Political Risk Review

Exit polls show Putin on 59% - Russia was on Sunday preparing for a third presidential term for Vladimir Putin, with voters forecast to give him a majority in national elections despite ...

Naked Protesters Draw Attention at Moscow Polling Station - Naked theft. That appeared to be the message a group of women's rights activists were trying to convey in protesting Putin's attempt to return to the Kreml...

30 Troops, 14 Militants Dead In Yemen Fighting - At least 30 soldiers and some 14 suspected Al-Qaeda militants have been killed during a clash in Yemen's southern Abyan Province, military officials report.

The power of habit - Charles Duhigg has a very interesting new book called The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business.

Stupidity, Brutality, and the Failure of Military Occupations - In the past decade, the United States has engaged in the military occupations: one (Iraq) that was the result of an American invasion and conquest, the oth...

More False Dawns in Africa? - Everybody wants to read good news from Africa, and Via Meadia is no exception. Any signs that democracy and prosperity are making progress are welcome. To ...

China’s Sukhoi Submission - China is executing an ambitious defense modernization plan designed to make the country militarily self-sufficient by around the 2020s. So with a range of ...

China’s wage hikes could benefit Latin America - Good news for Latin America: wages in China, Vietnam and other Asian countries are rising faster than expected, leading growing numbers of multinational fi...

Shelving the next book idea for now - After long contemplation, I've decided to postpone any launching of a book effort. Simply put, right now I cannot afford the enterprise, which, contrary ...

Bob Graham & Bob Kerrey on a Saudi Link to 9/11 - Former Senator and compulsive diarist Bob Graham along with former Senator Bob Kerrey (who has just announced his plans to run in Nebraska for the Senate aga...

Why are Irish taxpayers bailing out unsecured bank creditors? - This was the question put to the ECB’s Klaus Masuch by one persistent Irish journalist. The answer from Masuch was a complete dodge, a non-answer, becaus...

Successful Rwandan Entrepreneur Looking to Expand Internationally - With poor infrastructure, pervasive corruption, and widespread poverty, being an entrepreneur in a developing country in Africa can be quite a challenge. B...

The week ahead in central banking - Our week ahead email helps you track the most important events in central banking. To see all of our emails and alerts visit www.ft.com/nbe Rate votes Bot...

HR 347: One more step towards Neo-Feudalism - Sorry for the typos/errors on GG. I write fast and without an editor. ______ In feudal times, you could be put to death if you didn't kneel when the carriage...

The Long Arm of the Volcker Rule - The new Volcker Rule seeks to prevent banks that are ‘too big to fail’ from trading on their own account. The idea is that institutions that benefit from...

Small Countries, Big Issues: The Caribbean in the 21st Century - Many countries use regional integration to help them adjust to globalization. The Caribbean is no exception. Yet this region, which includes countries as v...

China's Xinjiang Crackdown Jeopardizes Ties With Turkey, Muslim World - The deaths of 20 people in violent clashes Tuesday in Xinjiang brought China's crackdown on the region's Uighurs back into the international spotlight. Tho...

The Latest Oil Price And Global Currency Moves In Focus - Our bullish oil view has played out, with Brent crude briefly hitting highs above US$128/bbl on reports of an explosion on a Saudi pipeline (which was subs...

What Bob Carr's blog tells us about his foreign policy views - Bob Carr's Thoughtlines blog was an occasional stop for journalists who wanted the former NSW Premier's take on the Labor leadership battle. But looking ...

While I'm on the road... - I've been in Doha for the week, and so haven't been able to blog or produce a video blog. But since I've got wireless access for the moment, I wanted to ...

Bernanke and irrational markets - Market reaction to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's two days of testimony has been confounding to say the least.

Viewing Hungary Through Warped Mirrors - [image: Duly Noted] *About the hidden forces that determine what you will have reason to think.* Before resigning, Sarah Palin admitted: “I cannot take th...

Trotsky on workfare - The very principle of compulsory labor service is for the Communist quite unquestionable. “He who works not, neither shall he eat.” And as all must eat, al...

Yet more drama for Greece’s debt deal - Over the last 24 hours, a flurry of activity has taken place surrounding Greece’s €200bn debt restructuring, most of it expected but some of it potentially...

Australia's UNthinking Security Council Quest - *Raoul Heinrichs is Sir Arthur Tange Scholar at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, ANU, and Deputy Editor of Pnyx.* * * Over the past four years,...

Is China’s Economic Future a Rosy One? Becker - Starting with the opening of agriculture to private incentives in the late 1970s, China has experienced faster and more prolonged economic growth than any ot...

Google, the World Bank, and Public-Private Data Partnerships - [Editor's note: edited at 15:40 2-24-12 to correct a mistakenly posted earlier draft] On Wednesday, several organizations, including Global Integrity, me...

When will China emerge from the global crisis? - This posting is from the January 30 issue of my newsletter, and so ignores recent events in Chongqing, but of course those events make my discussion of the...

Polish Researchers Find Shale Gas Fracking ‘Environmentally Safe’ - Oil and Gas Eurasia has recently published significant findings from the Polish Geological Institute that could very well shake up the geopolitical debate ...

A long road to Damascus - Last week in New York, I took part in a roundtable discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations. Billed as an exploration of the business risks and oppor...

Unions say Spain labour reform will deepen recession - MADRID (Reuters) – Trade unions on Saturday slammed Spain’s new labour reform, arguing it would encourage companies to cut jobs and potentially deepen a re...

