Rhein on Energy and Climate

The world is entering into a major recession. Global economic growth will go down to less than 2 percent in 2009, with USA and Europe as the most affected regions, and most of the Asian and African countries the least hurt. This recession, which follows the global unleashing of the US banking disaster, will be… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

European Vanity Fair

In 10 days, President Bush will host a crucial conference on the reform of the international financial system. He does so at the initiative of the EU. Nicolas Sarkozy, in his quality as President of the European Council, and Manual Barroso, President of the European Commission, have managed to persuade him of the necessity of… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

For two decades US government authorities have indulged in an unbelievable negligence of the banking sector: Banks could place very risky new financial instruments into the market without being called to order by fragmented banking authorities. Similarly, the US government, followed by others, allowed car makers to seduce consumers into buying the most perverse gas… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Negotiating free trade areas seems to be the latest hobby of trade policy officials. The USA has started the ball rolling under the Bush Administration, irrespective of the ongoing Doha Round. From Chile to Morocco, Singapore, Jordan and Korea, the list is impressive, especially for the major advocate of multilateral trade rules, which until the… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The world is entering into a major recession. Global economic growth will go down to less than 2 percent in 2009, with USA and Europe the most affected regions, and most of the Asian and African countries the least hurt. This recession, which follows the global unleashing of the US banking disaster, will be not… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Negotiating free trade areas seems to be the latest hobby of trade policy officials. The USA has started the ball rolling under the Bush Administration, irrespective of the ongoing Doha Round. From Chile to Morocco, Singapore, Jordan and Korea, the list is impressive, especially for the major advocate of multilateral trade rules, which until the… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

President Bush will chair his last international meeting in Washington November 15. Responding to EU pressure, he has invited the 20 heads of government for a review of the ground-rules and monitoring procedures of the international financial markets, in view of imposing stricter discipline on financial institutions to help prevent another financial cataclysm. That may… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

On the side-lines of last week’s European Council meeting, essentially devoted to resolving the financial crisis, heads of government clashed on EU climate policy. Some heads of government tried to renege the 20 percent C02 reduction target for 2020 with the outrageous argument that they had not attended the March 2007 European Council Meeting, when… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The global financial crisis has also revealed that ministers of finance and journalists mean different things when talking about big numbers. When the US finance minister summarises his very latest financial package he arrives at more than $ 2000 billion. His continental European counterparts define the same amount as $ 2000 milliard. In continental European… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein