In the US and Russia this week,two meetings are being held at a critical moment for the global economy. In the background is Donald Trump.
The chief of MI6,Britain’s foreign-intelligence agency,says Russian intelligence services “have gone a bit feral”.
The CrowdStrike episode is chilling because it highlights how a single,flawed update from a trusted source can cause large parts of the global system to fail.
The risk of foreign disruption has to be balanced in such a way that economic activity is not unnecessarily curtailed.
It’s important to look at exactly how globalisation has tipped the scale when it comes to equality.
The attacks in the Red Sea have threatened to throttle a vital part of the global economy that is already under pressure.
A senior International Monetary Fund executive has warned that the rivalry between the US and China could lead to Cold War II and reverse decades of global integration and growth.
Cash is out of favour on China’s shopping strips where convenient home-grown payment systems are helping sanction-proof the economy.
It is too early to tell whether the ugly flare-up in the Middle East will add to the prospect of a “de-globalisation” of trade and geopolitics.
In future,the strongest growth in global trade may be between blocs of aligned economies rather than free-flowing trade around the world. That’s a threatening prospect for China,and Australia.
Despite $20 billion in trade strikes over the past four years,the superpower remains Australia’s largest export market and a key engine of economic growth.