Trends in Remittance Flows

Deportation Fears Are Fueling Money Transfers to Latin America
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/world/americas/trump-migrants-remittances.html
Money transfers to Guatemala, Honduras and other nations have increased in recent months, totaling billions of dollars. Undocumented migrants in the United States say they are sending money to relatives while they can. 

A Continent-Sized Domestic Market

How India can trump US tariffs
https://www.ft.com/content/887c2e2c-8912-4ed7-bece-acfacc4f7e84
It should unleash the potential of its vast internal market with reform and investment. 

Trump's Tariffs - Unpopular Globally

The Twilight of Pax Americana
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-tariffs-ignore-economic-realities-and-destroy-us-global-leadership-by-koichi-hamada-2025-09
If Donald Trump continues to wield the threat of higher tariffs, he might be able to claim a few more “victories,” in the form of exploitative trade deals with longtime US allies and partners. But the costs of ignoring basic economic realities will be high, and US global leadership may never recover.

The Era of Step-on-a-Rake Capitalism
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-formula-conquer-economy-everything-120000667.html
Trumponomics isn’t about economics. It’s about creating pain and demanding tribute.

Global Trade Is Winning Trump’s War On It
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-tariffs-will-have-only-a-moderate-impact-on-trade-by-daniel-gros-2025-09
Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has repeatedly introduced, paused, reversed, and hiked tariffs, often to unprecedented levels, raising fears about the future of the global trading system. But the average effective tariff rate that the US has applied remains much lower than Trump's pronouncements would suggest.
 
In South Korea and Japan, Fury at U.S. Fuels Backlash Over Trade Deals
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/business/south-korea-japan-trump-trade.html
Officials and business leaders in both countries are questioning commitments their governments made to invest hundreds of billions in American manufacturing.

Japan confronts the increased price of US friendship
https://www.ft.com/content/678dae36-003f-4df8-ad3f-cff7eeb598d6
The Japanese government cannot spin its one-sided $550bn investment commitment to Trump’s America as a win.

Europe Must Use Its Economic “Bazooka” Against the US
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/eu-must-use-trade-bazooka-anti-coercion-instrument-against-trump-by-moreno-bertoldi-and-marco-buti-2025-09

Trump’s Tariffs Will Widen the North-South Divide
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-reciprocal-tariffs-disproportionately-hurt-developing-economies-by-qiyuan-xu-and-yutao-huang-2025-09
An analysis of US President Donald Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs reveals a stark conclusion: the lower a country’s income, the higher the tariff burden it is likely to bear. In this sense, the tariffs almost seem to be deliberately designed to impede development and exacerbate global inequalities. 

The Downside of Dollar Hegemony

The US Tightens the Dollar’s Death Grip on Brazilian Democracy
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-administration-sanctions-on-brazilian-judge-highlight-need-for-dollar-alternatives-by-camila-villard-duran-2025-09 

Rise of Retail Investors Buoy India's Stock Markets

India’s Investors, Defying Tariffs, Keep Pouring Money into Stocks
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/business/india-stocks-investors-trump.html
Middle-class Indians have been plowing their savings into the stock market, making it far less vulnerable to the shocks of a trade war. 

Lessons from Argentina

America’s Perón
https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/archive/2025/09/trump-peron-argentina-economy/684117/
Decades of personalist rule turned Argentina into a global economic laughingstock. Donald Trump seems to have misunderstood the lesson. 

Impact of Trump's Foreign Policy Blunders

The World No Longer Takes Trump Seriously
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/09/trump-parade-china-putin-xi-kim/684113/
At parades and in the halls of global power, America has been sidelined.

How Trump’s Blunt-Force Diplomacy Is Pushing His Rivals Together
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/us/politics/trump-diplomacy-rivals.html
Some of President Trump’s pressure tactics appear to have backfired, sending would-be allies into the embrace of China.

