Financial Crisis and Geopolitics

As fears grow that Europe could face a full-blown financial crisis, potentially damaging the economy in the United States, investors are abandoning risky bets in the financial markets and rushing for safety instead.

The efforts of Brazil and Turkey to find a negotiated solution to the standoff over Iran's nuclear program, which generated a negotiated agreement with Iran last week, must be seen in the context of a growing challenge to the international political order.

Brimming with confidence, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva is raising his country's global status with increasing forays into international politics. In his most recent coup, he convinced Iran to agree to a controversial nuclear deal. Could it offer an opportunity to avoid both sanctions and war?

On May 20, the Senate passed its bill to reregulate Wall Street by a vote of 59-39, complete with a (watery) version of the Volcker Rule. The story of the legislation's passage can be told in a number of ways: a tale of conflict or compromise, triumph or capitulation. But on any reading, that story is only the climactic chapter in a larger narrative: how the masters of the money game fell out of love with-and into a state of bitter, seething, hysterical fury toward-Obama. The speed and severity of the swing from enchantment to enmity would be difficult to overstate. When Obama was sworn into office, Democrats on Wall Street rejoiced at the ascension of a president in whom they saw many qualities to admire: brains, composure, bi-partisan instincts, an aversion to class-based combat. And many Wall Street Republicans-after witnessing the horror show that constituted John McCain's response to the financial crisis-quietly admitted relief that the other guy had prevailed.

Much reporting on opposition to the Obama administration portrays it as a sort of populist uprising. Yet the antics of the socialism-and-death-panels crowd are only part of the story of anti-Obamaism, and arguably the less important part. If you really want to know what's going on, watch the corporations.

The future of the U.S. economic recovery is in the hands of politicians in an assortment of European capitals. If one or more fail to make the expected progress on cutting budgets, restructuring economies or boosting growth, it could drain confidence in a broad and unsettling way. Credit markets worldwide could lock up and throw the global economy back into recession.

China and the United States opened three days of high-level meetings here on Monday meant to broaden and deepen the ties between the world's largest developed and developing economies.

European financial markets were expected to suffer another week of turmoil after the Spanish government was forced over the weekend to rescue a regional mortgage lender and European leaders revealed deep divisions over how to tackle mounting deficits in the eurozone.

Galbraith to senators: "I write to you from a disgraced profession. Economic theory ... failed miserably to understand the forces behind the financial crisis."

The prominent economist explains why the model of the financial supermarket is a disaster, and why it's so dangerous that Wall Street is back to business as usual.

Across Western Europe, the "lifestyle superpower," the assumptions and gains of a lifetime are suddenly in doubt. The deficit crisis that threatens the euro has also undermined the sustainability of the European standard of social welfare, built by left-leaning governments since the end of World War II.

First the financial crisis, then the Greek debt crisis and now speculative attacks on the euro. As European leaders desperately struggle to stabilize their common currency, concerns over inflation are growing.

Hedge fund regulations, a tax on financial markets, a ban on naked short selling. The EU's bid to rein in the speculators has the financial industry up in arms. Lobbyists are already preparing to systematically attack the new proposals.

El balón es el símbolo obligado del encumbramiento de Brasil como superpotencia. Su brillante tradición deportiva obliga a evaluar en términos futbolísticos sus crecientes éxitos económicos y diplomáticos. Así lo ha hecho el ministro de Exteriores, Celso Amorim, a la hora de calificar el acuerdo obtenido por su presidente, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, junto al primer ministro turco, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, y al presidente Mahmud Ahmadinejad, sobre el programa iraní de enriquecimiento de uranio: "Brasil sólo ha colocado la pelota en el área".

Financial markets have become increasingly volatile, largely because of computer trading on a massive scale. A "transaction tax" could slow down the entire operation

Angela Merkel told a meeting of international financial leaders that the G-20 must work together to reform the finance system. Merkel is pushing for tougher market regulations despite resistance from many countries.

Pues bien, los límites del gramado diplomático concebido por Lula quedaron demarcados con nitidez ayer: de un lado, dos cuadros internacionalmente modestos pero ascendentes, como son Brasil y Turquía, y del otro las potencias occidentales, cuya voz cantante la lleva la secretaria de Estado Clinton.

On Wednesday, the government's partial ban on so-called naked short-selling took effect, as part of Berlin's effort to protect its biggest financial institutions and the euro currency from investors who have been betting against them.

Iran's nuclear fuel swap deal with Brazil and Turkey could be a positive step forward in resolving the international impasse over its nuclear program. Even as the United States is stepping up efforts toward UN-mandated fresh sanctions against Iran, it is praiseworthy that members of the international community have stuck to diplomatic means to defuse the tension.

Before making a commitment to indefinite recession and slow recovery, Greece may want to consider the alternatives