Showing 1 - 10 of 30
The scramble for the world's critical minerals
Oped, Rabah Arezki & Rick van der Ploeg, Published on 07/08/2025
» The world's superpowers have developed a seemingly insatiable appetite for the critical minerals that are essential to the ongoing energy and digital transitions, including rare-earth metals (for semiconductors), cobalt (for batteries), and uranium (for nuclear reactors). The International Energy Agency forecasts that demand for these minerals will more than quadruple by 2040 for use in clean-energy technologies alone. But, in their race to control these vital resources, China, Europe, and the United States risk causing serious harm to the countries that possess them.
Trump hurting global trade in ideas
Oped, Sally Tyler, Published on 04/08/2025
» Much attention has been focused on Thailand's scramble to achieve a bilateral trade agreement with the United States to avoid a 36% tariff on all exported goods. Yet a different restrictive trade policy has received comparatively less scrutiny -- the Trump administration's clampdown on American universities, including a possible ban on the enrolment of international students.
Rationing 'truth'
Oped, Postbag, Published on 16/06/2025
» Re: "N Ireland town hit by second night of unrest", (World, June 11) and "Trump deploys Marines, raising tensions in Los Angeles", (World, June 10).
Vietnam: Fifty years since the Fall of Saigon
Oped, John J. Metzler, Published on 30/04/2025
» Fifty years ago, on April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese military units surged into Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, forcibly reuniting the country, thus ending 20 years of conflict.
Travel confusion
Oped, Postbag, Published on 24/04/2025
» Re: "All foreigners must file digital arrival card", (BP, April 20).
Buyback binge
Oped, Postbag, Published on 28/03/2025
» Re: "Twenty listed firms seen likely to prep share buybacks", (Business, March 25).
Making the case for foreign aid
Oped, Nilima Gulrajani, Published on 07/03/2025
» Foreign aid is being slashed across the Global North, nowhere more so than in the United States. Within his first month back in the White House, President Donald Trump dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and froze foreign aid, calling it wasteful and fraudulent. The United Kingdom recently followed suit, trading off its international-aid budget for higher defence spending.
Cheaper treatment
Oped, Postbag, Published on 11/02/2025
» Re: "Cancer patients are dying to survive", (Commentary, Feb 7).
A 'retrospective' on Trump's first year back in job
Oped, Jeffrey Frankel, Published on 16/01/2025
» Predictions about 2025 come with flashing caveats: no one can know what US President-elect Donald Trump will do, let alone how the rest of the world will respond. But one can speculate. Imagine it is January 2026.
Venice suffers from 'beauty curse'
Oped, Edoardo Campanella, Published on 10/09/2024
» Countries with great wealth or natural abundance often fall victim to their own blessings. Economists have long known that resource-rich countries can get stuck in cycles of slow economic growth, intense environmental degradation, and weak democratic institutions. But places endowed with a unique artistic and architectural heritage also can suffer from this "resource curse". Breathtaking monuments from a storied past can generate economic rents and sectoral distortions, not unlike those created by large reserves of fossil fuels and precious minerals.