Recently, the Chinese government tightened its grip on the renminbi’s exchange rate.China has now effectively reneged on a promise it made 18 months ago, when it lobbied its way into the basket of currencies that determines the value of the International Monetary Fund’s synthetic

With Helmut Kohl’s death, “the largest figure on the continent of Europe for decades”, as Bill Clinton described the former German chancellor, has left us.Kohl possessed most of the talents of a successful politician: ambition, ruthlessness, tenacity, tactical skills and a sense

Brazil’s economy has been in free fall, a casualty of years of economic mismanagement and the vast corruption scandal that has engulfed the country’s political and business establishment — and which now threatens to bring down the second president in as many years.It may seem har

No, Parisian voters are not “vomitatious”, as the pathetic Henri Guaino proclaimed Monday after losing his seat in the National Assembly.Staying home from the polls, which we have been told for 30 years benefits the National Front, cannot now be used to explain the surge of La Ré

If all else fails, try the previously unthinkable.

Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over a heavily orchestrated “Belt and Road” forum in Beijing.The two-day event attracted 29 heads of state, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and 1,200 delegates from over 100 countries.Xi called China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Despite the apparent tranquility of this year’s spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, there are reasons to be concerned about the global economy.The United Kingdom’s impending “hard” Brexit from the European Union and US President Donald Trump’s anti-

Today, it appears that every single election in Europe can be reduced to one central question: “Is it a win or a loss for populism?”Until the Netherlands’ election in March, a populist wave — or, as Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party, put it, a “tsunami”

Last month, Emmanuel Macron pulled the proverbial rabbit from the electoral hat.Against the odds, the independent centrist won the French presidency by a decisive margin, beating the far-right populist Marine Le Pen — and vanquishing the old guard of the French establishment alon