Iceland’s new banking disaster? - By Olafur Arnarson, Michael Hudson and Gunnar Tomasson Today, from Greece to Iceland, governments are acting as enforcers or even as collection agents on b...

The next generation of Saudi royals is being groomed - *By Crispin Hawes * The Saudi succession process seems secure, if the major participants remain healthy. However, recently-appointed Crown Prince Nayef ...

Europeans Increasingly Converting to Islam - Irish actor Liam Neeson says he is thinking about becoming a Muslim after undergoing a spiritual awakening in Turkey. Neeson, who was born into a Roman Cat...

Rebecca Wilder is moving to the EconoMonitors - I've decided to migrate News N Economics over to my new blog, The Wilder View, on the Roubini EconoMonitors platform. Really, I jumped at the opportunity t...

Serbia’s Little Mexico - There are two political economies that form the gorge through which passes the River Ibar. To the south there is a political sphere inflated by the privati...

Energy Blast - July 11, 2011 - Last week's case of Gazprom merging its assets with those of Viktor Vekselberg to create an energy giant 'highlights how tough it will be to curb the appetit...

Bidding a Fond Farewell ... - It has been nearly five years since TWR was launched. Initially, this blog served as the de facto blog of the National Interest; chronicled events being he...

Vladimir Putin: Friend of Animals and Trees - In the spirit of the pleasant Sunday, Drugoi, one of Russia's most popular bloggers, has posted a video link to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit yeste...

Caracas Shots - Please … go and check out Caracas Shots, a wonderful photo-blog by Alberto Rojas. Spend some time browsing it. It is a treasure.

Discrediting Academic Voices - Does college make students more liberal and less religious? Nope: The Indoctrination Myth, by Neil Gross, Commentary, NY Times: THE Republican presidential...

The Responsibilities of Civilian Policy Advocates - By: Peter J. Munson Peter Munson argues that civilian policy advocates have a responsibility to proffer realistic courses of action with an honest counti...

Various, by Arnold Kling - 1. Kevin Carey writes, Not everyone is willing or able to get a bachelor's degree. But everyone should at least have the chance to try. After all, well-...

Chart of the Day: Private GDP Grew 4.7% in Q4 - Last week's BEA report showed real GDP growing by 3% at an annual rate in Q4 2011. But as First Trust Portfolios pointed out, the non-government, private...

The Ghost of Paez - Adan Chavez posted a call to arms at the Aporrea.org site on 28 February titled “Loyalty and Treason,” urging all revolutionaries loyal to President Hugo C...

Dog bites man, Transparency International reports on Venezuela - We have a new report from Transparency International about corruption in the world and Venezuela turns out to be once more one of the most corrupt nations...

Decentralization - The continuing conflict in the far south of Chile is but the latest example of the costs of excessive centralizations of the Chilean state. In this La Segu...

Furor Over Report Hints at a Chinese Policy Debate - The fierce reaction to the World Bank assessment of China's state-capitalism system hints at a ferocious debate within the government as the nation prepare...

Citigroup Says Parsons to Step Down as Chairman - Richard Parsons, who was named chairman of Citigroup in 2009 just after the bank accepted $45 billion in federal bailouts, will step down from the position...

Debating Stimulus and Harvard and Stanford - Larry Summers and I debated “Did Fiscal Stimulus Help the Economy?” at Harvard this week. There was no video streaming or recording, and I will not try to...

Air Force Experimental Drone Uses Computing Power to Smooth High Flights - When a vibration in an aircraft's wing or tail matches the natural frequency of that structure, the results of that "flutter" can be catastrophic. If the v...

In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 3/2/12 - In this week’s roundup… Rumors surround Hugo Chávez’s health as conflicting reports emerge following his operation in Cuba; Chávez’s absence triggers disco...

Looking back at Libya whilst thinking of Syria. - A very brief post about Libya and the current situation in Syria. Just some thoughts: We should be able to agree that the Syrian government’s response to t...

The Weekly Wrap -- March 2, 2012 - *Surging oil, but a paradigm shift in the U.S. economy: *Against the drumbeat of steadily improving economic numbers, could the U.S. actually be on the c...

Why I Think PDVSA Plans To Sell Stock In One Heavy Crude Oil Project Via The Chinese Governement - It’s hard to stop thinking about the bizarre plan or project by PDVSA to sell stock in one of its units via the Chinese Government’s CITIC Group (China Inv...

Post-Arab Spring malaise - The Middle East is entering the post-Arab Spring period in a daze of dashed hopes and declining economic performance. The well-spring of optimism that chan...

Making Sense of the North Korea Moratorium - According to the State Department yesterday, North Korea agreed to suspend its uranium enrichment program, nuclear weapons tests and long-range missile lau...

The Media Did Not Hype Fukushima - [image: osnos-fukushima-year.jpg] In the new PBS “Frontline” documentary, “Inside Japan’s Nuclear Meltdown,” a Japanese colonel named Shinji Iwakuma reca...

Some Quick Observations on Islam and Opposition in Kazakhstan - Some opponents of the current Kazakhstani government held a demonstration over the weekend, after which some of their leaders were imprisoned. I will leave...

Under the Radar News 02.27.12 - A weekly compilation of events in Asia. China’s largest oil producer, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), is increasingly concerned about political risks i...

Happy New Year: And here is our new Field Guide - BOSTON – Looking back on 2010, it was a year in which journalism crackled with new, perhaps reckless energy in the wake of the Wikileaks affair and America...