Washington Post (March 4)
“Cities across the nation face a dilemma: Downtown office buildings are empty as workers prefer to stay home.” Office-to-apartment conversion is an essential “part of the solution,” but “city leaders aren’t doing enough…. The longer cities wait to get conversions underway, the more tax values drop and crime goes up, and the more people see no value in living in the heart of the city — or even visiting.”
Tags: Apartment, Cities, Conversion, Dilemma, Downtown, Empty, Home, Leaders, Office buildings, Solution, Tax values, Workers
Wall Street Journal (October 26)
The European Central Bank is now faced with “a dilemma as it edges toward higher interest rates just as the region’s economy slows and faces escalating risks, from international trade tensions to a European dispute over Italy’s budget.” For now, President Mario Draghi has no plans to change course as the ECB seeks to “phase out easy-money policies.”
Tags: Budget, Dilemma, Draghi, ECB, Economy, Interest rates, Italy, QE, Risks, Trade tensions
PBS News Hour (April 15)
President Trump is now “trying to confront a dilemma that haunted his predecessor, Barack Obama. Syria’s seven-year civil war presents few fast or easy solutions for the U.S., yet the geopolitical rivalries at play, the presence of the Islamic State group and other extremists, and the atrocities perpetrated by the Assad government make the situation impossible to ignore.”
Tags: Assad, Atrocities, Civil war, Confront, Dilemma, Extremists, Geopolitical, Islamic State, Obama, Rivalries, Solutions, Syria, Trump, U.S.
Washington Post (December 2)
Pfizer’s planned tax inversion highlights a dilemma “of almost-impenetrable complexity and contentiousness: How to tax multinational companies?” To minimize their taxes, “large global firms…are becoming more aggressive.” At the same time, governments are “increasingly desperate to raise tax revenue to pay for aging societies and cover persistent budget deficits.”
Tags: Aging societies, Budget deficits, Dilemma, Governments, Inversion, Multinationals, Pfizer, Taxes
The Economist (August 8)
“Germany is back in its old dilemma: too weak for hegemony, too large for balance. No other country can think of imposing solutions, but Europe will not allow Germany to do so either. That may mean that the EU’s biggest challenges—from immigration to preventing a British exit and fixing the euro—will continue to go unmet.”
Tags: Balance, Brexit, Challenges, Dilemma, euro, Europe, Germany, Hegemony, Immigration, Solutions
Wall Street Journal (October 12)
Japan’s dilemma over whether to proceed with the sales tax increase to 10% “mirrors the dynamics in Europe, where France and Italy recently delayed deficit-reduction plans, fearing that spending cuts could tip their fragile economies back into recession.” With much of the developed world facing aging demographics and similar quandaries, all eyes are on Japan. “In a world haunted by stubbornly slow growth and low inflation, Japan’s clinical trial—whether it ends up cure or toxin—will inform other countries when they reach Japan’s state.”
Tags: Deficit reduction, Demographics, Dilemma, Economies, Europe, France, Growth, Inflation, Italy, Japan, Recession, Sales tax, Spending cuts
