WEF: Setting Bright Minds to Work
As a concept, the idea of gathering together the world’s leading thinkers in a Swiss playground for a few days of eating, drinking, and...
Joseph E Stiglitz and Hamid Rashid: Closing Developing Countries’ Capital Drain
Developing countries are bracing for a major slowdown this year. According to the UN report World Economic Situation and Prospects 2016, their growth averaged...
Michael Pettis: Money Is Not Created Out of Thin Air
A recurring conversation I have with clients concerns the ability of banks to create credit, and of governments to monetise debt, and whether this...
Micro Credit the American Way
Being short on cash is an expensive proposition: ask the Greeks or anyone whose luck has run out. The cash-strapped often spend more on...
Latin America: Emulating the Success of a Few
At this year’s gathering of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Latin America is expected to claim centre stage.
With some of the region’s...
Jan Pronk: It Takes More than Good Intentions
The government of Sudan declared Jan Pronk persona non grata in October 2006, summoning the UN special envoy to pack his bags and leave...
Europe: Hiccups on the Iberian Peninsula
While Europe lurches from one crisis to the next, Spain and Portugal have been quietly going about their business, steering themselves back to stability...
Eduardo Galeano: Remembering a Forgotten Continent
In the last days of his presidency, José Mujica visited the Casmu Hospital in Montevideo to pay his respects to Uruguay’s foremost historian and...
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
As a monetary bludgeon wielded menacingly to impose a federalisation process on the reluctant nations of Europe, the euro has failed miserable. As a...
Disruption in Politics: Be Careful What You Wish For
Political disruptors have, once again, become fashionable – and popular. They always do when societies grow tired of business as usual and politicians that...
