Recent Posts

Disquiet swells in Spain’s veggie gardens

AlmerIa / AFP In a vast sea of plastic greenhouses in southeastern Spain, dubbed “Europe’s vegetable garden”, discontent is growing among farmers who complain large supermarket chains do not pay enough and farm workers live in poverty. Since the 1980s, one of the largest concentrations of greenhouses in the world has developed on a coastal plain near the city of ...

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Pakistan: What stands in CPEC’s way?

When Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled the blueprint for the enormous $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project last year, Pakistan was understandably pleased. The Pakistani government considers the project a game changer for its fragile economic structure. This exhilaration partly stems from the country’s wobbly economic performance in recent years, which has seen it fall short of GDP and ...

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Stacks of $100 bills aren’t just for drug dealers

Peter Sands, the former chief executive officer of Standard Bank, is among those who want to abolish high-denomination currency notes, “the preferred payment mechanism of those pursuing illicit activities.” In the wacky world of negative interest rates, though, pallets of hundred- dollar bills and 500 euro notes are poised to become a fashionable store of value for any cash-rich company ...

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