Economics and Finance

While the US and the EU continue their negotiations about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) under disputable circumstances, namely the lack of public oversight, negotiators should maybe take a look at Taiwan: The student-led mass protests give a striking example of what can happen if governments try to implement questionable trade agreements behind closed doors or even against ... Read More »

When the Dayton Agreements that ended the war in Bosnia were signed on November 21st 1995, they were commonly seen as a major diplomatic achievement that brought peace back to the Balkans. In the protests that rocked Bosnia-Herzegovina in early and mid-February however, the dangerous legacy of these treaties became shockingly visible. On February 4, it was just too much ... Read More »

Selling some low-priced t-shirts with seemingly patriotic slogans on them around the national holiday: If you are an international retail company, this sounds like a pretty safe bet on some revenue, especially when the country in question is a former part of the British Empire and still a proud member of the Commonwealth. Well, as managers of German-based discounter Aldi ... Read More »

On the 17th of October 2013, the USA could advert the bankruptcy of the state but the ideological raptures remain. By Derya Bischoff A few hours after insolvency, President Obama warned the 535 members of Congress that the way how Washington is doing business has to change. But this is wishful thinking. The polarization of society and the political elite ... Read More »

Every person in the music industry works hard to be innovative, progressive and creative. This is how they make a living. However, through the illegal spreading of intellectual property, many musicians see their hard work unrewarded. How can the European Union be of assistence to the musician who works hard to make a record, only to see it being downloaded ... Read More »

While studying the history of Greece in the 19th Century in the last month I realized that the past may tell us more about the present than I thought. A little summary of my déjà-vu backwards, meeting austerity, speculation and European crisis in 1898. To understand the background of the past, I will start out with a little summary of ... Read More »

In April 2013, application and selection for the ambitious Mars One project finally opened. On the 7th of May, Mars One announced that 78.000 people have applied for a one way ticket to Mars, to establish a human settlement on Mars. Can this privately funded project herald an age of space discovery? The Mars One project, started by two Dutch ... Read More »

He wants it, he gets it: After his first proposal for a 75% mega tax for income-millionaires was rejected by the Constitutional Court, France’s president Francois Hollande announced in a TV interview to shift the burden of payment from individuals to businesses paying salaries above the magical one-million-euro-line.  That means that companies paying wages higher than €1m p.a. are required to ... Read More »

“Goris-Stepanakert autoway, built with participation of all Armenians” reads a sign next to the very road. In other words, this road has been paid for by the Armenians living outside Armenia, the Diaspora. The money they send in is of such importance, it is one of the main reasons Armenia and its economy have not collapsed yet. Armenia is a ... Read More »

Semeon Mogilevich seems to have walked right away from the set of a Hollywood gangster movie: he is fat, highly educated, powerful, rich, and above all incredibly elusive. The Ukrainian criminal is wanted by various countries and has been on the World’s Most Wanted list of the FBI since 2009. Despite being one of the world’s most hunted criminals, the ... Read More »