Bi-Weekly Geopolitical Report
Weekly Geopolitical Report – Elections in Chile (November 25, 2013)
by Bill O’Grady On November 17th, Chileans went to the polls to vote on a new president and parliament. Polls correctly forecasted that Michelle Bachelet, who was president from 2006-10, would win a plurality. She won a whopping 47% of the vote, beating seven other candidates handily. The second place finisher, Evelyn Matthei, won 25% of… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – France and the Iranian Negotiations (November 18, 2013)
by Bill O’Grady Earlier this month, negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 (U.S., U.K., France, China and Russia, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany) failed to reach an agreement despite great hopes that one was near. In fact, on expectations that a proposed nuclear deal was in the offing, U.S. Secretary… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – Let’s Party Like it’s 1978 (November 11, 2013)
by Bill O’Grady & Kaisa Stucke A twice yearly meeting of the Chinese government officials, formally known as the third plenary session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee, started on Saturday and will end tomorrow. Officials have indicated that this plenary session could be a springboard for major reforms. In fact, Chinese General… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – The Saudi Tribulation (November 4, 2013)
by Bill O’Grady On October 18th, Saudi King Abdullah’s government announced that his kingdom would reject an invitation by the U.N. Security Council to occupy a seat on the council. This rejection is the first in the history of the United Nations and occurred after Saudi diplomats had worked diligently to garner the invitation. The rejection… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – India’s Maoist Problem (October 28, 2013)
by Kaisa Stucke & Bill O’Grady India has fought numerous wars with outside forces in its history and has also had several internal conflicts. The most notorious civil struggle has been the conflict with Kashmir insurgents, a border conflict between India and Pakistan that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. So it generally came… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – The Turmoil in Washington (October 14, 2013)
by Bill O’Grady At the time of this publication the budget situation has not been resolved, although it appears that both parties are backing away from the default abyss. However, given that these crises seem to come once or twice a year, it seemed appropriate to weigh in on the geopolitical impact of the intractable… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – The Gordon Dilemma (August 12, 2013)
by Bill O’Grady Robert Gordon is a well-known economist who teaches at Northwestern University. He was a member of the Boskin Commission that assessed the accuracy of the CPI and is also a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research, the body that dates business cycles. Part of his research has focused on long-term economic… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – Syria and the Red Line (May 6, 2013)
by Bill O’Grady On Thursday, April 25, Secretary of Defense Hagel acknowledged that evidence that chemical weapons exposure occurred in Syria was probably accurate. This news dominated the Sunday talk shows, mostly because President Obama had indicated that Syrian military use of chemical weapons would be a “game changer” and a “red line” that would trigger… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – The 2013 Geopolitical Outlook (December 17, 2012)
by Bill O’Grady As is our custom, in mid-December, we publish our geopolitical outlook for the coming year. This list is not designed to be exhaustive. As is often the case, a myriad of potential problems in the world could become issues in the coming year. The lineup listed below details, in our opinion, the… Read More »