Trade and Economics

One should not be surprised when Nauru, a nation of less than 10,000, is offered $50 million from Russia. Nor should the opening of diplomatic missions from Georgia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates in the South Pacific be remarkable when considering what is at stake. An economist might say that a market has emerged for purchasing votes at the United Nations.

Over the past two weeks, U.S. defense secretary Leon Panetta and his key officers, including Admiral Robert F. Willard, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, have actively explained details of President Barack Obama’s January 5 announcement about the new defense budget and its implications for the Asia Pacific. Southeast Asian counterparts want to clearly understand U.S.

In an environment of declining defense spending by what have traditionally been the largest customers on both sides of the Atlantic, aerospace and defense companies face difficult decisions on how to deploy their cash.

Yesterday, the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness released a report, “Road Map to Renewal,” on a variety of ways to boost jobs and competitiveness in the United States.

On January 13, 2012, President Obama released a proposed reorganization of the federal bureaucracy, which would see the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the Small Business Administration, the Export-Import Bank, and the U.S.

Egypt’s leadership has dashed expectations for a swift and complete shift from autocracy to democracy. The inherent conservatism of Egypt’s military leadership, combined with the political ineffectiveness of many of the activists who were at the center of public protests a year ago, is widening the gap between public expectations of the post-Mubarak era and its reality.

The Arctic will experience extraordinary economic and environmental change over the next several decades. Commercial, human, and state interaction will rise dramatically. More drilling for oil and gas in the region and growing shipping and ecotourism as new shipping routes come into existence are just a few of the examples of increased human activity in the Arctic.

On the eve of a critically important IMF Article IV Consultation Mission to Myanmar, the basic question is: where's the beef on economic reform? After over a year of post-election policy debate, meaningful economic reform initiatives have been meager.