Reflections On The Mediterranean Region – Analysis

The Mediterranean region in question

The Mediterranean is etymologically the “sea in the middle of the land“. (1) The Romans called it Mare Magnum (‘Great Sea’) or Mare Internum (‘Internal Sea’) and, starting with the Roman Empire, Mare Nostrum (‘Our Sea’). The term Mare Mediterrāneum appears later in the work of Gaius Julius Solinus in the 3rd century, (2) but the earliest extant witness to it is in the 6th century, in Isidore of Seville. (3)

The Economy Brief: The old continent loses its youth

Generally speaking, younger people trust in governments and the EU more than older age cohorts. Governments, however, are doing little to prove themselves worthy of that trust.

Socially and economically, young people have suffered disproportionately in the crises of the past decade and a half.

Securing the energy transition against cyber threats

As the US energy sector’s reliance on digitalization grows, its vulnerability to cyberattacks also increases. To better understand current and future threats, the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center convened the Atlantic Council Task Force on Cybersecurity and the Energy Transition to develop a cybersecurity framework designed to protect US energy infrastructure—and by extension, national security—against cyberattacks.

Inflation Is Money Supply Growth, Not Prices Denominated In Money

In the recent Wall Street Journal article “Inflation Surge Earns Monetarism Another Look,” Greg Ip writes that a recent surge in inflation is not likely to bring authorities to reembrace monetarism. According to Ip, money supply had a poor record of predicting US inflation because of conceptual and definitional problems that haven’t gone away.

Ναυάγιο στο Φαρμακονήσι: Πώς φτάσαμε στην ιστορική απόφαση

Η απόφαση του ΕΔΔΑ εκθέτει ανεπανόρθωτα την κυβέρνηση Σαμαρά, για πρακτικές που εφαρμόζει και σήμερα το Μαξίμου ● Γράφουν στην «Εφ.Συν.» εκπρόσωποι των τριών από τις πέντε οργανώσεις που προσέφυγαν στο ΕΔΔΑ για λογαριασμό των επιζώντων.

Cuba Should Be Removed From the U.S. List of State Sponsors of Terrorism

The United States maintains a list of countries that it considers as “state sponsors of terrorism.” There are currently four countries on that list: Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Syria. The basic idea behind this list is that the U.S. State Department determines that these countries have “provided support for acts of international terrorism.” Evidence about those “acts” are not provided by the U.S. government. For Cuba, there is not one shred of evidence that the government has offered any such support to terrorism activities, in fact, Cuba has—since 1959—been a victim of acts of terrorism by the United States, including an attempted invasion in 1961 (Bay of Pigs) and repeated assassination attempts against its leaders (638 times against Fidel Castro).

The Future WHO (World Health Organization)

“The alarming amendments offered by the Biden Administration to the WHO’s International Health Regulations would grant new unilateral authority to [WHO] Director-General Tedros to declare a public health crisis in the United States or other sovereign nations, without any consultation with the U.S. or any other WHO member. Specifically, the Biden Amendment would strike the current regulation that requires the WHO to ‘consult with and attempt to obtain verification from the State Party in whose territory the event is allegedly occurring in,’ ceding the United States’ ability to declare and respond to an infectious disease outbreak within the United States, dependent on the judgment of a corrupt and complicit UN bureaucracy.” — Rep. Chris Smith, ranking member of the House Global Health Subcommittee, May 18, 2022.

José Eduardo Dos Santos, la dictature et les pétrodollars

L’ancien président angolais est décédé ce vendredi à Barcelone. Retour sur un règne sans partage.

José Eduardo dos Santos passait pour un autocrate discret. Il a marqué l’histoire de son pays pendant des décennies. Déjà à 16 ans, il intégrait le Mouvement populaire de libération de l’Angola (MPLA) alors que son pays cherchait à obtenir son indépendance du Portugal.

The End of Magic Money

Inflation and the Future of Economic Stimulus

Two years ago, I predicted in Foreign Affairs that the COVID-19 recession, coming on top of the financial crisis of 2008, would lead rich democracies to redefine the outer limits of their monetary and fiscal power, ushering in an “age of magic money.” Because central banks had a long record of containing inflation, the penalty for profligacy would likely not materialize; supersized stimuli could coexist with stable prices. Of course, the success of this experiment would depend on the continued inflation-fighting credibility of central banks, the Federal Reserve foremost among them. “If the Fed loses its independence, the age of magic money could end in catastrophe,” I noted.