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Then-SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung, right, and his ARATS counterpart Chen Yunlin exchange greetings during crossstrait talks August 9 this year in Taipei.

New Trade Pacts Boost Cross-Strait Opportunities

By: EBR | Monday, October 8, 2012

Agreements are aimed at supporting Taiwanese businesses in mainland China.

Africa Rising - The Last Consumer Frontier

By: EBR | Friday, April 27, 2012

Nova Capital Africa Analytics (Nova), a subsidiary of Nova Capital Global Markets, announces the current and upcoming publications on the consumer and infrastructure sectors in Africa.

Bank balance-sheets are already shrinking under the influence of the costly new capital requirements and will continue to do so for several years. Simultaneously, many product lines will no longer prove profitable under the new Basle III capital rules and so will be axed.

How to rebuild trust in the banks

By: EBR | Monday, February 13, 2012

Restoring trust in banking depends on policymakers to establish a stable and sustainable new regulatory framework and by bankers themselves to address flawed past governance and management practices, writes Simon Lewis, CEO of the London-based association for financial markets in Europe (AFME).

The People Republic’s agency that handles Taiwan affairs lauded Mr. Ma’s victory, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news service, saying it showed that improved cross-strait ties were the “correct path and have the support of the Taiwanese compatriots.”

President of Taiwan Ma Ying-jeou re-elected!

By: N. Peter Kramer | Monday, January 16, 2012

Saturday January 14, President Ma Ying-jeou was re-elected by a comfortable margin, fending off a challenge from his main rival, Ms. Tsai Ing-wen. Recent polls had suggested the race would be very close, raising anxiety among those who prefer the status quo.

In the opening week of his campaign, Perry lashed out at the American President. He suggested that Obama does not love America, calling him the greatest threat to the country.

US Elections: Rick Perry’s Clenched Fists

By: Gianni Skaragas | Thursday, December 22, 2011

With the U.S. presidential election date on the horizon, this column will focus on the GOP frontrunners. Some of them were reluctant to declare their intention to run, while others hurried to cement their roles as bastions of conservatism or party gadflies, representing too many diverse interests.

The failure of mainstream politicians and leaders to grapple with the complex problems of the day is provoking people to look for alternatives. While Europe’s leaders and the rest of the world are focused on Greece, Italy and the Eurozone crisis, another threat is brewing.

Europe′s new populist leaders

By: EBR | Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Populist movements pick up significant levels of support by presenting themselves as ordinary Joes who are honest and up-front about society’s problems. The most successful leaders are those that can embody this folksy outsider image.

the relationship between the US and China, now holding a significant share of US debt, are crucial for America. Probably one reason that the US has bowed to Beijing’s pressure and has turned down Taiwan’s request to purchase 66 new F-16 C/D fighters

Opposition leader and upgrading F16 jets spark concerns about stability in the Taiwan Strait

By: N. Peter Kramer | Monday, September 26, 2011

For decades the Taiwan Strait, between the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan (Republic of China)) has been one of the world’s most dangerous potential flashpoints. Beijing calls Taiwan an inseparable part of its territory and insists that it must be unified.

More than three years of experience indicates that cross-strait tensions have been effectively reduced and the foundation of long-lasting peace has been built under the framework of the ROC Constitution, and on the basis of the 1992 consensus as well as the policy of “no unification, no independence and no use of force.”

President Ma: “Cross-Strait Peace, Global Tranquility.”

By: N. Peter Kramer | Monday, August 29, 2011

On the island of Kinmen on August 23, President Ma of Taiwan (Republic of China) marked the 53rd anniversary of the beginning of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis.

Emerging economies have had to lend to established economies to help them meet their debts and obligations. As things stand now, in the summer of 2011, Japan, Europe and the United States are the “sick men” of the global economy.

The Global Governance Deficit: The Theater of the Absurd

By: The Globalist | Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Global governance in the 21st century is reminiscent of famous playwright Luigi Pirandello’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author.” As Jean-Pierre Lehmann explains, the actors continue to roam about the stage with no purpose — and the play may end up being a tragedy.

The proposal is for the use of eurobonds as an instrument of debt management, not as a financing instrument for new expenditures. It was put forward to the president of the Commission last May, and introduced in the European Parliament in December by Sylvie Goulard, based on research by Jacques Delpla and Jakob von Weiszäcker, among others.

Eurobonds are the only answer to Europe’s crisis

By: EBR | Thursday, July 28, 2011

Eurozone leaders face a fundamental choice when they meet on Thursday. Either they declare, once again, that they stand ready to do “whatever is necessary” to overcome the eurozone crisis, or they actually do it.

There is the lingering fear that Mr Erdogan is an autocrat in the making. So he was given a victory, but with limits to his power.

Is Prime Minister Erdogan Turkey′s new strongman?

By: BBC News | Tuesday, June 14, 2011

It is a time when incumbent leaders are being turfed out in Europe and when dictators and autocrats are facing popular resistance across North Africa and the Middle East.

Under the new regulation, each EU member state must appoint a national civil aviation safety investigation authority (SIA) with a budget big enough to conduct full investigations. Every plane crash, but also every near- plane crash, must be the subject of an investigation with the report ready within 12 months.

