Category: Global Economy
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The Economics of Permanent Defence Spending
When Security Becomes a Permanent Economic Sector From Peace Dividend to Security Dividend — For nearly three decades after the Cold War, much of the world behaved as though defence spending could gradually become less central to economic policy. Governments spoke about the peace dividend. Capital could move toward highways,…
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The Global Bond Market: The Quiet Architecture of the Next International Economy
The world talks about trade, but money often moves first. For much of modern economic history, international power was explained through factories, commodities, shipping routes and trade surpluses. But behind this visible economy sits another system that is less visible and, in many ways, more powerful: the global bond market.…
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The Economy Above Our Heads
For most of human history, space was something people looked at. Today, it is something economies depend on. The change has happened so quietly that most people hardly notice it. A farmer checking rainfall, a truck finding its destination, an aircraft navigating across continents, a bank recording the exact time…
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When Business Crosses Borders but Tax Systems Cannot
The tax system was built for an economy that had an address. For most of modern economic history, taxation followed physical geography. A factory stood somewhere. A bank had branches. A retailer had shops. Employees worked from identifiable offices and warehouses. Governments could therefore connect economic activity with territory: if…
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When Birth Begins to Matter More Than Work
The old economic promise was simple: work, save, progress. The emerging economy is quietly rewriting it: inherit, own, appreciate. For much of the twentieth century, the idea of economic progress was closely connected with employment. Education improved the probability of getting a better job; a better job produced a higher…
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When the Digital Economy Meets the Invisible Economy
The Paradox of Progress — A country can have artificial intelligence, instant digital payments and world-class technology companies while millions of its workers still operate almost invisibly. This is one of the great contradictions of the twenty-first-century economy. A street vendor may receive payment through a QR code but have…
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When Governments Become Global Investors
From Regulating Capital to Owning It For much of modern economic history, governments were expected to create the rules while private companies supplied the capital. The state taxed, regulated, built basic infrastructure and occasionally rescued industries during crises. Private investors decided where factories, technologies and commercial networks would grow. That…
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The Low-Growth World: When 2–3 Percent Becomes the New Normal
The danger is not recession. It is normality. For much of modern economic history, weak growth was treated as a temporary problem. Economies slowed, governments responded, interest rates changed, investment returned and another expansion began. The more uncomfortable possibility facing the world today is different. What if slow growth is…
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The Price of Uncertainty: The Export Cost That Never Appears in the Statistics
The Invisible Export Loss — Trade statistics are good at counting what crosses a border. They are much weaker at counting what almost crossed it. A container that leaves an Indian port becomes an export. An order abandoned three weeks earlier because the exporter could not confidently quote a price,…
