U.S. military assistance is finally on its way to Ukraine after months of being held up in Congress. Reactions to the US$61 billion spending package, signed into law by President Joe Biden on April 24, 2024, have ranged from applause to indignation. While few people could deny it includes ammunition and equipment that Washington’s besieged […]
Ukraine’s economy went from Soviet chaos to oligarch domination to vital global trader of wheat and neon – and now Russian devastation
Ukraine’s economy continues to operate despite the battering the country is getting from the Russian military. Many factories and businesses still function. Other industries like those in information technology have barely missed a beat, with workers continuing to work from areas out of the direct line of fire. But Ukraine has been largely transformed into […]
The Russian economy is headed for collapse
To justify invading Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has painted Russia as a hegemonic power re-asserting its rightful claim to imperial greatness. Yet even before the invasion, Russia’s economic capabilities were hardly capable of sustaining an empire. Now, with foreign sanctions presiding over a plummeting Russian ruble, Russia’s economic standing has fallen further still. If measured at […]
Why stagflation is an economic nightmare – and may already be here
The economy is cooling while inflation remains elevated. And that is raising alarm bells among economists who worry it means “stagflation” is on the way. But what is stagflation exactly? We asked Veronika Dolar, an economist at SUNY Old Westbury and a visiting professor at Stony Brook University, to explain what it is, what causes […]