Banking

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The sorts of sanctions and boycotts the United States and its allies are placing on Russia resemble those applied by Washington to Iran off and on in the past decade, though so far the measures in place against Tehran are still far more severe than what has been done to […]

Afghanistan

US Sanctions on Afghanistan are Complicit in Mass Hunger, even as Biden withholds $3.5 bn in Afghan Money

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Kevin Liptak and Natasha Bertrand report at CNN that the Biden administration has decided to split the $7 billion in Afghanistan government money held in the US and confiscated last August when the Taliban took over the country. $3.5 billion will be released for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan itself, while […]

Banking

Uproar In Turkey over Gov’t Prioritizing a Name change for the Country over Sinking Economy #helloTürkiye

Arzu Geybullayeva

( Globalvoices.org ) – Turkey’s Communications Directorate launched a new campaign #helloTürkiye on January 14, in an attempt to “raise global awareness about using the country’s original name.” In a statement issued by the Presidency’s Director of Communications, Fahrettin Altun said, “We believe that it is significant to use the phrase ‘Türkiye’ in the international […]

Banking

Is the Turkish Finance Minister wrecking Economy ‘with a twinkle in his eye’?

Global Voices

By Arzu Geybullayeva ( Globalvoices.org) – Turkish Twitter-sphere was full of memes and jokes after the country’s new Minister of Treasure and Finance, Nureddin Nebati, exclaimed in a TV interview that the economy was about the “twinkle” in his eyes. The twinkle was the minister’s response to a question on economic indicators as the country […]

Banking

Turkey’s currency crisis is a textbook example of what not to do with interest rates

The Conversation

By Gulcin Ozkan | – Central banks around the globe are currently staring at inflation rates unseen in more than 20 years. Supply chain problems and labour shortages arising from the pandemic, combined with sharply rising food and energy prices, have pushed prices up by as much as 6.2% in the US, 4.2% in the […]

Banking

The Collapse of Turkey’s Currency fuels Power Struggle

Middle East Monitor

By Bakr Sidqi | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – On what was called “Black Tuesday” in the media this week, the value of the Turkish lira against foreign currencies declined sharply, bringing the exchange rate to 13.5 Turkish liras to the US dollar. While experts on the matter in Turkey and elsewhere are […]

Banking

Make them Pay Up: Pandora Leaks show that the Super-Rich rob Public of $200 bn a year in lost Tax Revenues

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The rich have always flaunted their wealth. It was rarely good enough to enjoy financial success, you had to be conspicuous about it. They build enormous homes for everyone to gawk at. They throw lavish parties. They commission paintings, statues, biographies. They endow institutions so that their names […]

Afghanistan

As Banks threaten to Collapse and Aid Dwindles, 93% of Afghans already don’t get Sufficient Food

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – UN World Food Program surveys in August and September, Al Jazeera reports, found that 93 percent of Afghans already are not getting sufficient food, for the most part because they lack the cash to purchase it. Things are about to get worse, as Afghanistan under the Taliban is cut off […]

Banking

This time, it is the Students and the Unions that the Gov’t Needs to Bail out for a Healthy Economy

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Digging our way back out of the pandemic recession will not be easy, but we have the advantage of knowing what worked and did not work in the 2008 crisis. Any policy choice today does not operate on a blank slate. No one knows this more than […]