Why U.K. exit from EU may now be a real possibility

by Clive Crook

The realization hits a recent visitor to the U.K. that Britain might actually leave the EU. Attitudes are hardening well ahead of a promised referendum on membership.

UKIP rides wave of discontent

by Hugh Cortazzi

Britain as well as Japan must contend with xenophobic anti-establishment parties and politicians who want to take their nations back to imaginary periods of isolation.

In Europe, pieces are in place for a 'lost decade'

by Barry Eichengreen

Although investors seem to think that Europe's leaders will do just enough to save their monetary union, the EU is likely to look back on a "lost decade.

Cameron lost in channel fog

by Kevin Rafferty

In his speech demanding a new deal for Britain in the EU, British Prime Minister David Cameron sought a popular political fix to quiet his rightwing rebels.

The Little Englanders are gaining

The real problem is continental drift: Brussels, the capital of the European Union, is getting further and further away from England. Or at least that is British Prime Minister David Cameron’s line. Cameron made his long awaited speech promising a referendum on continued British ...

Editorial Jun 24, 2012

Taming the danger from Europe

The leaders of the Group of 20 major economies, at their June 18-19 summit in Los Gabos, Mexico, adopted a declaration emphasizing the need to resolve the European financial crisis, among other things. The declaration in part said that “Euro Area members of the ...

Editorial Jun 21, 2012

Tepid vote for Europe in Greece

Greece and Europe have gained some breathing room — but not much — after Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Greece. A victory by the conservative New Democracy (ND) party offers hope that the country will support a government that backs the existing austerity program, permitting ...

Editorial May 28, 2012

Selling an Olympic image

Tokyo, along with Madrid and Istanbul, has made it to the final phase of the International Olympic Committee’s selection process for the city that will host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, after the IOC’s eliminated Doha and Baku from the list of candidates. But ...

Editorial May 17, 2012

Argentina's old-school economics

Resource nationalism was supposed to be a throwback, a discredited school of economics that failed the governments that embraced it. Apparently, Argentine President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner never got the memo. Instead, she decided in mid-April to seize a majority stake in one of ...

Editorial May 9, 2012

Europe turns on its leaders

It was a bitter weekend for Europe. In elections across the continent, voters expressed displeasure with their political leaders. The results were no surprise and reflected deep concern about economic policy and, especially, the impact of the austerity measures that have been adopted to ...

Editorial May 2, 2012

Getting weary of austerity

The results of the first round on April 22 of the French presidential election underlined that France’s economic stagnation caused by the 2008 Lehman Brothers shock and the eurozone sovereign debt crisis was an important factor. They point to people’s strong dissatisfaction with the ...

Editorial Apr 28, 2012

Seeking talks with Iran one more time

Iran and the five permanent member nations of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany (P5-plus-1) held talks in Istanbul on April 14 and agreed that they would start full talks from May 23 in Baghdad over the issue of Iran’s nuclear program. Although ...