Trump Muses About "Losing India" as New Delhi Calls for Peace in Ukraine
https://youtu.be/YXVTGcdvc0Q
 
Why Berlin and New Delhi are getting closer | Berlin Briefing Podcast
https://youtu.be/7qBYte1R-pQ 

The Case for a U.S. Alliance With India
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/india-alliance-jake-sullivan-kurt-campbell
Washington Should Draw New Delhi Closer, Not Push It Away.

Trump’s Collision Course with Brazil
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/trumps-collision-course-brazil
How U.S. Policy Is Playing into China’s Hands—and Remaking Latin America.

The Russia-China Gas Pact

A new Russia-China gas pact could reshape global energy markets
https://www.ft.com/content/55618830-bc86-4536-9126-e64cc15205d3
Gazprom’s planned Siberian pipeline to Beijing is a geopolitical pivot with global repercussions. 

Related:

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/china-russia-pipeline-diplomacy-threatens-trumps-energy-grip-2025-09-04

China's Military

What China’s Military Parade Reveals About Its $3B Arms Exports | WSJ
https://youtu.be/M6CNlvXkR7k
 
China’s Military Is Now Leading
https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/03/chinas-military-is-now-leading/
Wednesday’s parade proved the regional military balance has irrevocably changed.

Related:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/03/world/asia/china-military-parade-weapons.html 

True Size of Africa

The true size of Africa
https://www.reuters.com/world/true-size-africa-2025-09-03/
For centuries, the maps used to understand the world have distorted Africa’s size compared to most northerly nations. 

Chinese Yuan Usage in Central Asia

Central Asia electro-yuan can be Xi's summit win
https://www.reuters.com/commentary/breakingviews/central-asia-electro-yuan-can-be-xis-summit-win-2025-09-03 

Trump's Costly Strategic Error

India Was the Economic Alternative to China. Trump Ended That.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/business/india-china-trump-tariffs.html 
A lurch in policy has shaken the India-U.S. economic alliance against China, leaving India little choice but to consider reversing its own strategy.

Trump’s double humiliation as Xi embraces Modi and Putin
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2025/08/30/trumps-double-humiliation-xi-embraces-modi-putin/
The US-India bromance is well and truly over thanks to the president’s double dose of tariffs.

Trump’s Trade War Pushes Global South Closer at SCO | Vantage with Palki Sharma
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/s4xgEgTdcuo 

Modi, Lee, and Trump’s Nobel Prize Obsession
https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/03/india-modi-trump-nobel-peace-prize-pakistan-lee-south-korea/
What India’s and South Korea’s dealings with Washington tell us about real and imagined U.S. peace initiatives in Asia.

Related:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/25/global-south-china-engagement/ 

Economic Development in Africa

The Agricultural Fixes Africa Needs
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/africa-sustainable-agricultural-productivity-gains-can-reverse-rise-in-hunger-by-esther-ngumbi-2025-08
While the number of people facing hunger globally declined last year, Africa experienced an uptick in undernourishment. But the continent’s policymakers can reverse this trend by improving agricultural productivity, which requires restoring soil fertility, embracing innovation, and investing in human capital.
 
Africa’s Green Economy Is a Good Investment
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/green-projects-in-africa-deliver-high-investment-returns-acs2-by-fitsum-assefa-adela-2025-08
While Africa is a poster child for climate vulnerability, it is also a model of climate possibility, boasting vast renewable resources, rich biodiversity, a young population, and a pipeline of bankable green projects. Investors should be clamoring to seize these opportunities, beginning at the upcoming Second Africa Climate Summit.
 
Recommitting to Human Security in Africa
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/africa-must-stay-committed-to-human-security-framework-it-helped-develop-by-adekeye-adebajo-2025-08
A report recently published by the United Nations Development Programme highlights what Africa’s scholars and policymakers have long argued: that human security underpins development. Faced with complex crises, today’s leaders must re-embrace this innovative framework, which is grounded in African experiences and values. 

A Different Vision of the AI Future

China Has a Different Vision for AI. It Might Be Smarter.
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/china-has-a-different-vision-for-ai-it-might-be-smarter-581f1e44
Xi Jinping is pushing the country’s tech industry to build practical, low-cost tools that boost the country’s efficiency and can be marketed easily. 

