Reports

It is hardly a coincidence that a new monument of Karl Marx, the creator of socialist philosophy, was erected with great pomp in the city of his birth in 2018. Marxist thinking has been undergoing a renaissance for all sorts of wrong reasons, including in academic and political circles. Beware, ...

As the economy begins to sag, China’s ruling party is tightening control over the country and fanning nationalist sentiments in response to justified criticism from abroad. International tension is rising. The world could split up into competing political and economic blocks once again. This would be particularly harmful for Europe, ...

It has become common to blame capitalism for climate change and wealth inequality. However, the premises underlying the debate around the issue are profoundly misguided – the current system is far from aligned with free-market prescriptions. But despite their skewed view of reality, advocates of government intervention are likely to ...

Inequality, social injustice, economic downturns – lately the blame for such phenomena is laid at the feet of capitalism. Increasingly, and especially among the younger generation, socialism is touted as the cure for all these ills. Yet over and over, history has taught us that government meddling in the economy ...

The turmoil in Hong Kong does not pose a direct threat to the power and survival of the party-state in China. Beijing must be frustrated by the Hong Kong government’s inability to pacify the protesters and has issued some dire warnings to them. Using the Hong Kong garrison of the People’s ...

Even after the fall of Communism, the vision of a planned and controlled society is alive and well. By putting politics first, however, the idea that human affairs must be managed centrally and bureaucratically necessarily limits individual rights and freedom of choice. In the end, it simply substitutes tyranny for ...

Some say the global economy is slowing down due to Brexit and the U.S.-China trade dispute – but these developments are not the real dangers. Far more insidious is the trend toward increased government influence in economies and large public debts. Yet, even many economists have adopted the notion that ...

Political interventions rather than markets are causing economic crises in the world. Misguided attempts to centrally plan and manage the complex transactions of millions of different players are bound to produce unexpected results. In 2007-2008, politically inspired intervention in the housing market in the United States caused an international financial ...

Jair Bolsonaro, a retired Army captain and outspoken conservative, clinched the top job in Latin America’s biggest nation by targeting the electorate’s justifiable fears, his opponents’ weaknesses and Brazil’s real need for economic reforms. The new cabinet puts academics, political luminaries and former military officers in key positions. President Bolsonaro ...

Today’s ruling elites of Europe have renounced its new political movements as “nationalist” and “populist,” and accuse some member states of no longer following democratic principles. In reality, though, it is Brussels’ overreaching ambitions that bring up the specter of autocratic rule in Europe.

Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter of palm oil, has been clearing significant areas of its tropical forests to make room for palm plantations. The EU is alarmed and wants to discourage the policy by reducing palm oil imports. This counterproductive approach to preventing tropical deforestation already has backfired.

South Koreans are critical of their country, but this is good. Critical self-evaluation is a virtue. The country is an example of how continuous improvement works. Nothing is taken for granted; flexibility is the norm. Through this continuous process, difficult challenges can be met and overcome.

With eyes fixed on Greece, Europe’s politicians and media are ignoring a weighter economic and geopolitical threat - ‘Brexit’. The United Kingdom is the European Union’s second-largest economy and a military and political heavyweight; it is also the world’s oldest parliamentary democracy and an ardent promoter of free markets and ...