Rubrics » TheFILEstarters
The More Things Change…
The future emerges from the interplay of countless factors. Any reasonable scenario will have a chance of happening, but some scenarios merit more advancement with regards to their likelihood of coming to pass. 2017 will be not only an extraordinary year but the beginning of an extraordinary period as compared to the last three decades. The key issues brought forth by the new political developments all over the world will be a return to the rhetoric of national interest. It will be a revival of bilateralism and realism, defined as power (or threat of power) politics. More
What Is Needed Is a “Stiff Upper Lip”
We do live in interesting times, as the old saying goes. And no, this is not a blessing. Let us hope it is not going to be a curse either. If we look around us, 2017 is shaping up to be an interesting year for democracy and the Western world. 2015 and 2016 have not been very good either for Europe and particularly the European Union due to the terrorist attacks, the economic crisis in Greece and the waves of refugees coming from the Middle East and other areas damaged by war or sunk into the morass of poverty and dysfunction. All of these events have led to a rise in populism across Europe and many feel that this is the beginning of the end for the European Union. And we cannot forget that the EU is about to lose one of its key members, the UK, which chose to exit the European Union through a referendum. More
Living the Change
Rohit Talwar, futurist, strategic advisor, author and editor of “Fast Future, Accelerating innovation”, and a personal acquaintance in whose opinion I put great stock, used to say: “The next 5-10 years could bring about a greater level of change for individuals, society, business and government than the last fifty”. Robert M. Goldman, World Chairman of the International Medical Commission, among others, also advanced a similar vision by saying that: “Software will disrupt most traditional industries in the next 5-10 years”. More
Musk v. Hawking
2017 will be a landmark year for discerning the direction for the Planet’s economies, politics, military strategies and its social and ecological paths.The United States has placed itself at the beginning of a new road which appears to be reconfiguring the international status-quo of the last decades on many levels. From an economic and financial perspective, we should not discount the strength that Washington’s new strategies will lend to the dollar. More
A Crystal Ball and Some Econometrics
The global economy decelerated to 3.1% growth in 2016, the slowest pace since 2009, according to the estimates published by the International Monetary Fund in January 2017.In the United States (the main economy in the world, with a contribution of around 25% to the global GDP), the economy increased by only 1.6% YoY in 2016, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. The worst performance since 2011 was mainly caused by the deterioration of the fixed investments, given the accumulated effect of several challenges. However, the investment climate stabilised at the end of 2016, an evolution influenced by the euphoria of the financial markets after Donald Trump won the Presidential election. More
Present and Future Tense
According to “numerology”, 2017 announced itself as a “universal 1st year”, a year that marks a new beginning and a chance to plant the seeds of intention for the forthcoming cycle. It will definitely be a start, but what the start signifies bears closer scrutiny! A turning point for Europe. With elections in France, Germany, Italy and Netherlands and with Brexit trudging along, the EU will be a battlefield in 2017, where nationalist and populist discourse will provide opposition to dialogue regarding the protection of the liberties of minorities, tolerance, and compassion. More
Europe United: A Goal Makes It, an Offside Brexit
Mankind invented games when it figured out that its life and world can be miniaturized, simplified and represented in metaphors. A game can compress physical and metaphysical (social, political, economic) space to about the size of a rectangle in the grass or a wooden board and, for the sake of education or entertainment, (re)produces a societal figment in which human relations appear to detach themselves from the mundane, though not from its laws. More
Good or Bad, the Brits Did It
Eventually, somebody had to do it, and that somebody was the Brits. Although I don’t know if that was what they’d intended, they managed to send a signal very much like the one in 1415 at Agincourt when they radically challenged the military orthodoxies of the day by using mere archers on foot behind wooden spikes to defeat the armored cavalry that was the tank and shock troop of the day. More
Romania’s Exposure to Brexit Is Limited and Manageable
The British vote in favor of leaving the European Union is a defining moment for the United Kingdom, for the EU project as a whole and for each individual European country. It could also be a critical juncture for the current international world order. The economic consequences will be serious enough for the United Kingdom and for the European economies: increased uncertainty and higher volatility in the financial markets, reduced capital flows, shrinking trade, less liberal markets and increased protectionism, all resulting in slower growth and eventually recession. More
Why Brexit Will Stay on the Shelf
A daring expression of democracy, Brexit will have no effect whatsoever, or just one effect: once the rebuilding of the Hohenzollern Palace in Berlin has been completed, Angela Merkel will become the heir to Wilhelm II. Let me explain why. Just as communism did not end with the death of Stalin and the hysterical sobbing for the Great Leader™ and wise innovator, so Brexit will not lead to Great Britain’s exit from the European Union. More
There Is Life after Brexit
The result of the UK referendum on the European Union membership came as a big surprise to Europe and the World. As someone who lived for twelve years in Brussels and for eight years in the United Kingdom, I am familiar with the perceptions from both sides of the English Channel. During my stay in Britain, I discussed the EU-UK relationship with many people of different professional background and political preferences, and the conclusion was that, after the referendum, the United Kingdom will remain in the EU. More
The London Stock Exchange Helped Fondul Proprietatea and Romania Became More Visible Among International Investors
We maintain our strong support for listings on the London Stock Exchange, including the upcoming secondary listings of Hidroelectrica and OMV Petrom. We are confident that London will keep its position as a preeminent international market for issuers and investors in the long term and there are strong reasons to believe that the London Stock Exchange will remain a globally important hub, regardless of the final terms of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU More
