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June 2, 2008 | US Deficit and Sinking Dollar: The Agenda of a New G5

The US dollar was for a long time the leading global currency against which all other foreign currencies were measured. The downside of this is that as a result, the USA has accumulated a huge trade deficit. In 2006, foreign goods and services purchased by Americans were worth 600 billion USD more than the goods and services they sold abroad. Every day, the US needs to draw on seven billion

June 2, 2008 | The Future of the G8: From "Library Group" to G13?

Over the last few years, the annual G8 summits have attracted more attention than ever before in the history of this group of states originally known as the “Library Group.” The rise in power of Brazil, China or India sparks heated debates regarding the duties of the G8, whether it is equipped to accomplish them, and if not, which reforms are now necessary. Today’s global economic order confronts

April 14, 2008 | Do Not Regulate Sovereign Wealth Funds

As potentially non-economic agents, SWFs are threatening to affect the efficiency of the global market economy and distort the allocation of risk and resources. ++ Governance should remain adapted to the fund’s purpose and specific political and cultural setting, but increasing net returns will require transparency, and the professionalism and accountability of management, not further

March 11, 2008 | Global Capital Markets: The USA Stands its Ground

The world financial
markets’ present bout of turbulences should not hide the long-term and often brighter
trends:

Despite
occasional crises, global financial assets have expanded continuously over the
last decades. In 2006 alone, global assets increased by 17% to 167 trillion
USD.
The
growing importance of emerging countries’ financial markets and their
increasing integration in

April 25, 2007 | Andrew Kramer on Russia's Challenge to US GPS Monopoly

Though the space race battles of the cold war are long past, Russia is now poised to challenge the US in a twenty-first century technological battle: satellite navigation. This $15 billion market is currently dominated by the US Global Positioning System (GPS), raising fears that monopoly control could lead to a US shut-off in a time of crisis. Russia hopes to introduce eight navigation