The Saudi government has spent millions of dollars on US law, lobby and public relations firms to raise the country’s visibility in the United States and before the United Nations at a crucial time. Five lobby and PR firms were hired in 2015 alone to co-ordinate meetings between Saudi officials and business leaders and U.S.…

The big story last week was Hillary Clinton had won New York big time. Exit polls showed that Clinton drew support from demographic groups that helped her in past races. She won 66 per cent of voters 45 and older, while Sanders was the favourite among younger voters, 18-44. Clinton also once again dominated among minority…

Corporate borrowers across the world have defaulted on $50 billion of debt so far this year as the number of delinquent companies accelerates at its fastest pace since the financial crisis in 2009. According to Standard & Poor’s nearly half of the defaults have occurred in the oil/gas and mining industries. All caused by the sharp decline…

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been the big winner out of Europe’s refugee crisis. Last month, he secured billions of euros in foreign aid. The deal also included visa-free EU entry for Turkish citizens. And, significantly, the EU in its desperation to solve the refugee crisis has promised to give more attention to Turkey’s EU accession…

Much attention lately has been placed on the massive 2.6 terrabyte leak of the law firm Mossack Fonseca’s Panama Papers The Panama law firm has helped foreign corporations and individuals set up shell companies not just in Panama but also the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, and other notorious tax havens around the world. Among other…

The coal industry is in decline. In the United States, coal plants generated 29 percent of US electricity, dropping from 39 per cent in 2014, as cheap natural gas establishes itself as the nation’s favourite power-plant fuel. According to the International Energy Agency, global coal demand has stalled, largely reflecting economic restructuring in China, which represents half of…