When COVID-19 first emerged in the city of Wuhan over 12 months ago, movement restrictions imposed by the Chinese government all but closed down major ports. China handles 30% of global cargo – around 715,000 containers per day in 2019 – the disruption to global trade...
The spectacle of US President Trump, attacking his own hand-picked Federal Reserve head Jerome Powell might seem to be just another sideshow. However, the President’s brazen attempts to influence Fed interest rate policy to save the US economy is more than alarming...
For decades it’s been assumed countries would become more open, liberal and cooperative with international institutions overseeing trading and finance. However in his new book “The Levelling”, former investment banker and Princeton economist Michael O’Sullivan...
As bilateral talks between the US and China continue to overhang the global economy, a recent World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruling put additional pressure on Chinese agricultural subsidies. The WTO ruled in favour of a 2016 US complaint, finding China has...
In the US, outbreaks of food-borne illnesses such as E.coli and Salmonella have hospitalized hundreds of people and disrupted food supply chains. The past year has bought a cluster of incidents, leading to the question: Why now? While some suggest the Trump...
Last month’s 6th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report was more or less dismissed by Australian and US policy makers and the usual climate-change-denying-pundits. It may be disturbingly easy for climate change to STILL be dismissed as some kind of...
Recent trade wars have the potential to turn into the real deal if you ask former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd. In an opinion piece, Rudd explains why China may not be so intimidated by US tariffs as President Trump expects, and political psychology plays just...
Since 2008, 22.5m people have been displaced by climate-related or extreme weather events according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. While there are many culprits when it comes to forced migration, climate change is making it harder for people to make a...
The four million people in Cape Town may soon have to line up to get their daily 25 litre ration of water as one of the most affluent cities in South Africa prepares for its water supply to be turned off on 1 June. Day zero was pushed back from April after farmers...
Who would be a cattle producer in northern Australia? The Indonesian government’s ambitions to make the nation more self-sufficient in beef by restricting cattle supply from Australia have run headlong into market forces – and drawn flak from aggrieved butchers and...
