Protocol problems

SELDOM CAN a mere treaty protocol have caused so much fuss so soon after it was signed. Under Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, Great Britain has left the European Union’s single market and customs union. But to avoid a hard north-south border in Ireland, Northern Ireland has, in effect, remained in both. That necessitates border and customs checks between...

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Relative peace gives Iraq a chance to build a functioning state

SINCE THE overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a blood-soaked despot, Iraq has lurched from crisis to civil war and back again. Today, as the country prepares for an election in October, many Iraqis say they are too disgusted to vote. What is the point, they ask, when the government they will elect can barely govern, when politicians are useless and corrupt,...

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Investors in technology need to pay attention to corporate governance

EVERY BUSINESS cycle, as it runs out of puff, reveals problems that seem obvious in hindsight. Twenty years ago, when stockmarkets slumped, accounting frauds came to light at Enron, an energy-trading firm, and WorldCom, a telecoms outfit. Less spectacular were the revelations that many companies had cut corners or behaved recklessly. The actions of...

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Joe Biden’s summit with Vladimir Putin yielded only modest gains

THE AIM, President Joe Biden said, before setting off on a European tour that ended in a summit with his Russian counterpart on June 16th, was to “make it clear to Putin and China that Europe and the United States are tight”. He achieved that, more or less. After meetings of the G7 and NATO and an EU-American pow-wow, it is clear that the rich countries...

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To stop the ransomware pandemic, start with the basics

TWENTY YEARS ago, it might have been the plot of a trashy airport thriller. These days, it is routine. On May 7th cyber-criminals shut down the pipeline supplying almost half the oil to America’s east coast for five days. To get it flowing again, they demanded a $4.3m ransom from Colonial Pipeline Company, the owner. Days later, a similar “ransomware”...

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A less loophole-riddled system for taxing companies is within reach

WHEN PEOPLE come to look back on Joe Biden’s presidency, they may, depending on events in the coming months, conclude that one of his most consequential economic achievements was to reverse a decades-long global boom in corporate tax-dodging. His administration’s call for an end to the “race to the bottom” has reinvigorated multilateral talks on rewriting...

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A failure to reform Peru is poised to produce a lurch to the far left

FOR MUCH of this century Peru stood out in Latin America as a success. The economy grew at an annual average rate of 5.6% between 2001 and 2016, while the share of those living below the national poverty line fell from above 60% to 21% over the same period. Inequality fell, too, as the incomes of people living in the Andes, long the poorest area, grew...

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America’s approval of an Alzheimer’s drug is premature

ON JUNE 7TH America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first new drug since 2003 to treat Alzheimer’s disease. The euphoric reaction in some quarters is understandable. A century of research has produced no effective treatment for Alzheimer’s, which is marked by ever-worsening cognitive decline, and accounts for 60-80% of cases of dementia,...

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How green bottlenecks threaten the clean energy business

AS THE WORLD economy wakes back up, shortages and price spikes are affecting everything from the supply of Taiwanese chips to the cost of a French breakfast. As we explain this week, one kind of bottleneck deserves special attention: the supply-side problems, such as scarce metals and land constraints, that threaten to slow the green-energy boom. Far...

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The West is passing up the opportunity of the century

IMAGINE AN INVESTMENT that would earn a return of 17,900% in four years. Better yet, the initial outlay would be easily affordable. Who on Earth would pass up such an opportunity? The answer, it seems, is the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), a club of rich democracies which holds its annual summit this week. By failing to act fast enough to inoculate...

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