Opinion

Much ink and many pixels have been spilled over the past few years about the rise of the gig economy, sharing economy, on-demand economy, 1099 economy, freelancer economy or whatever you prefer to call it. Some of the claims about its growth have been overstated, and I’ve written several columns trying to debunk them, or at least put them in ...

A paradox of our time concerns productivity. We are awash in transformative technologies — smartphones, tablets, big data — and yet the growth in labour productivity, which should benefit from all the technology, is dismal. This matters. Productivity is economic lingo for efficiency, and it’s the wellspring of higher living standards. If productivity lags, so will wages and incomes. The ...

The leaked documents by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) could smear Panama’s image as an offshore haven for money laundering, even after it had exerted efforts to clear its name. The documents, from around 214,000 offshore entities, came from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm with offices in more than 35 countries. The leaked data, known as the ...

John Power SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS North Korea’s ruling party recently called on citizens to stand up to its patron China’s “hostile schemes” in a blistering attack that invoked nuclear war with Beijing, a report has claimed. In a document distributed to provincial committees, the Workers’ Party of Korea implored party members and workers to “soundly crush China’s pressuring schemes ...

Every time I write about bias against conservatives in academia, I can count on a few professors writing me to politely suggest that I have no idea what I’m talking about. Sometimes they aren’t so polite, either. How would I know what goes on in their hiring meetings, their faculty gatherings, their tenure reviews? They’re right there, and they can ...

The release this weekend by WikiLeaks of the purported transcript of discussions among International Monetary Fund officials about the best way to compel Greece’s creditors to accept debt restructuring led to much finger pointing and seeming indignation. Yet the economic case for forgiving that country’s debt is straightforward: Without relief within a comprehensive reform program, Greece will struggle to grow, ...

China’s State Grid Corporation, the world’s biggest power company, is on an impressive buying binge. As Bloomberg News reports, the company is “actively in bidding” for power assets in Australia, hoping to add them to a portfolio of Italian, Brazilian, and Filipino companies. The goal isn’t simply to invest, however. State Grid’s Chairman Liu Zhenya has a plan that he ...

China’s intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), offers a snapshot of the political intrigue taking place within the regime of President Xi Jinping. The MSS has replaced two vice ministers within the last four years, after reports of political infighting and scandal. The current minister is said to be a figurehead, with the real power held by a ...

International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) recommendations to adopt policies that support research and development to promote innovation could play a pivotal role in reversing the global economic slowdown. Such recommendations could be implemented through structural reforms in labour and product markets that take innovation into account. “Fiscal policy can play an important role in stimulating innovation through its effects on research ...

Shannon Tiezzi SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS China’s State Grid Corp. has unveiled an ambitious blueprint for creating a global electricity network. As Wall Street Journal reports, on Wednesday State Grid chairman Liu Zhenya outlined the $50 trillion plan, which calls for long-range transmission lines to create a world grid that heavily incorporates wind and solar energy from the Arctic and ...