Marianne Schneider-Petsinger (Continuación)

Bernie Sanders, though no longer a contender for the presidency, put the topic of inequality firmly on the election agenda. Photo by Getty Images.

The US election is less than a month away. With so much focus on the large gap between the rich and the poor in this year’s race, a slightly altered version of James Carville’s 1992 mantra captures the election quite well: 'It's the inequality, stupid.'

Inequality divides the United States. In 2015, the top 5 per cent of Americans earned about 16 times more than the bottom 10 per cent. There has been some recent positive news on closing the income gap from the Census Bureau, indicating that the median household income rose by 5.2 per cent between 2014 and 2015. …  Seguir leyendo »

Even though President Barack Obama cautioned that the UK would be at the ‘back of the queue’ for a trade agreement with the US if the country chose to leave the EU, in the post-Brexit world a deal might be struck more swiftly. Various ideas for bringing the UK and US into a formal trade arrangement have been floated – ranging from a bilateral UK-US trade deal, or the UK joining NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico), to the UK becoming a part of the TPP (the Trans-Pacific Partnership that the US is pursuing with 11 other countries along the Pacific Rim).…  Seguir leyendo »

With Britain’s decision to leave the EU, the clouds of uncertainty hanging over the proposed US-EU free trade deal (known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership or TTIP) have become darker. The negotiations were formally launched three years ago and have stalled because of transatlantic differences (for instance over issues of investor protections and public procurement) as well as growing public opposition. For now, both the US and the EU negotiators are determined to weather the storm and continue talks when they meet in Brussels from 11-15 July.

The result of the UK’s EU referendum will blow a strong wind into the face of TTIP negotiators on three fronts.…  Seguir leyendo »