From the editor: The Art of the Doomsayer – Crisis? What Crisis?

Just as a broken watch still tells the right time twice a day, the persistent doomsayer will eventually be vindicated. In the financial world, entire reputations are built on predicting recessions, if not depressions: keep it up long enough and

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Strategy&: Gaining a Competitive Edge in Africa

Worldwide, companies have begun to make expansion across Africa a priority, recognising that – despite many problems – the continent is amongst the fastest-growing regions in the world. Africa is poised for long-term economic growth: the continent has 600 million

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Michael Pettis: China – What the New Currency Regime Means and How It Affects the World

On Tuesday, August 18, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) surprised the markets with a partial relaxing of the currency regime, prompting a great deal of discussion and debate about the value of the renminbi (RMB). Part of the discussion

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World Bank Group: Ask Citizens Where Public Money Should Go – The Surprising Results

As citizen engagement gains traction in the development agenda, identifying the extent to which it produces tangible results is essential. Participatory budgeting, a process in which citizens decide upon and monitor budget allocation, offers promising results, including increased local government

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IFC: Capital Markets Key to Development

Ending extreme poverty for good and building shared prosperity across the developing world takes money – a lot of money. Take infrastructure: for the foreseeable future, an estimated $50 billion per year is needed in Africa alone to deliver basic

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Thomas Piketty: Courting Controversy

If there was one person who could be likened to a rock star in the world of economics, then Thomas Piketty is it. He’s a showman, an artist, and professional ruffler of feathers. Just like any rock star, he also

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Robert J Shiller: Mastering Data

One of the elite Sterling professors at Yale University, he predicted both the dot-com bubble and the collapse of the housing market. Two years ago, he was the joint recipient of a Nobel Prize. There are few people more on

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BRIC-à-Brac: Requiem for a Wishful Thought

In the end, it may have been nothing more than a flash in the pan. Unable to fulfil the promise of a new world order, the BRICS countries have largely ceased to be of note. With sputtering economies and political

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Grand Old Party: Wacky Is the New Normal

In contemporary US politics, reality is whatever the eye of the beholder wishes to ignore. Though the art and science of spin has expert practitioners on both sides of the congressional aisle, Republicans seem particularly adept at working the facts

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Ross Jackson: Eurozone – The End Game

It has become clear to most EU citizens, but not yet to the EU leaders, that neoliberal economics has been a total fiasco for the environment, increased inequality, and decreased the overall sense of well-being for over thirty years. When

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