US
News
What are the Limits of the U.S.-Israel Alliance?
To what extent can Israel exercise unilateral action in the face of external threats like the Iranian nuclear program without angering its longstanding ally the United States? An article from Gideon Levy for Haaretz claims that Israel is the “cricket chirping in the background about Iran,” a small state increasingly forced into a position in […]
Read More
News
People’s Liberation Army (人民解放軍) Military Budget to Exceed $100 Billion
The rising superpower of the People’s Republic of China pledges more funds towards building its military capability as its interests in East Asia come more clearly into focus. With North Korea, Taiwan, and the South China Sea all on its plate, the need for China to build projective naval capability as well as concomitant land […]
Read MoreNews
Who holds the most gold in the world? We do.
(in tonnes – due to the wild fluctuation of the price of gold) 1. US 8,133.5 2. Germany 3,401.0 3. The IMF 2,846.7 4. Italy 2,451.8 5. France 2,435.4 6. China, 1,054.1 7. Switzerland 1,040.1 8. Russia 775.2 9. Japan 765.2 10. Netherlands 615.5 With the value of gold skyrocketing due to economic uncertainties surrounding […]
Read MoreNews
An epidemic of shootings in Brooklyn this weekend.
Brooklyn’s West Indian Day Parade was witness to a shooting incident in which seven people were wounded and one killed in a hail of gunfire. This brought the total number of shooting incidents to 43 over the Labor Day weekend, with 24 being recorded every hour for 24 hours beginning this past Saturday at 6 […]
Read MoreNews
Japanese defense spending only behind that of the US and China?
Japan, a pacifist country that has had a rough year so far, apparently has the third largest defense budget in the world. It is speculated that this posture is maintained because of disputed islands with its neighbors, such as Diaoyu Islands with China and the Kuril Islands with Russia, and that Japan’s increasing involvement with […]
Read MoreNews
The US credit downgrade and its impact on speculative markets.
The downgrade of US credit by Standard and Poor to AA+ from AAA really did not have as large an impact as feared but nonetheless served as a kind of wake-up call for the international financial system. The US’s debt market remains the world’s largest, safest and most liquid, presenting the best investment for foreign […]
Read More