Toward a Global Cashless Economy
New precautions in place due to COVID-19 have propelled us faster into the cashless economy with contactless payments. Learn why the future just might be cashless.
Posts
Water Scarcity Threatens Global Agriculture Trade
Over 70 percent of water consumed globally is poured into crop and livestock production. But the water we need to drink, to grow food, and to produce industrial goods is under stress and becoming scarcer in parts of the world. What kinds of solutions offer better opportunities for managing scarce water resources to ensure we can continue growing enough food?
Have Trade “Preference” Programs Kept Up with the Times?
The concept of creating a generalized, non-reciprocal system of preferences for developing countries dates back to 1968. But enabling legitimate forms of discrimination has predictably had positive and negative consequences and there’s little economic data to demonstrate the programs have accrued significant benefits.
Trade and Conversation: A Book Review of the Monk of Mokha
The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers, the miraculous true story of a young Yemeni-American man who grew up in one of San Francisco’s poorest neighborhoods and overcame seemingly impossible obstacles to export coffee from Yemen in the midst of a raging civil war.
Black Panther: Pass the Popcorn and Ignore the Trade Policy
Largely set in the mythical African kingdom of Wakanda, Black Panther portrays this small land-locked country as home to vast riches, the planet’s most advanced technology, and—as a result of largely avoiding contact with the outside world—an autarkic trade policy. While perhaps sufficient for a superhero movie’s flexible bounds of believability, audience members should not mistake this comic book-inspired universe for economic reality.
When a Rose Isn’t Just a Rose: How Trade Policy Was Used to Fight Drugs from Colombia
Americans will give each other 200 million roses over the Valentine season. The majority were grown in Colombia. How did this come to be? For decades, U.S. Government trade, development, and drug eradication policies were designed to move South American growers away from cultivating the coca plant used to make cocaine by substituting commercially profitable production of cut flowers.
Who and What is the G20?
What’s important about these summits is not the prepared statements delivered at the main table, but the frank discussions and informal meetings that take place in the corridors and meeting rooms around the main conference.
The New Blueprint for U.S.-Backed Development Financing
The BUILD Act enjoyed bipartisan support in the Congress because it represents to many in the development policy community a smarter, more modern way to advance development objectives. The new development financing agency it creates will also provide an alternative to China’s aggressive financing of infrastructure projects in developing markets.
China is Outpacing and Outspending the U.S. in Diplomacy and Development
At the same time the United States is considering cutting funding for diplomacy and development by 30 percent, China doubled its diplomacy budget over the last five years, proposing to increase its foreign affairs budget by 15 percent in 2018 alone.
Tracking U.S. Trade Capacity Building
Trade and trade agreements can play an important role in supporting economic development, but developing countries often face supply-side constraints or lack trade-related infrastructure, limiting their ability to engage in international trade.
