May, 2016

• 26 May

  Obama says world leaders ‘rattled’ by Trump

  

    Ise-Shima, Japan / AFP US President Barack Obama on Thursday said that global leaders are “rattled” by some of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s policies, blasting the ideas as demonstrating “ignorance” of how the world works. Trump, the billionaire US real-estate mogul and reality TV star, has dominated headlines since launching his presidential campaign last year with a ...

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• 26 May

  EU needs Russia to stay on global stage

  

    Athens, Greece / AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed in an article published on Thursday that the EU would not be a global player without his country’s help as he prepared to visit the bloc for the first time in almost a year. Putin, who starts a two-day visit to Greece on Friday, also called for an energy alliance ...

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• 26 May

  EU faces ‘difficult’ talks on Russia sanctions: Germany

    Vilnius, lithuania / AFP Germany says the EU is facing difficult talks on extending sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine due to the increased resistance of some member states, according to an interview released on Thursday. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also told the Baltic News Service (BNS) that the West needed to engage in dialogue with ...

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• 26 May

  Opposition demos draw scant crowds in tense Venezuela

  

    Caracas, Venezuela / AFP Protesters seeking to oust Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro staged fresh street rallies but drew scant turnout, a setback the divided opposition blamed on repressive tactics and a spiraling economic crisis. Some 500 Maduro opponents gathered in eastern Caracas, waving the red, yellow and blue Venezuelan flag and banners denouncing the daily woes a crippling recession ...

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• 26 May

  UN chief urges dialogue with North Korea

    Seoul, South Korea / AFP UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged a return to talks with North Korea, during a visit to South Korea that has fuelled speculation of his presidential ambitions in his home country. “We must find the path back to dialogue,” Ban said at a peace and security forum on the southern island of Jeju. Tensions ...

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• 26 May

  Have wages in USA stagnated? Probably not

  

  WASHINGTON How many times have you heard that Americans’ wages have stagnated? Countless commentators (including me) have repeated this complaint. Naturally, politicians of both parties — Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump — deplore it. It’s conventional wisdom that wage stagnation has contributed to the sluggish recovery and the downcast attitudes of millions. But what if it’s not true? A new ...

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• 26 May

  Migrant blues go beyond deal

    The same tragic drowning scenario at the Mediterranean Sea keeps recurring as the illegal migrant flow continues unabated from sub-Saharan Africa to Libya, where they take perilous journeys using dilapidated dinghies to get into Europe but at a price. On Wednesday, the Italian navy captured the chilling images of a heavily overcrowded boat overturning off Libya, leaving at least ...

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• 26 May

  The Fed’s amazingly accurate forecast

    Narayana Kocherlakota The Federal Reserve’s track record of economic forecasting is a lot better than many observers recognize. It might also offer some insight into the central bank’s approach to managing the recovery. Criticism of the Fed’s forecasting has focused largely on its failure to recognize, as late as mid-2008, the depth and persistence of the recession that the ...

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• 26 May

  Germany and US have different ideas about energy

  

    The share of Germany’s electricity generated from renewable sources has tripled during the past decade, to 30.1 percent. That’s impressive, especially when compared with what has happened in the U.S. On the other hand, the percentage of Germany’s electricity generated by burning coal isn’t all that much lower than it was a decade ago, and is higher than it ...

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• 26 May

  Deal aims to forget Greece, not forgive it

  

    The International Monetary Fund and European finance ministers hailed their new agreement on Greece as a “major breakthrough.” In reality, it’s the beginning of a permanent fudge designed to make the intractable Greek problem a political non-issue for Greece’s EU partners and reduce the financial and reputational risk for the IMF. It’s the equivalent of canceling visitation hours for ...

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