Fortune (April 7)
The petrodollar “makes up the cornerstone of America’s dominance over global trade, but economists warn the currency architecture has been eroding at its edges for years now.” Indeed, the current era may bring “the biggest change in the world’s relationship to the dollar since 1974, and every day the Iran war continues, the cracks in the old system grow wider and wider. To be sure, the dollar is still overwhelmingly dominant, but it’s no longer the only game in town.”
Tags: 1974, Cornerstone, Cracks, Currency architecture, Dominance, Economists, Eroding, Global trade, Iran war, Old system, Petrodollar
Wall Street Journal (October 7)
“French President Emmanuel Macron has lost his fourth prime minister in just over a year, a sign of how the country’s political crisis has engulfed his ranks and constrained his options for pulling France out of a fiscal spiral.” After just a month in office, “Sébastien Lecornu stunned the country by resigning as prime minister…. Lecornu’s benighted tenure—the shortest in the history of France’s modern Fifth Republic—is a measure of how a political system that was once a cornerstone of stability in Europe has fallen into disarray.”
Tags: Benighted, Cornerstone, Disarray, Engulfed, Europe, Fifth Republic, Fiscal spiral, France, Lecornu, Macron, Options, Political crisis, Resigning, Shortest, Stability, Stunned, Tenure
Washington Post (April 4)
“Finland has spent the 105 years since its independence tiptoeing alongside Russia, with which it has roughly 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) of border.” The cornerstone of Finnish foreign policy remained “maintaining good relations with Russia…. until last year,” when “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its demands to stop NATO expansion” shifted public opinion overwhelmingly in favor of NATO accession, which was achieved today.
Tags: Accession, Cornerstone, Demands, Finland, Foreign policy, Independence, Invasion, NATO expansion, Public opinion, Russia, Ukraine
