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Picture of the flags of G7 member nations
Herman Van Rompuy via Flickr | CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

49th G7 Summit

The annual gathering hosts seven of the wealthiest democracies in the world, those being: the US, the UK, France, Germany, Canada and Italy and this year host Japan. PM Fumio Kishida also extended the invitation to Australia, India, Brazil South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Comoros and Cook Islands in order to make the summit more global. It’s expected that the war in Ukraine and the Chinese – Taiwan emerging conflict will dominate the discussions, but Japan also aims to include the discussion on the ban on the use of Nuclear Weapons as the leaders meet in Hiroshima, the first place on Earth targeted by an atomic bomb.

49th G7 Summit
An image depicting Silicon Valley Bank. There is a wooden desk and a chair blurred out in the background along with a blurred out side profile of a man and a whiteboard. SVB is written in large blue letters in the middle
Flickr | Alpha Photo

Silicon Valley Bank Collapse 2023

Worth $212 billion, Silicon Valley Bank was famed for lending to tech startups. Its sudden collapse sent ramifications across the globe and given rise to serious concerns of a 2008 global banking crisis repeat. A combination of rollbacks, mismanagement, and interest rate hikes sent the bank into turmoil as investors panicked. In just 36 hours, we witnessed the second biggest bank failure in U.S. history. Now under Federal investigation, we expect many lawsuits and new issues to arise.

Silicon Valley Bank Collapse 2023
The Crédit Suisse headquarters in Zürich built between 1873-1876. The four storey building is sand coloured, has many flags outside, and has 2 statues above the main entrance.
Flickr | Wally Gobetz

Credit Suisse Crisis 2023

After struggling for many months, funding caps on shareholders, and plummeting share prices, Credit Suisse had to be rescued with a $24.7 billion package to hopefully prevent a repeat of the 2008 global banking crisis. Banking rival UBS have agreed to a takeover, and while the stock market remains unstable, economists and the world wait to see if this financial crisis has been contained. This is the second banking collapse of the month as US Silicon Valley Bank suffered a similar fate in the second biggest bank failure in US history.

Credit Suisse Crisis 2023
Two countries joined together by pins and string to represent Offshore Tax Havens
Flickr | Patrick Cannon

Pandora Papers

The ICIJ has just published a new investigative report on tax avoidance, in which the work of more than 600 journalists in 117 countries has resulted in more than 2.6 terabytes of data, gathering diverse evidence of how wealthy individuals use tax havens to hide their wealth and avoid paying tax on it. The list of those implicated includes 35 current and former national leaders and 400 officials from around the world.

Pandora Papers
Cartoon-like figurine of a greedy smiling white man in a suit standing on top of Euro notes and piles of coins
Pixabay | Ralphs_Fotos

Global Minimum Corporate Tax Rate – G7

As the G7 leaders have agreed a 15% minimum tax rate on multi-nationals, many ask how far this will go to reform the tax system? Will Tech giants pay up, will it stop tax-havens, will it help developing countries improve their economies? The agreement has been labelled historic - we follow the implications and developments here.

Global Minimum Corporate Tax Rate – G7

Tax Dodging & Tax Justice

It is estimated that the world’s global elite holds up to $32 trillion in offshore tax havens, and 500 companies were reported to hold a record $2.4 trillion offshore. This unprecedented level of international tax dodging costs developing countries over $100 billion a year, and is a leading cause of austerity policies.

Tax Dodging & Tax Justice

Inequality in the U.S.

Economic inequality is a growing problem that prevails in every country around the world. In the US it has reached a level similar to the one seen in the Great Depression. In 1965 a CEO earned 24 times the average worker income, it went up to 185 times in recent years. Disproportional economic growth and tax evasion creates a gap that increases steadily day by day.

Inequality in the U.S.
Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

The latest in the FinCEN files leak (2020)

Transactions worth roughly $2tn have been discovered in leaked documents from the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network revealing shocking secrets. Closely guarded for years, banks such as HSBC, JP Morgan, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and others, have been exposed allowing criminals to move their illegally gained money all over the world. Follow the story as journalists search through the thousands of suspicious activity reports that government agencies tried to keep out of the public eye.

The latest in the FinCEN files leak (2020)
Phil Gibbs

Circular Economy

It is crucial to understand that the way we choose to design, produce and consume products, has a major impact on the environment. Circular Economy is a movement that seeks to change the "make-take-waste" linear economy in which we are living today, to a "make-keep-reuse" more sustainable concept.

Circular Economy
Different kinds of money hangs from a washing line with pegs symbolising money laundering
Pixabay | Stevepb

#29 Leaks

In the N°29 of the upper-class Harley Street in central London, is the headquarters of the now infamous Formations House, known for its long career hiding money for the super-rich. Earlier this year, the anti-secret group Distributed Denial of Secrets leaked a wealth of documents, data and recorded phone calls to journalists, unmasking a worldwide network for money laundering.

#29 Leaks

Formations House

Formations house, a family-run corporate service provider based in London has been linked to organized crime and fraud. Allegedly, frauds linked to the shell companies they register is totalling 315 million pounds. See why here. 

Formations House
Max Pixel

Automation & Robots

As we approach a new industrial revolution, we will get familiarized with the term Technological Unemployment, which refers to the substitution of manpower for robotic labour. The unpredictable consequences, whether positive or negative, that automation will have in individual jobs is a controversial issue.

Automation & Robots
Black chalkboard with the words think outside the box written in white chalk spilling out of a square box
Pixabay | Kaboompics

Rethinking Economics

Pluralism in economics is a ground-breaking movement that aims to shift the teaching and research in economics towards a more inclusive and open minded practice. Pluralism seeks to reinforce the economies studies through rich intellectual debate and the contrast of different ideas including other disciplines.

Rethinking Economics
Bitcoin

Bitcoin and Digital Currency

Since its anonymous creation in 2008, Bitcoin has been consistently in the headlines. With its well-documented high carbon footprint, associations with cybercrime, and illegal activity surrounding transactions, economists are finding it hard to define as a success or otherwise. Despite it being so difficult to regulate, some countries have recognised it as legal tender. As cryptocurrency becomes more broadly accepted, we follow Bitcoin and its competitors, the dark side, and all the highs and lows.

Bitcoin and Digital Currency

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Hero of the Month

Thomas Piketty

French economist that dedicates his work to the study of income inequality. He’s the author of the best-selling book "Capital in the Twenty-First Century", which is an innovative view on how capitalism and the current wealth distribution contribute to economic inequality.

Featured Organisation of the Month

The New Economics Foundation

The New Economics Foundation is a people-powered think tank in the UK. They offer an agenda for people to take more control over the decisions and resources that affect their lives today and a plan for how we can all begin to change the whole system tomorrow. 

Featured Online-Resourse

Exploring Economics

An open-source e-learning platform, gives you the opportunity to discover & study a variety of economic theories, topics, and methods for free. It aims to enrich economic teaching as well as to promote self-criticism, reflection, pluralism and openness within economics. 

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