Accident investigation: the truth and nothing but the truth

By: EBR | Tuesday, May 31, 2011

It is easily taken for granted that a plane crash is followed by an inquiry, and after the initial shock has worn off we tend to trust the investigators and let them do their work in peace. Nobody is truly interested in the rules and regulations surrounding an air crash inquiry.

Iranian domination of Iraq would open the door to Iranian power projection throughout the region. Therefore, the United States has proposed keeping U.S. forces in Iraq but has yet to receive Iraq’s approval. If that approval is given (which looks unlikely), Iraqi factions with clout in parliament have threatened to renew the anti-U.S. insurgency.

Obama and the Arab Spring

By: Stratfor - Strategic Forecasting | Tuesday, May 24, 2011

U.S. President Barack Obama gave a speech last week on the Middle East. Presidents make many speeches. Some are meant to be taken casually, others are made to address an immediate crisis, and still others are intended to be a statement of broad American policy.

The lesson is that you can no more construct or reconstruct a city than you can a family or a thriving neighborhood or a successful business district. Even if you could rebuild every house, office building, restaurant, grocery store, or health spa exactly as they were before a disaster (natural or manmade), you would not be able to recreate the social order, the community, that lived in them and that shaped their evolution.

Who Should Rebuild Japan’s Cities?

By: EBR | Wednesday, April 6, 2011

There are currently 12,000 confirmed dead, 2,800 injured, and over 15,000 still missing from the terrible Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan March 11. Experts estimate the economic loss will be $200 billion to $300 billion, or 4-5 percent of Japan’s gross domestic product.

At the same time, the West should begin arming the rebels and trying to peel off Qaddafi supporters, by publicly declaring that those who desert Qaddafi now will not be excluded from roles in Libya′s post-Qaddafi future. U.S. and European military planners should also prepare for more robust military action, including air strikes, if that becomes necessary to depose Qaddafi and stop the fighting.

What Intervention Looks Like

By: Foreign Affairs | Saturday, March 19, 2011

With Muammar al-Qaddafi now closing in on a final campaign to defeat the rebels opposing his regime, the world's attention has centered on what the United States and others should do -- or even can do -- to aid those who are trying to bring down the Qaddafi government.

The challenge is that after two years of austerity, most firms have trimmed the fat, cut into muscle and risk cutting right to bone if they go any further. The days of slashing general and administrative costs (G&A) to hit targets are over: even if firms hadn′t already squeezed their overhead structures dry, executives understand that G&A costs are quick to creep back into the system, providing little help to long-term margin improvement.

A New Time for Corporate Transformation

By: EBR | Friday, March 4, 2011

Spurred by the need to find new cost gains in a waning recovery, corporate change is back on the agenda. Corporate transformation will not be a new phrase to most readers of these web pages. Iit is likely that more than one of you will have let a groan escape your lips when reading the headline.

The revolutions have been coming for a long time. The rising in Tunisia, particularly when it proved successful, caused it to spread. As in 1848, 1968 and 1989, similar social and cultural conditions generate similar events and are triggered by the example of one country and then spread more broadly. That has happened in 2011 and is continuing.

Revolution and the Muslim World

By: Stratfor - Strategic Forecasting | Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The Muslim world, from North Africa to Iran, has experienced a wave of instability in the last few weeks. No regimes have been overthrown yet, although as of this writing, Libya was teetering on the brink.

Ironically, soaring global energy prices, especially in the futures market, could prove to be a bonanza for the three energy-rich Stans, especially Kazakhstan, in the short term. If energy prices in general, but especially oil prices, soar because of the spreading Middle East unrest, they will certainly benefit from a windfall in revenues.

Will Central Asia Follow Egypt′s Example?

By: The Globalist | Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Will the chain reaction of protests crossing the Middle East now reach Central Asia? Most of the region's nations seem well insulated from the upheaval — but not all of them.

Both the world and the Arab region are changing and, in tandem with these changes, the demand for democracy appears to be returning with renewed vitality. Twenty-two years after the fall of the Berlin wall, seventeen years after the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa, thirteen years after the democratic reform in Indonesia, the democracy wave of 2011 is engulfing the Arab (and Iranian) world.

Arab democracy rising: international lessons

By: EBR | Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The popular revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the middle east are driven by a profound democratic impulse. This represents both learning and test for international democracy actors, says Vidar Helgesen.

Business history is littered with examples of companies that missed important trends; think digitization and the music industry. Yet this history also shines with examples of companies that spied the forces changing the global business scene and used them to protect or contribute to the bottom line.

Global forces: An introduction

By: McKinsey Quarterly | Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Five crucibles of change will restructure the world economy for the foreseeable future. Companies that understand them will stand the best chance of shaping it. “I never think of the future,” Albert Einstein once observed. “It comes soon enough.”

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EU Actually

President Ursula von der Leyen has seen better days

By: N. Peter Kramer

EU leaders, member states, MEPs, EP political groups have had it with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Europe

The EU Needs a Third Way in Iran

European reactions to the war in Iran have lost sight of wider political dynamics. The EU must position itself for the next phase of the crisis without giving up on its principles.

Business

The EU’s zig-zag road towards stronger financial markets

Giles Merritt delves into the confusing welter of efforts to streamline Europe’s national financial players into a more dynamic single capital market