systemic risk

The 1991 Eruption of Mount Pinatubo, Philippines

23 May 2017

Pinatubo eruption from Clark Air Base, Richard P. Hoblitt The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines on 12th-16th June 1991 was the second-largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century, exceeded only by the 1912 eruption of Novarupta in the Alaska Peninsula. It produced the largest [read more]

UN aid chief urges global action as starvation, famine loom for 20 million across four countries

10 March 2017

10 March 2017 – Just back from Kenya, Yemen, South Sudan and Somalia – countries that are facing or are at risk of famine – the top United Nations humanitarian official today urged the international community for comprehensive action to save people from simply “starving to death.” UN / [read more]

Vulnerable communities will suffer if China does not step up adaptation efforts

26 January 2017

Rebecca Nadin With typhoons, rainfall and drought all expected to increase, provinces must do more to adapt. Editor’s note: This article is an introduction to a series of on-the-ground reports examining adaptation efforts in mainland China and Hong Kong. It has been produced by Chinese [read more]

Cut carbon emissions by a quarter more, urges UNEP

4 November 2016

by Charlotte Middlehurst Governments must take immediate action to avoid a global temperature rise of three degrees Celsius or more and emissions must peak by 2020 to limit the rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. (All graphs from the UNEP emissions gap report) Countries must act immediately to deepen [read more]

Southeast Asia’s last major undammed river in crisis

26 October 2016

China has suspended dams upstream of the Salween but the Myanmar government is pushing ahead with Chinese backed dams downstream, despite environmental costs and cheaper alternatives Tom Fawthrop From the snow-capped mountains of Tibet, the Salween rushes through steep gorges in Yunnan Province and [read more]

Criminality and Corporations

21 October 2016

Some corporations have policies which actively encourage law-breaking, Enron was one example. Rowan Bosworth-Davies’s report on the 33rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime held at Jesus College, Cambridge in September 2015 “The Limits of the Law, The role of compliance in the [read more]

IMF: “Deutsche Bank appears to the most important net contributor to systemic risks in the global banking system”

1 October 2016

One of the lessons of 2008 is the fact that governments need to be more aware of the operations of banks and to understand that bank failures can have a catastrophic effect on national economies. Notwithstanding this, there is good reason for apportioning a share of responsibility for the events of [read more]

Does it matter if China cleans up its banks?

31 August 2016

By Michael Petts I’ve always thought that Shirley Yam of the South China Morning Post has a great nose for financial risk, and this shows in an article she published last week on mainland real estate. For anyone knowledgeable about the history of financial bubbles and crises, much of the [read more]

Unprecedented level of food insecurity in South Sudan, UN agencies warn

29 June 2016

Joint FAO-UNICEF-WFP News Release More than a third of the population in urgent need of food, agriculture and nutrition assistance amid risk of catastrophe in some parts of the country Seeds distribution in Doro refugee camp, in Maban, South Sudan. The conflict has displaced hundreds of thousands [read more]

How Much Investment is Optimal

2 June 2016

Michael Pettis: A few years ago I wrote an essay on my blog that received a lot of attention and in which I tried to explain what the underlying assumption was for analysts who considered that China’s low level of investment relative to that of, say, the US proved that China could not possibly [read more]

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The World in Crisis

threats & challenges