Month: March 2017

This article helps clarify important terminology about trade. A “surplus” isn’t necessarily good and a “deficit” isn’t necessarily bad. Talking about trade that way is simplistic. In fact, trade deficits are historically a sign of a stronger economy.

If the goods and services available to the American people are greater as a result of international trade, then Americans are wealthier, not poorer, regardless of whether there is a “deficit” or “surplus” in the international balance of trade.

– Thomas Sowell, 2015. Basic Economics, 5th Edition, p. 476-477

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-germany-idUSKBN16Q09D

“Acquiescing to an increasingly protectionist United States after a two-day meeting in the German town of Baden-Baden, the finance ministers and central bank governors of the 20 biggest economies dropped a pledge to keep global trade free and open.”

This was a blow-back to Germany which is a major exporting country. We’ve been talking in class about how Germany might assume the role of leadership since the US is no longer reliable. But what happens if their economy starts failing because of anti-globalization movements?

THE VAST stores of digital information generated by everyday lives communications data, credit-card records and much more are now yielding invaluable clues about the terrorist attacks in Paris and are helping guide the hunt for the surviving plotters. But prevention is better than cure. The attacks have highlighted the failure of the authorities to share information across borders and agencies. How can this be improved?

Each government sets different rules for what data may be looked at, by whom and with what authority. This is partly due to politics (Belgium has numerous squabbling police forces); and partly because of legal restrictions as the European Parliament takes privacy extremely seriously, as does the German government. Many Europeans fear that any data shared with America will be snooped on by spy agencies. The attacks also reignited a long-running debate about encryption encoding messages such as e-mails, in ways that even government intelligence agencies cannot break (it is easy to make a code, even with an ordinary computer, and much harder to break it).

Breaking down barriers to information-sharing is a much better idea. Terrorists and criminals cross national borders easily. Law-enforcement should be able to do the same. The police should have access to databases such as passenger name records on internal European flights, and the fingerprints of people who have arrived claiming refugee status. Interior ministers are already pushing strongly for this. Public worries about privacy and abuse of power are reasonable, but the answer to that is good intelligence oversight. Britain for example, is making reforms which would require the spy agencies to have judicial authorisation before they bug individuals, rather than just doing on a politicians say-so.

 

Source : The Economist (Online)

         The growing importance of ensuring cyber security remains a central theme on which nations can build their digital transformation  programmes was made clear in the second half of last year when the European Union (EU) reached agreement on cyber security rules across all its members .

The ruling marked the first time the EU has ruled directly on cyber security and is clearly a response to the exponential growth in cyber security incidents. The emphasis on critical national infrastructure is an overdue recognition that as software and control systems become increasingly integrated, cyber attacks can have devastating and lasting impacts in both the cyber and physical worlds. As one of the largest economies in the world, this step by the EU is significant.

The time to effect these changes is now. The Internet is less than 30 years old and it was never built for security. It’s only in the last 20 years, as it has morphed into a platform for global commerce, that this has become a fundamental concern. The field of cyber security law is new and approaches to combating threats are still evolving. Inevitably, the effectiveness of any new regulations must lie in the details of their implementation.  It is worth watching and learning from the EU’s unfolding cyber security regulations as they pass through their final stages in the European Parliament. It is vital that they enhance the security of the EU’s nations.

source : ArabianBusiness.com

This week, Defense Secretary James Matthis, cited climate change as a imminent security threat to the U.S. and abroad. Climate Change has already destabilized many regions, including Syria, and caused famine in places like Sudan, Yemen, and Somalia. Climate Change is not only an environmental and humanitarian threat, but poses instability world wide as climate patterns change our way of life.

Huntsman is well-known in China because he is an ambassador who is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. However, the most interesting part in this article is how Trump begin his new diplomatic relationship with Russia in a time he is investigated about his relationship with Russia during his campaign. That’s why Huntsman’s nomination attracts so much attention this time.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/world/europe/jon-huntsman-jr-ambassador-russia.html?_r=0

 

I guess, neither big countries want the unification of North Korea and South Korea. If any external force tries to intervene in Korea peninsula and change current situation, Korea peninsula might become another balkan peninsula, fueling another world war.

The US government is aimed to press Beijing to exert more pressure on North Korea. But I doubt the North Korea is still “under control of” its big brother — Beijing. How effective economic transaction from China would be working?

http://time.com/4700527/rex-tillerson-asia-china-japan-south-north-korea/

President Trump is reportedly seeking to slash U.S. funding for United Nations programs by up to 50%. The U.S. is the largest contributor to the UN and its partner agencies, donating about $10 billion per year. Diminished funds from the U.S. could significantly impact UN operations, including efforts by the World Health Organization, World Food Program, and UNICEF to provide humanitarian assistance to millions of people. The timing is particularly concerning given that the world is in the midst of one of the worst humanitarian crises in decades. A famine was recently declared in South Sudan and 20 million people are facing starvation.

Aside from slashed funding, the Trump administration has also threatened to withdraw from agencies that it deems counterproductive, including the U.N. Human Rights Council. The U.S. is the biggest funder of the U.N., but also plays a significant role in U.N. decisions as a permanent member of the Security Council. We can only hope that Trump’s team will carefully assess the detrimental effects that slashed funding could have on millions of people who rely on crucial services provided by UN agencies.

In a recent report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry found that the Syrian military, not rebels, was responsible for severing water supplies that affected 5.5. million people in and around the city of Damascus. The Syrian Air Force carried out airstrikes for several weeks starting in December which severely damaged water supplies and further escalated the humanitarian crisis.

The commission called the bombings a war crime and reiterated other accounts of human rights violations being carried out by the Syrian government in their report, including deliberate attacks on children and medical personnel. The report condemned the international community for its failure to address the gross violations of human rights and laws occurring in Syria.

Facing more frequent cyber attacks on the global financial system, the world’s major advanced economies are racing to bolster cyber security protections.Top finance officials from the Group of Seven leading advanced economies, meeting in Japan through Saturday, are taking stock of their nations’ cybersecurity and are working on plans to improve coordination globally. Recent cyberattacks on banks in Vietnam and Bangladesh put financial institutions and regulators on edge about weaknesses in the global financial infrastructure, including the Swift global inter bank messaging service where breaches occurred.

“There are many institutions and many countries who think they can just wait for the perfect technology, a silver bullet to make these issues go away. But they’re not going away,” said Deputy Treasury Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin, who is leading U.S. efforts to create a financial-sector cybersecurity framework among the G-7.

The latest findings include an assessment by each G-7 member of its cybersecurity infrastructure in an effort to create common security standards. Their discussions will set the stage for a G-7 cybersecurity agreement that Ms. Raskin hopes to see by October.

The Treasury Department’s latest steps within the G-7 follow years of efforts by the Obama administration to address cybersecurity concerns on a range of fronts including energy and hacking by nations. Last fall, for instance, the Group of 20 leading economies—including China and Russia—agreed that no country should support cyber-enabled theft of trade secrets and other intellectual property for commercial purposes. Government officials acknowledge that a similar pact for financial-sector cybersecurity at the G-20 level is likely much further down the road.

  Source :The Wall Street Journal Online

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