Alicia Garcia Herrero and Jianwei Xu (Natixis) | After several peaceful months, the US-China trade has been taken back to central stage following Trump’s unexpected announcement to ramp up tariffs from 10% to 25% on Friday if no deal is reached by this Friday. Fears of resurged uncertainties spread among investors, tumbling world market over the past few days.
John Feffer via Fair Observer | With wannabe monarchs like Donald Trump that show far less deference to democracy than the current occupants of Buckingham Palace and Kyoto’s Chrysanthemum Throne, who needs actual kings and queens?
Shaun Riordan | The US has once before tried to use trade restrictions to force an Asian power to abandon its strategy. It did not end well.
Javiera Alarcon via Fair Observer | Women and men on track to becoming parents must face the prospect of increasing costs of quality childcare. This is true for developed nations, but no less predictable in low-income countries as well. Raising children is not what it used to be.
Jens Bastian via Macropolis | For some Greece observers and various China analysts the decision by the Greek government to join the 17+1 network came as a surprise. They shouldn’t have been taken aback. What is rather astonishing is the muted response by Brussels, Berlin and Washington.
Peter Isackson via Fair Observer | Monopolist capitalism in the era of digital control reassures some and frightens others. Can it be controlled?
Alicia García-Herrero (Natixis) | Out of the key reasons for the cyclical slowdown in 2018, namely the worsening sentiment due to the US-China trade war and the rapid shadow banking crackdown, the former can be considered as an external shock but the latter is self-inflicted.
John Feffer via Fair Observer | Several countries have already withdrawn recognition of the Trump government and recognized Nancy Pelosi instead as the legitimate leader of the country. The deputy assistant undersecretary general of the United Nations has given the United States a one-year warning. If the country doesn’t clean up its act and become a responsible world citizen, Ithell Colhoquon announced yesterday, the international community will impose sanctions on…
Jean Abi Nader via Fair Observer | The challenges of sustainable economic growth and meaningful employment are common throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Pablo Pardo (Washington) | If in any country the word “socialist” is an insult, it is in the US of 2019. “Socialism” has become the war cry of the Republican party against the opposition Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, in large part because the media star of this party in the Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, describes herself as a “democratic socialist”.