Alicia García Herrero (Natixis) | US President Joe Biden’s long-awaited trip to Asia got off to a poor start, after ASEAN leaders’ official visit to the White House saw hardly any relevant policy decisions, and Biden’s stingy pitch of $150 million to ASEAN economies. Based on that example and Biden’s difficult political situation at home, the stakes for his trip to Asia were low. But reality has proved the pessimism…
J.P. Marín-Arrese | Biden needs to bolster his tarnished presidency before the upcoming elections. Failing to deliver his electoral promises for the less well off, he faces the grim prospect of losing control of the Chambers. His economic record seems appallingly lacklustre as inflation is eroding incomes of most American households. Moderate Democrats allied themselves with Republicans to dump bombastic plans to provide widespread social benefits. Growth and jobs are…
Amnesty International | Commenting on the court ruling on tennis star Novak Djokovic’s appeal against the Australian government’s decision to cancel his visa, Graham Thom, Amnesty International Australia’s refugee adviser, said: “Djokovic has glimpsed for a moment what refugees have been experiencing for years because of the Australian government’s shameful policies on refugees. For example, Mehdi Ali, a 24-year-old Iranian held in the same hotel as Djokovic, the Park Hotel,…
“We don’t say the last word because we are right. We are right because we say the last word” (A US Supreme Court Justice). The UN Human Rights Committee has ruled that Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón did not have “access to a fair trial in the Franquismo case – where he was acquitted – and the Gürtel case,” the corruption case affecting the Partido Popular (PP), which, Garzón, then judge…
“Cuba is not a democracy”, the Spanish Prime Minister replied when asked if Cuba is a dictatorship. The debate, in Spain, was sparked by a leader of UN Podemos, partners in Sánchez’s government, who denied that Cuba was a dictatorship. When asked, the new government spokeswoman, Isabel Rodriguez, declined to answer… Until Sánchez went off on a tangent, as he has done so many times before, claiming that “it is…
G7 unites on China, climate change and pandemic. G7 leaders met this weekend for Joe Biden’s first summit as US president. Their first item on the agenda was to reach unity in relation to China, achieving agreement on a global infrastructure project (Build Back Better World) in response to China’s One Belt, One Road project, although without explicitly mentioning it in the text. In addition, the seven countries also committed to implement measures against anti-competitive practices by Chinese industry and agreed on a communiqué on human rights violations in Xianjing. The G7 also criticised China and demanded an investigation into the origin of COVID-19.
Alphavalue | ll governments around the world are faced with the fact that growth comes from investing in education, the environment and possibly infrastructures. The pandemic has de facto killed an old and simplistic idea that the lower the taxes, the better. Without public resources, there would have been no way of dealing with the pandemic. So supporters of reasonable corporate taxes have returned to the scene, starting with Spain, the UK for its next budget and now the US.
Javier García Arenas (Caixabank Research) | Society has become notably more polarised in recent years. In the US, this manifests itself through a wider gap between the views of Republican and Democrat voters. In Europe, we have identified an increase in disagreements over fundamental issues such as immigration and European integration. Political parties have also become more polarised in advanced economies, most notably in the last decade.
Pablo Pardo (Washington) | According to the so-called ‘Bork Doctrine’, a company that has a dominant position in a market can benefit consumers. The Democratic Party has always been more reluctant to accept that thesis than the Republican Party. In recent years, that opposition has become tougher. So one would think that both for purely political reasons – to please the left wing of the Democratic Party – and for ideological principles – that opposition to the control of big business – Biden will not pass up the opportunity to trim the quasi-monopolies of the Internet giants.
Scott Lucas via The Conversation | As aspiration, the speech was pitch perfect. Biden rightly took on the present of America’s most serious domestic crisis since the Civil War. Coronavirus, the Capitol attack, economic loss, immigration, climate change and social injustice were confronted. But what distinguished the speech beyond the essential was the sincerity with which it was delivered. Since the election, there has been a commingling of Biden’s personal narrative of loss with the damage that America has suffered.