government

WHY ARE GLOBAL LEADERS DEAF AND BLIND TO CONCLUSIONS OF THEIR OWN INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITIES?

In early 2009, when the global financial meltdown was unravelling, the Director of the US National Intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, submitted to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence a regular annual report “Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community”. Its main theme, of course, was the destructive impact of global economic crisis and its geopolitical […]

UK’s reaction to COVID-19 seems to be that of “ostrich’s-head-in-the-sand”

UK’s wait-and-see position on the inevitable explosion of COVID-19 in the country seems to be motivated more by the fears of inciting panic through more resolute preventive actions as well as by visible considerations to minimise potential losses to the business than by the need to effectively do something to slow down the pace of […]

Trump-Putin Summit: Ukraine’s Gas Transit Still in Limbo?

As many analysts will be trying now to decipher the real outcome of the summit (please see video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-Xw0_2eMJg and transcript at https://www.npr.org/2018/07/16/629462401/transcript-president-trump-and-russian-president-putins-joint-press-conference?t=1531774783621), let’s note that there have been some interesting and visible “movements” on contentious Ukraine gas transit issue. First and most obvious conclusion – there will be probably no further US sanctions […]

Russia’s Gas Transit Poker Game: It’s Time to Help Ukraine and Change the Tactics – Part 2

Gazprom’s “Game of Poker” There are a few visible “poker game”moves undertaken by both sides as well as by third parties in the post-arbitration period: Gazprom’s seeming unwillingness to pay what is due to Ukraine ($2.56 billion). Some experts, however, point out that the likelihood of payment is still rather high. Apart from possible reputational risks, Gazprom’s […]

How central bank’s policies undermine a troubled currency and exacerbate recession: the case of Ukraine

This is a short version of the article published by the journal Studies in Applied Economics of Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise. Please read the full text here: http://krieger.jhu.edu/iae/economics/index.html. There has been an ongoing academic and public debate as to whether central banks in developing countries with weak […]