China’s Long-Term Strategy vs The West’s Civil War and Short-Termism While the effectively bankrupt West is tearing itself apart and undermining its society, economy and science, China is not just getting on with it, but forging ahead. A good starting point in understanding what is happening now, with all the…
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For decades, we have been taking our freedom for granted. But suddenly authoritarian populists are threatening liberal societies worldwide. Time to wake up. Die Zeit, 4 August 2016. *** The headline and subtitle come from Die Zeit, Germany’s most prestigious and “highbrow” weekly broadsheet. Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was…
Read MoreIan Pryde, Founder & CEO of Eurasia Strategy & Communications, is to present a seminar at the Canada-Eurasia-Russia Business Association (CERBA): “Russia’s Future Prospects & Russia in Comparison with Emerging Markets of the CIS, Africa, Latin America and Asia”. Ian will cover topics such as Russia’s “catch up with West”…
Read MoreIn August, the Fund had a slightly negative performance of 2.5%, after positioning itself for a QE3 announcement of then unknown timing. The Fund’s overall constructive positioning, however, was of modest proportions, with only a 62% net long exposure, i.e. quite a low “long bias” by the Fund’s historical standards.…
Read MoreToyota’s recall of nearly 2 million cars doesn’t look good, but any company that records its first loss some 70 years after its foundation must be world class. In late 1998, I was in Bishkek, the capital of the Kyrgyz Republic, when the local Mercedes dealer held a presentation of…
Read MoreThe Caspian Basin’s large oil and gas reserves have not only been long coveted by the United States, Europe, China and India, but are also seen as the means by which the region can be lifted out of poverty. At the same time, the desire for influence in the Trans-Caucasus…
Read MoreMOSCOW. (Ian Pryde for RIA-Novosti) – Last Thursday, Russia’s President Putin arrived in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, for the start of a week-long visit to Central Asia, which will focus on energy. But the visit is not just about oil and gas. Electricity generation and transmission and atomic energy…
Read MoreMOSCOW. (Ian Pryde for RIA Novosti) – Russia’s already poor image took another hit last weekend with the arrest of former world chess champion Garry Kasparov and the heavy-handed tactics of the police against demonstrators in Moscow, pictures of which went around the world. Despite the claims about the Kremlin’s…
Read MoreAlthough the December-January pricing spat between Russia and Ukraine focused attention on Europe’s dependence on outside sources of gas, the political/energy security nexus in East Asia has been acute for decades. In the mid-1990s, Kent E. Calder published the book “Asia’s Deadly Triangle: How Arms, Energy and Growth Threaten to…
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