America's Education Crisis

America’s education crisis threatens to unravel a superpower by Melissa Lawford
And Meike Eijsberg
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/08/31/americas-brain-power-withers-as-china-powers-ahead/
As the US endures falling math and literacy skills, Chinese students are powering ahead. 

How Trump Diminished America's Global Standing

Trump’s double humiliation as Xi embraces Modi and Putin
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2025/08/30/trumps-double-humiliation-xi-embraces-modi-putin/
The US-India bromance is well and truly over thanks to the president’s double dose of tariffs.

‘Navarro Is the Worst Student from Harvard’s Economics Department’: Jeffrey Sachs

 

While Trump Rattles the World, China Basks in the Limelight

https://www.wsj.com/world/while-trump-rattles-the-world-china-basks-in-the-limelight-e3de45a7
The leaders of three of the world’s four most powerful nations will meet in China this weekend to discuss how to react to the upending of the international order by the U.S. president. 

Step back and take it in: the US is entering full authoritarian mode
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/29/us-authoritarian-donald-trump-national-guard
Trump’s dictator-like behavior is so brazen, so blatant, that paradoxically, we discount it. But now it’s time to call it what it is.

These Countries Have Never Trusted America. Trump Is Proving Them Right.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/opinion/trump-brazil-india-tariffs.html 

Decline and Fall of the American Empire by Paul Krugman
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/decline-and-fall-of-the-american
Alliances were what made us great.

China’s Xi rolls out the red carpet for Putin and Modi as Trump upends global relations
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/30/china/chinas-xi-rolls-out-red-carpet-for-putin-modi-as-trump-upends-global-relations
 
China gains from Trump’s alienation of India
https://www.ft.com/content/fbbef8f7-106f-40b0-8c96-555fa1af4802
America’s unpredictability risks pushing New Delhi and Beijing closer together.

Foreign Policy Pragmatism

Multi-Alignment Is India’s Superpower
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/india-foreign-policy-agility-will-mitigate-risks-from-trump-tariffs-and-china-by-shashi-tharoor-2025-08
Donald Trump's imposition of a 50% tariff on US imports from India is a stark reminder that even the most robust partnerships are vulnerable to a populist leader's whims. Fortunately, India has long practiced an agile foreign policy, guided not by rigid alliances but by long-term interests.  

Japan, India to deepen security, economic ties amid U.S. tariffs
https://www.reuters.com/world/india/japan-india-deepen-security-economic-ties-amid-us-tariffs-2025-08-29

Social Safety Net in China

China Is Trying to Expand Its Social Safety Net. Yet Many Chinese Are Worried.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/world/asia/china-social-security.html
A move to force employers to pay into benefits for their employees has left people worrying that small businesses will close and jobs will be lost. 

India’s Geopolitical Challenges

A defining test looms for India
https://www.economist.com/asia/2025/08/28/a-defining-test-looms-for-india
It is rethinking its relationship with America. The ramifications will be huge.
 
Will a harsher world accelerate India’s reforms?
https://www.economist.com/asia/2025/08/28/will-a-harsher-world-accelerate-indias-reforms
Narendra Modi needs a new approach after Donald Trump’s tariffs.
 
Narendra Modi’s secret weapon: the Indian consumer
https://www.economist.com/asia/2025/08/28/narendra-modis-secret-weapon-the-indian-consumer
Low inflation, tax cuts and falling interest rates will boost an economy hit by tariffs. 

China, US, and the Future Global Economic Order

The New Economic Geography by ADAM POSEN (President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics)
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/new-economic-geography-posen
Who Profits in a Post-American World? 

The Weaponized World Economy
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/weaponized-world-economy-farrell-newman
Surviving the New Age of Economic Coercion.
 
China Is Enjoying Trump 2.0
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/china-enjoying-trump-20
How the Trade War Is Helping Beijing Prepare for Long-Term Competition.
 
The Real China Model
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/real-china-model-wang-kroeber
Beijing’s Enduring Formula for Wealth and Power.