Bi-Weekly Geopolitical Report
Weekly Geopolitical Report – President Trump: A Preliminary Analysis (November 14, 2016)
by Bill O’Grady On November 8th, Donald Trump shocked the country and the world by defeating Sen. Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential race by accumulating a majority in the Electoral College. Mr. Trump, the first president in U.S. history to gain the presidency without having been previously elected to office or served in the military,… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – Inflation Targeting: What’s so special about 2%? (November 7, 2016)
by Kaisa Stucke, CFA Speaking at the Boston FRB conference on October 14th, Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen indicated that Fed officials are considering the benefits of running a “high pressure economy.” This sparked speculation that the central bank would allow its inflation target to temporarily exceed 2% as the labor market and aggregate demand improve. The… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – The Geopolitics of the Reserve Currency: Part 2 (October 31, 2016)
by Bill O’Grady In Part 1 of this report, we discussed how the reserve currency facilitates trade, provided a short history of the dollar’s evolution as the reserve currency and examined the theoretical backdrop of the reserve currency and its role as a global public good. In this week’s report, we will conclude with the economics and… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – The Geopolitics of the Reserve Currency: Part 1 (October 24, 2016)
by Bill O’Grady One of the more interesting developments in this presidential political cycle has been the near total abandonment of free trade. Neither presidential candidate supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) or the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the topic of last week’s report. The primary reason for this backlash against free trade is the… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – The TTIP and the TPP: An Update (October 17, 2016)
by Bill O’Grady In January 2014, we first discussed the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).[1] Both pacts have moved from obscure trade proposals to highly controversial political issues. In this report, we will begin by discussing the nations involved. We will examine overall details of the proposals, focusing on how… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – American Foreign Policy: A Review, Part II (October 10, 2016)
by Bill O’Grady Last week, in Part I of this study, we examined the four imperatives of American policy with an elaboration of each one. This week, we will discuss why each is important. We will examine why there has been a “drift” in American foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. This drift… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – American Foreign Policy: A Review, Part I (October 3, 2016)
by Bill O’Grady In watching the political debates in the U.S. this election season, there appears to be a general misunderstanding of American foreign policy. Although we have touched on this issue before, with the elections only about a month away, it seemed like a good time to review U.S. foreign policy since WWII. This week,… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – Goodbye, Dilma. Hello, Michel. (September 26, 2016)
by Kaisa Stucke, CFA On August 31, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was impeached on charges of breaking budgetary laws, ending nine months of political infighting. The Brazilian Senate voted 61-20 to permanently remove her from her presidential post. Rousseff’s former vice president, Michel Temer, led the impeachment process and has assumed the presidential duties. This week… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – Reflections on Terrorism (September 19, 2016)
by Bill O’Grady Fifteen years ago, al Qaeda terrorists used commercial airplanes to attack the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. Another aircraft crashed in rural Pennsylvania; it was believed to be en route for another attack but passengers on the plane prevented the terrorists from achieving their goal. The events… Read More »