[escenic_image id="55101467"]In 2007, the collapse of the American financial system led the world into its worst economic catastrophe since the 1930s. As conditions deteriorated, governments across…

[escenic_image id="5594941"]Winston Churchill once said of Russia that it was “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” The White House probably has the same feeling of Germany today. There…

[escenic_image id="5591284"]However dramatic was the dismissal last month of Gen. Stanley McChrystal as America’s field marshal in Afghanistan, it paled in significance compared with the departure of…

[escenic_image id="5588386"]The numbers are dazzling: $19.21 billion. Possibly even topping $22 billion when the dust settles. The initial public offering (IPO) from the Agricultural Bank of China,…

[escenic_image id="5587211"]On 29 June 2010 Taiwan and mainland China signed a historic bilateral agreement that paves the way for closer economic cross-Strait ties. The Economic Co-operation…

[escenic_image id="5584039"]It’s all but official. Some of the world’s biggest oil producers grouped in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) face higher future energy costs now that cheap natural gas…

[escenic_image id="5579402"]The year is 1988. The Soviet Union lives on and the Berlin Wall has not yet fallen. Two years before, the great historian Paul Kennedy published a book (The Rise and Fall…

[escenic_image id="5522874"]When Group of 20 leaders met in London in April last year in the teeth of the global economic crisis, they displayed impressive common purpose, pledging rapid and…

[escenic_image id="5567722"]The Middle East has emerged from the recent global economic crisis in better shape than most other regions. It successfully maintained positive economic output throughout…

[escenic_image id="5562312"]A conspicuous if not shocking feature of today’s world is its unambiguously upside-down state. While various industrialized countries find themselves on the verge of…