Essays & News

  Global markets are witnessing a powerful resurgence in the prices of minerals and industrial metals, with several key materials recording triple-digit annual gains and others entering the early stages of a sustained upward trajectory. Prices for lithium, cobalt and rhodium have surged by over 100 percent, 60 percent and 97 percent, respectively, over the […]

  The European Council summit of March 19-20 was overshadowed by the Iranian crisis in the Strait of Hormuz and Hungary blocking a 90 billion-euro loan to Ukraine. But crucially, European leaders also chose to move forward with the Savings and Investment Union. The initiative provides high-level political backing for tapping into an estimated 10 […]

  Over the past year and until the current Iran war, the United States dollar has offered a mixed picture in two respects. Its exchange rate has weakened against the euro and the British pound (from 0.95 to 0.85 and from 0.79 to 0.74, respectively), but strengthened against the yen (from 150 to 155). At […]

  Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the country has become one of the most heavily sanctioned in modern history. Unprecedented and coordinated measures from the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia and other allied countries have targeted nearly every major sector of the Russian economy. Energy exports face […]

  The United States and Israel have struck the regime in Tehran, eliminating the supreme leader and several key figures responsible for oppressing Iran. For more than 45 years, the Iranian people have suffered under a brutal authoritarian and terrorist system. These strikes are necessary and justified. They represent an opportunity. The Middle East has long been plagued […]