Warfare has existed throughout human history, but it hasn’t always involved swords and spears. If humans are doomed to fight each other, is economic warfare more “humane” to solve disagreements than military confrontations? Possibly, but both lines of offense can have devastating consequences for victims and should be carefully monitored.
The US federal government’s participation in climate action is progressing, including Congress’s proposal for a Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator, a national green bank that would foster investment in green energy. Green banks have popped up in states, but establishing one at the national level would lead to a greener outcome.
Crises inspire metamorphic change, and that’s happening in banking as we trudge through a pandemic. Can banks do more than boost their digital transformations—and bottom lines? Can they be the foundation of building back better? It starts in the community, providing services to everyone, without regard to race, gender, economic status.
The concept of universal basic income has received support from many proponents over the years, who argue that it will pay for itself in the long run through a happy, stress-free and productive population able to achieve employment goals while liberated from the constant worries of meeting day-to-day-bills obligations. Trial runs have bolstered this argument, and support is growing—but UBI is a long way off from being unanimously accepted.
2021 brings a new administration to the White House and, with it, a more favorable outlook toward sustainability, especially climate change. How much this shift in policy will influence financial regulations and ultimately banks, especially in the US, is not yet certain. But banks should prepare for stronger pressure on the financial industry to contribute to the effort to foster sustainable development through stricter disclosure requirements and redirected investment goals.
And so, after perhaps the most turbulent election and transition period in American history, Joseph R. Biden Jr. was finally confirmed as the new president of the United States. Despite numerous unfounded allegations of electoral fraud, dozens of rejected lawsuits and an unprecedented assault on the nation’s Capitol building
Could COVID-19 contribute to economic growth? In the United States, the upsurge in new-business applications indicates that despite its devastating effects on many small businesses, the pandemic may result in new startups being launched due to various causes, including the isolation and extra time for reflection resulting from closures. Although only a percentage of business applications result in business formations, the data suggests robust US business creation for 2020 overall.
With the prices of used cars and trucks recently experiencing their greatest increases in more than 51 years in the United States, US consumer prices rose solidly in August by a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent compared with July. As such, prices have now risen for three consecutive months, with July and June levels each rising by 0.6 percent.
Throughout the past four decades, despite their differences, the United States and China have found a way to get along through a symbiotic trade relationship that maximizes their competitive advantages. Recent US concerns about national security and China’s dominance in manufacturing have strained relations, but now more than ever, with the pandemic threatening to unravel years of economic progress, the world’s two largest economies need to pull together.
The warning not to put all your eggs in one basket may apply to policymakers’ exclusive focus on boosting the demand side of economies. Monetary policies, in particular, are fixated on promoting growth in demand. But is the supply side of the equation being ignored in the process? Is this one-sided approach most likely to prosper the economies that are subjected to it, or is a change of focus needed?