Written By Schumi Chen When distilled in definition, carbon credits are simply permits granted for emitting specific amounts of greenhouse gasses – and represent the foundation of our modern efforts to mitigate and control the effects of climate change (World Bank, 2022). Carbon credits serve as the basis of carbon markets, which incentivize emission reductions…
Category: International Economics
The Economic Influence of the Chinese Government’s Sovereign Wealth Fund
Written By Julian Freyre A sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is a state-owned investment fund. Governments often use sovereign wealth funds to build public wealth, pay for government spending, stabilize markets, and invest in specific industries (Estevez, 2024). Some of the largest sovereign wealth funds belong to Norway, China, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Singapore,…
Doctors on Strike
Written By Lauren Kim On February 6th, South Korea’s government unveiled four new healthcare policies aimed at “bringing essential healthcare back from the brink of collapse”. These initiatives seek to address a projected shortage of approximately 15,000 healthcare professionals by 2035. A problem expected to be further exacerbated by the nation’s rapidly aging population, regional…
Nourishing Change (Through the Food Supply Chain) to Combat Hunger in West Africa
Written by Lakshay Sood Hunger is a severe problem around the world and nowhere is this truer than in West Africa, one of the globe’s most impoverished regions. Figures from the Food & Agriculture Organization suggest that 66.4 percent of West Africans (FAO, 2023) struggle from moderate food insecurity with 15 percent facing malnutrition – the…
What’s the Impact of the Fed Interest Rate Cut on the Chinese Investment Market?
Written by Ziyi Ling On September 18th, the Federal Reserve announced at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting that they would lower the interest rate by 50 basis points to a target of 4.75% to 5% (Morgan, 2024). Over the past 20 years, the interest rate in the United States remained high at approximately 5.3%…
Swiftonomics in Singapore
Written by Suchir Gupta In March 2024, the worldwide phenomenon that is Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour made its way to a small dot on the world map—Singapore. With Sabrina Carpenter as her opening act, Swift performed six shows between March 2 and March 9 in what was her only stop in Southeast Asia. Singapore’s National…
(Op-Ed) What Do Oil Prices Suggest About the Current State of the World
Written By: Meiting Xu People often assume that conflict in the Middle East causes spikes in oil prices, not without reason. Modern conflicts in the Middle East do frequently produce some of the greatest fluctuations in oil prices, leaving consumers either scrambling for alternatives or voicing complaints to their representatives, an experience some of us…
The Australian Mining Sector is Beholden to Immigration Policy
Written by Ryan Finlay Mining represents the largest sector of the Australian economy. In the last decade, the industry overtook the finance and insurance industry as the largest share of the nation’s economy (Reserve Bank of Australia, 2023). Today, the industry accounts for roughly 13.0 percent of the gross domestic product, and is slated to…
Opinion: The West’s Russia Sanctions Have Been Inadequate. What can be done?
Written by Andriy Kolenov On February 23rd, 2024, the eve of the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, United States President Biden announced five hundred new sanctions on Russia. Simultaneously, the European Union released two hundred new sanctions and the United Kingdom imposed additional bans on Russian metal, diamonds, and energy.i But will it…
Structural Adjustment’s Complex Legacy in Sub-Saharan Africa
Written by Drew Weider Introduction Beginning in the 1980s, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) became a focal point for the implementation of structural adjustment programs (SAPs) mandated by international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. These policies were designed to stabilize struggling economies and facilitate development. However, they required significant alterations…