Tag - global-economy

 
 

GLOBAL ECONOMY

Despite vast coal reserves, China has always been geopolitically vulnerable on the energy front.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 2024
China navigates myriad of energy-driven challenges
Rising fuel prices are a thorn in the China's side amid deflation concerns.
Customers make a toast at an eatery in Tokyo. Many view Japan’s economy as being on the rise, and that of regional powerhouse China as declining. But how accurate is this narrative?
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 18, 2024
Japan is back, China is over. The trouble with narratives.
The idea that Japan and China's roles have flipped, with the former on the rise and the latter in decline, obfuscates important facts and trends.
Nigerian naira being counted in Lagos, Nigeria. Cash transfers offer a transformative solution to multidimensional poverty.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2024
A global cash transfer fund could end extreme poverty
Cash transfers offer a transformative solution to multidimensional poverty, and are aided by improvements in internet and phone coverage.
Anti-capitalist protesters with Occupy San Francisco take part in a demonstration on the streets of the Californian city in October 2011.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2024
The economic future of our overworked grandchildren
While John Maynard Keynes predicted a future of leisure and abundance, the world has seen an increase in wealth disparity and a culture of overwork.
Many countries including the U.S. and China are prioritizing domestic production and shortening supply chains to enhance economic self-reliance — but they are doing so at the  risk of fueling systemic instability and intensifying great-power tensions.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 10, 2024
Economic self-reliance is a dangerous delusion
Countries around the world have given high priority to shortening supply chains, rebuilding domestic production capacity and diversifying suppliers.
Climate protesters interrupt a campaign event for former U.S. President Donald Trump in Indianola, Iowa, on Jan. 14.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2024
What would a Trump win mean for the climate?
Even if Trump wins and tries to take a wrecking ball to climate policies, he ultimately can't derail the renewables revolution gaining momentum in the U.S.
Research from the International Monetary Fund suggests that gains from fully closing the gender gap in labor markets could increase gross domestic product in developing economies by 23% on average.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 8, 2024
The economic power of gender equality
There is ample empirical research demonstrating that gender equality delivers better results for people, for the planet and for profits.
Bitcoin showed its boom-or-bust character Tuesday with volatile price swings.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 6, 2024
Record surge marks new revival for Bitcoin
The cryptocurrency has experienced a breathtaking rebound this year amid strong demand from new U.S. exchange-traded funds.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping attends the opening session of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Mar 6, 2024
As Xi summons 'new productive forces,' old questions linger for economy
By focusing on the prospect for future growth, the slogan shifts the focus from China's present economic difficulties.
The world needs to avoid the mistakes and pitfalls that go with providing debt relief and should craft sustainable solutions for financially distressed nations. 
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2024
Developing countries’ never-ending debt crisis
Creditors have a role in resolving debt crises. This means all eyes are on China, which is the single most important creditor for debt distress.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the public on the outskirts of Varanasi, India, on Feb. 23.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 1, 2024
India posts surprise 8.4% surge in growth ahead of elections
The government predicts growth will reach 7.6% in the fiscal year through March, higher than an earlier projection of 7.3%.
A firefighter walks on mud and rocks from a mudslide during a storm in Los Angeles on Feb. 5.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Feb 29, 2024
U.S. and Philippines pay highest economic price for climate-fueled weather
The U.S. currently experiences the worst losses in absolute terms: about $97 billion annually.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the international community is currently experiencing "gridlock" and suffering "colossal global dysfunction.”
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2024
No one wins in a lose-lose world
Fragmentation of the world economy could derail growth, especially in low-income countries, turning zero-sum thinking into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There is a global trend toward economic bifurcation with the U.S. and China leading the charge — and multinational solutions are needed to address the new challenges.
COMMENTARY
Feb 28, 2024
The inexorable movement toward a divided global economy
Efforts to protect national economies from threats require multinational solutions. Chains are only as strong as their weakest link.
Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala addresses the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 26, 2024
WTO seeks modest outcome in UAE at 'critical juncture' for global trade
The stated goals is to set new global commerce rules, but even its ambitious chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala sought to curb expectations.
U.S. President Joe Biden announces new provisions in March 2022 requiring the government to buy more made-in-America goods.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2024
Biden doesn’t get why we need the WTO
What do Biden and Trump have in common? Protectionism. As a result, the 13th WTO ministerial conference underway in Abu Dhabi is doomed to fail.
Members of the 31st Separate Mechanized Brigade fire at a Russian target in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on Tuesday. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States and China and their allies are pulling apart, World Trade Organization economists say.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Feb 23, 2024
Global trade rift widening as Ukraine war passes two-year mark
There are clear signs that the global economy is fragmenting into two separate blocs, World Trade Organization economists say.
Laws governing global e-commerce and the growing tidal wave of data that crosses borders may soon change.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 22, 2024
Streaming a movie abroad may soon come with taxes at the border
It's still unclear exactly how governments would implement digital tariffs.
As their popularity grow, Shein and Temu together send almost 600,000 packages to the U.S. every day.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 22, 2024
Rise of fast-fashion Shein and Temu roils global air cargo industry
Their pursuit of limited air-cargo space to woo consumers with rapid transit times make off-peak seasons almost disappear and cause capacity shortages.
Japan's fall to No. 4 in the global economic rankings reflects an aging population and declining resources.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 20, 2024
Japan slips in the global economic rankings: So what’s next?
The IMF has forecast that India will overtake Japan economically in 2026 and Germany in 2027.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan