A Greek scenario which saw furious masses unseating their government through ballots, accusing it of conceding too much to harsh austerity measures that had left them struggling to make ends meet, is being played out in more European countries: Spain, Portugal and Ireland…The list could grow further. The angry voters in these countries are venting their wrath on established political …

Franz-Stefan Gady SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS A Japan-India defense deal over the procurement of 12 ShinMaywa US-2 amphibious search-and-rescue aircraft for the Indian Navy is facing additional delays and an uncertain future, according to Japanese diplomatic sources interviewed by The Hindu newspaper. Japan has no plan for “selling or delivering” the US-2 maritime surveillance aircraft in the immediate future and …

Time for your weekly China links… China’s “two sessions” – the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – are in full swing. The main event, the NPC meeting, begins tomorrow, and will see China’s 13th Five Year Plan officially approved. But one big announcement has already been made: NPC spokesperson Fu Ying …

Gradually, America and the rest of the world are coming to terms with Donald Trump’s political ambitions. Even the Huffington Post, which initially dismissed the New York billionaire’s bid for office as a clownish “sideshow,” is now openly warning about a supposedly disturbing political development that has “curdled and congealed into something repellent and threatening.” The real estate mogul has …

It’s no secret that Kazakhstan’s economy has suffered in the past year. The global fall in oil prices is the most important factor, but the failure of the Eurasian Economic Union to stimulate trade among members has helped deepen the hole. Persistent tension between Europe and Russia hasn’t helped the fledgling EEU. European countries still account for almost half of …

On the sidelines of a G20 conference in Shanghai last week, Indonesian finance minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said in a Reuters interview that he is willing to exceed the 2015 budget deficit. These comments were certainly calculated to reassure investors and concerned observers at a time when the global engines of growth are slowing, most notably China, taking its toll on …

Bloomberg Fortress Investment Group LLC is betting that one of the real estate industry’s greatest contrarian wagers has more room to run. The manager of $70.5 billion, which piled into Japanese property after a tsunami and nuclear meltdown battered valuations in 2011, has seen its investments surge after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s stimulus revitalized the industry. Invincible Investment Corp., a …

Bloomberg Milan and Rome were the best and worst major Italian cities for home sales last year, revealing a widening economic gap between the country’s capital and its financial center. Residential transactions jumped 13.4 percent in Milan last year, while sales in Rome increased 0.8 percent, according to data released by the Ministry of Economy. Sales nationally picked up 6.5 …

Bloomberg As forest fires shrouded Singapore in a blanket haze last year, CBRE Group Inc.’s Lloyd Jenkins, sat down with a group of high-level property investors at the city state’s five-star Fullerton Hotel and showed them pictures of white beaches and clear, blue skies. This is Perth, he said, and there’s a lot of opportunity. Jenkins, managing director at CBRE …

Bloomberg It has become an article of faith among education reformers that throwing more money at public education doesn’t improve student performance. But a steady drumbeat of careful research studies is calling this into question. What if more money really does work? The case against spending more on schools comes in two basic forms. One is to look at various …