) to support Europe's rapidly faltering economy.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 15 June 2020

Photo: Deserted Sea Dance Resort, Samui, May 2020,

The Thai Tourist Industry Wrecked, Despite Success in Controlling COVID-19

By Pattama Vilailert *

BANGKOK (IDN) – On New Year's Eve of 2020 when the Chinese authorities alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) of strange pneumonia cases in Wuhan City, Thailand's tourism industry, the country's primary gross domestic product (GDP) driver, was facing an unprecedented boom. But, six months later, the industry is on its knees with knowledgeable sources predicting a lengthy recovery period.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 06 June 2020

Photo: Beef cattle imported from Australia are being transported on to a truck in a port in east China's Zhejiang province. January 28, 2018. Source: East Asia Forum.

Australia Loses Big If China Ties Unravel

Viewpoint by James Laurenceson

The author is Professor and Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at The University of Technology Sydney (UTS). This article first published on May 24 in EastAsiaForum, is part of an EAF special feature series on the novel coronavirus crisis and its impact.

SYDNEY (IDN) – In 2016, the Executive Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) Peter Jennings warned that "if Beijing wants to adopt politically coercive policies, it's in a fairly strong position to do so with us because of that level of trade dependence".

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 27 May 2020

Photo: The tourist sector in Perth, the Australian city closest to Asia with a travel time of between 3 to 4 hours, is also affected by the impact of coronavirus. Credit: Dietmar Rabich. CC BY-SA 4.0

Coronavirus Exposes Australia's Economic Dependence on China

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — Australia hasn't had a recession for 29 years. Economists are now warning that the coronavirus (COVID-19) is almost certainly driving the country towards it and thus exposing Australia's heavy dependence on China for its economic prosperity.

Until the mid-1970s Australians were paranoid about a 'yellow peril' (the Chinese takeover) and practiced a 'White Australia' policy that kept Asians away from migrating to the vast continent.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 07 March 2020

Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump (R) listens to Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He (L) during a meeting to discuss trade issues in the Oval Office of the White House in in Washington, Jan 31, 2019. Credit: IC

Trump's Trade Deal Poses New Dangers to Southeast Asia

Viewpoint by Calvin Cheng*

KUALA LUMPUR (IDN) — After two years of alternating between tense escalation and fleeting periods of calm, the United States and China reached a preliminary phase one trade deal in December 2019. Government spokespersons in both countries promptly cheered the signing of the agreement — but observers around the world remain a little more circumspect.The primary achievement of the phase one deal seemed to be tempering the uncertainty of further tariff escalation, with both sides agreeing to cancel their upcoming tariff hikes.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 27 February 2020

It's Time Overdue To Tame The Beast Called Capitalism

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Capitalism rules the world. Correct. But Bernie Sanders has his doubts about it. Good. It is a malicious system in many ways but as Winston Churchill might have said, it is better than all the alternatives. Nevertheless, it’s time overdue to tame the beast.

After the Second World War the Western world did make a big effort to mitigate some of its worst effects. In the U.S. there was the GI bill to help returning soldiers get started in life. Later, there was Medicaid for poorer people. In Europe there was a widespread attempt to replicate the free health services pioneered by the Scandinavian countries and New Zealand.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 25 February 2020

UN Study Predicts $32 Billion Fall in Post-Brexit UK Exports

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN | UNCTAD) — A new study expects non-tariff measures (NTMs) to cause major fractures in post-exit trade relations between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU), knocking up to US$32 billion, or 14 per cent, off of UK exports to the EU.

NTMs are policy measures other than ordinary customs tariffs that can potentially have an economic effect on international trade in goods, changing quantities traded, or prices, or both. They are the key factors mediating market access in the world economy.