There is more money in the world than at any other point in human history, so why doesn’t it reach the places that need it most?
A basic income derived from the value of collectively owned resources could empower citizens to transform their societies.
From the outside, the Swedish snub to the Saudi royals looks like a big triumph for women’s rights over commercial pressures. Close up, the ethical picture is a little muddier.
While an economic and political union between Russia and Europe is unlikely, it could serve the interests of both sides in an increasingly hostile world.
Russia’s financial crisis has produced a contagious effect in Central Asia, where cheap oil is exacerbating the poor economic outlook.
Could the big foundations ever be the change they want to see?
Russia’s Prison Service, the FSIN, wants to put inmates’ employment on a more businesslike footing, but their working conditions are still more like slave labour.
Buckwheat prices in Russian shops are soaring without any apparent reason. Russians are stocking up on this nutritious and usually cheap foodstuff, anticipating the worst is yet to come.
Russians regularly lose their savings in the pyramid schemes flourishing throughout the country. And the government is doing – can do – nothing about them.
Russians pride themselves on their capacity for state-building, but their idea of the state is not one that the West would recognise, or was hoping for…
President Putin’s special envoy to the Urals, recently praised the region’s farmers for their heroic efforts to save the harvest. But it won’t save them.
Amendments to Russia’s new media law limiting foreign ownership to 20% show there is no free market in the country.
