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2020 UNCTAD World Investment Forum: More Important Than Ever in an Age of Worrying Trends

In December this year, Abu Dhabi will welcome government leaders, CEOs and investment stakeholders for the seventh biennial UNCTAD World Investment Forum (WIF). The forum’s mission is to promote investment for sustainable development. And there are worrying trends, as well

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Book Review: The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger – Iger’s Wild Ride to the Top of ‘the Happiest Place on Earth’

Back in 2005, Robert Iger’s 31-year journey at Disney and ABC looked like it could come to an end. Pulitzer prize-winner James B Stewart had released his book DisneyWar, an exposé on Michael Eisner’s 20-year reign as CEO of the

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The Great Equaliser That Was Not

In a macabre spin on the corona pandemic, some sociologists and economists tentatively hail the deadly virus as the great equaliser they had been waiting for: the great event that forces the global community to re-examine its destructive ways. History

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Business in Times of Corona: The Lure of Rustbelts When Lean Is No Longer Mean

During their short lifetime, shrimp barely migrate. Aided by a snap of their tail and the tidal currents, the crustaceans may cover a distance of perhaps a few thousand meters in a day. However, once caught, shrimp become a migrating

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Business in Times of Corona: The Welfare State May Yet Prove Its Worth

The currently much deplored absence of a social security safety net is a feature – and not necessarily a bug – of the essentially wage-driven growth model that underpins the US economy. However, under the present exceptional circumstances the script

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Harvard Business School on Impact-Weighted Accounts: the Missing Piece in Economy Puzzle

Capitalism is in need of a renaissance. Despite headlines of strong global economic growth, there are signs that all is not well. Environmental advocates have been leading calls for change before the climate crisis produces irreversible changes to our world.

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Blessings, Curses, Co-operation and Collaboration – the Virus is Forcing Knowledge upon us

No one was expecting this. No one knows what will happen next. Does that make this a time to hunker down and wait, to stand on something and watch, or to gamely strive for business-as-usual-as-possible? In that most nebulous and

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Business in Times of Corona: A Gathering Storm Darkens the Prospects of Africa

Even before the corona virus made its presence known, market analysts had no need for prescient powers to predict trouble ahead for South Africa. Already in February, consumer and business confidence had approached a 30-year low as the country’s anaemic

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Business in Times of Corona: The Dangerous Fruit of the Magic Money Tree

In one of life’s little ironies, it was not the senator from Vermont but the billionaire businessman from New York who brought social democracy to the United States. The massive federal aid package now working its way through Congress is

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Business in Times of Corona: Pandemic Puts Eurobonds Back on the Table

The leaders of nine Eurozone countries on Wednesday refloated the previously discarded idea of issuing Eurobonds, a collective debt instrument backed by the combined securities of participating countries, as a way of pooling risk and mitigating the economic impact of

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