Financial Times

Political risk still high

August 3, 2011

The 2011 Aon Political Risk Map, published in conjunction with the Financial Times, shows different risks around the world. Aon Corporation “measures the political risk of 211 countries and territories based on the level of risks such as currency inconvertibility and transfer; strikes, riots and civil commotion; war; sovereign non-payment; political interference; supply chain interruption [...]

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Cold War in the Caribbean

July 27, 2011

The Financial Times’ Latin America editor John Paul Rathbone and author of the The Sugar King of Havana: The Rise and Fall of Julio Lobo, Cuba’s Last Tycoon critiques British historian Alex von Tunzelmann’s recent book, Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder and the Cold War in the Caribbean: “More pointedly, does the world really need to be [...]

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Pragmatist more than reformer

September 18, 2010

The Financial Times on Raúl Castro: Either way, the 79-year-old is now more likely to go down in history as the man who tried to save Cuban communism from itself – by turning to capitalism. [...] Raúl Castro lacks Fidel’s vision and drive, but calls a spade a spade, and is known to care for [...]

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Running a country into the ground

August 3, 2010

The Financial Times‘s Latin America editor and author of “The Sugar King of Havana: the Rise and Fall of Julio Lobo, Cuba’s Last Tycoon“ writes about the maladministration of Venezuela and Cuba’s machinations in Caracas: Incompetence even helps explain the closeness of Venezuelan ties with Cuba. Two of the few state functions that do work reasonably [...]

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Hidden power of China’s communist rulers

May 15, 2010

Richard McGregor of the Financial Times has an essay in the Wall Street Journal about the world’s largest political machine, China’s Communist Party: The modern world is replete with examples of elite networks that wield behind-the-scenes power beyond their mere numerical strength…None can hold a candle to the Chinese Communist Party, which takes ruling-class networking to [...]

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Medical diplomacy

May 14, 2010

The Financial Times has posted a report on the Cuban government’s medical diplomacy abroad: Such “medical diplomacy” has been part of Cuba’s foreign policy almost since the revolution – and has grown in intensity over the past few years, fuelled above all by strong demand from Venezuela. In some of the most remote and neglected parts of [...]

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