economy

The (New) Berlin Wall

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Venezuela has put up an illegal trade embargo that is becoming a “Berlin Wall,” cutting off the South American neighbors.
Uribe, in Portugal to attend a Heads of State Ibero-american Summit , criticized Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for not attending the meeting and spoke out against Venezuela’s suspension of trade with Colombia.
“People [...]

Zimbabwe and Economic Risk-Two Steps Back, Then Three

Corporate Foreign Policy has recently reported that Zimbabwe’s government has proposed that “indigenous Zimbabweans” take 51 percent ownership of all foreign companies, including mines and banks, according to a draft law. While the report later went on to quote an official at the Chamber of Mines, expressing surprise and concern at the proposed legislation, it must be [...]

Why Africa Welcomes the Chinese

An interesting geopolitical scenario takes place daily, sometimes eerily unbeknownst to many. More attention must be given from the west regarding Chinese investment in African infrastructure and its ramifications in the long-run at home. Paul Kagame has written a concise and thoroughly educational piece on the merits of Chinese versus western involvement with Africa.
As excerpted from [...]

Zimbabwe and Nestlé: Lessons Learnt

“During the last few years Nestlé has witnessed the collapse of Zimbabwe’s dairy industry. Nestlé prefers to work within contractual agreements to ensure a constant supply of fresh milk, but at the end of 2008, the company found itself operating in a market where 8 of its 16 contractual suppliers had gone out of business.
In [...]

The Threat of Stalemate

Zimbabwe has gone through the most dramatic decade in her existence under the rule of Robert Mugabe. What was a decade of degradation, what with operation ‘clean sweep’ and fraudulent remittances, of tumultuous elections with violence, disease and starvation abundant, seemed to be near an end with the signing of a unity government. The Zanu-PF [...]

The Big Thaw

Glance at share prices or short-term growth forecasts and you might feel comforted nowadays. Output has stopped shrinking in all the world’s big economies. In its latest forecasts the IMF reckons global GDP will expand by 3.1% next year, 1.2 percentage points faster than it forecast in April. Global stockmarkets have rallied by 64% since [...]

Riots in Uganda - Due to No Sovereignty, Low Wealth

Riots rocked the nation of Uganda in support of the king of the Baganda, the country’s largest ethnic group. Shops in the capital were looted, cars burned. Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, who hails from the much smaller Ankole group, ordered police and soldiers onto the streets. The unrest paralyzed Kampala - at least 24 people [...]

How To Invest in China

With much of the world burned by the economic downturn, many investors have turned to China. The growing superpower hosts banks and mutual funds which often offset the risk for Chinese investment, creating an alluring offer for interested investors abroad.
With so many posts and so much debate on what will or won’t affect foreign investment [...]

Corporate Spying - Deutsche Case Highlights a Fine Line

On a day like any other day this summer, Michael Bohndorf, a 69-year-old Deutsche Bank shareholder, travelled from his home on the Spanish island of Ibiza for a meeting in Frankfurt with one of the bank’s lawyers. There, he recalls, he received a “white gloves” welcome.
“I was treated like the prince of Peru,” he says. “It [...]

Economic Crisis Offers Opportunity in Africa Policies

Nkosana Moyo, Vice-President and Chief Operations Officer of the African Development Bank, believes Africa needs to understand that protectionism would be the wrong response with regard to what is going on in the rest of the world.
What is needed instead, he stated to a prominent International Affairs magazine, is Africa-generated clarity in terms of what [...]