Aviation passenger taxes – why they won’t work in the long run
By Hans Nasman. Government regulation of the aviation sector has become a key topic of discussion with the rising prevalence of climate change concerns. Aviation is an incredibly carbon-intensive form of transportation. In 2016, emissions from aviation represented 3.6% of total EU28 greenhouse gas emissions. Critically, emissions have more than doubled since 1990, making aviation … More
Aesthetic Capital and Career Prospects: Does Beauty Matter?
By Chiara Riezzo. Do you ever feel like one of your colleagues seems to be treated differently because of the way he or she looks? Has it ever occurred to you that your boss might be particularly tolerant of mistakes made by your neighbouring co-workers because he or she finds them attractive? And what about … More
The Freer the Market the Freer the People? The Paradox of Free Market Democracy in the 21st century
By Chiara Riezzo. According to free market proponents, the market ought to be based upon voluntary exchange and determined by the interaction between supply and demand without government intervention. In a society that wavers between technological advancements and human retrogression, they argue that the free market enables people to reach “the ultimate freedom” that social … More
Keeping Up With Kardashian Kapitalism: The Economy of Attention and the Self
By Maren Mitchell. Love them or hate them, the Kardashians embody the rise of an economy conceived from the exponential growth of the internet: that of attention and the self. Throughout the progression from Web 1.0 to 2.0 (the terminology for what the world wide web was and what it has now become), we’ve seen … More
The Trade Game
By Teodor Ispas. Are we on the brink of a global recession? Many recent economic signs do point towards that direction. The same signs also point towards one of the major causes for this: The Trade War. In the last two months, the U.S. Federal Reserve has performed dramatic interest rate cuts that are comparable … More
The Story of WeWork
By Mikael Fevang. The We Company – aka WeWork – is crashing and burning. In less than a month, the company has had its valuation shaved from $47 to $15 billion. The initial fire was caused by disclosures made in its IPO prospectus, but the increased scrutiny has since led to a cascade of damaging … More
Absurdonomics: Negative Bond Yields
By Mikael Fevang. Let me begin with a short explanation of bonds and what they are. A bond is a loan not too dissimilar to a “standard” bank loan, with a major difference being that no periodical down payments are made during the bond’s duration. Instead, the debtor pays interest only (“the coupon”) to its … More
Displacing Rather Than Liberating – The Libra Coin
By Mikael Fevang. Anyone interested in crypto will most likely have heard of the news that a consortium of multinational tech behemoths, fronted by Facebook, is releasing their own “cryptocurrency” – the Libra. Amusingly dubbed “Zuck Buck” by FT’s Alphaville writers, the Libra aims for the moon by explicitly aspiring towards becoming a global currency … More
Automation & The Threat to the Left
By Graham Davidson. My previous article for The International Viewpoint on the rise of populism and the decline of the centre-left suggested that the earnings gap between graduates and non-graduates needed to close. However, in as little as 20 years from now, this may come to be seen as a woefully short-sighted strategy. There may … More
The Impossibility of Global Ethics – A Review of Michael Ignatieff’s ‘The Ordinary Virtues’
By Oskari Mantere. Michael Ignatieff’s The Ordinary Virtues takes the reader on a safari through some of the most fragile moral economies of the world. The scenery of this tour is detailed in a prose that is clear and easy to read. The first stop is the Jackson Heights neighbourhood in New York where the … More
Europe and Africa in the Post-Colonial Era: Building Mutually Beneficial Relationships
By William Kennedy. In an ever connected and interdependent world, it is time to embrace opportunity in Africa – Europe relations. The two continents share a long and intricate history, with both positive partnerships to advance and historical grievances to address. Forums for cooperation – including EU and AU institutions – are already in place, … More
Crimea Five Years On: What has Russia Gained?
By Hans Nasman. Just over five years ago, Russia shocked the international community by annexing the Crimean Peninsula. This move set the stage for a further, ongoing crisis in Ukraine in which Crimea came under Russian control and two widely unrecognised people’s republics in eastern Ukraine were formed. No end is in sight to this … More
Pay Gap, But Worse: Why We Should Be Talking About the Gender Pension Gap
By Berit Braun. International Women’s Day is often used to highlight the gender pay gap – one of the key metrics that prove that women and men in Europe and around the world are still far from equal. It is a persuasive argument. Statistics don’t lie, and women literally get paid less for doing the … More
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