Last weekend I drove through the Skokie Lagoons, just north of Chicago. They are both beautiful and manmade, created literally from the sweat of the Great Depression. Four million cubic tons of soil were removed to form a series of lagoons from the existing marshlands. It was one of the largest public works projects of FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps, employing thousands of men, including three African-American construction companies. Started in 1933, the project took until the beginning of the US entry into World War II in 1941 to complete.

Sustainable investment focused on a "Green Recovery" is being widely discussed as we envision the post-Covid world. What are the promises and pitfalls of ESG for investors?

On Wednesday, July 8th at 4 pm CDT, in advance of the ministerial-level Clean Energy Transitions Summit in Paris, EconVue hosted a webinar with economist David Maywald, a leading specialist in the field of ESG and infrastructure investment based in Sydney. He was joined by EconVue colleagues with expertise in these subjects, including Marsha Vande Berg and Robert Madsen. 

COVID-19 has pushed to global economy in a synchronized and deep downturn of apocalyptic proportions, with combined supply-side and demand-side shocks devastating economies across the world. In the words of Gita Gopinath, the Chief Economist of the IMF, “A crisis like no other”.

Yesterday Peter Navarro declared that the US-China trade deal was dead in the water, which his boss quickly walked back on Twitter. In a world of global threats, should bilateral disputes remain our focus, or are we wasting precious time? As I wrote for the G7 Research Group:

Well before Nike or Starbucks was even a glimmer in the eye of their founders, a little-known economist sat down at his desk in the 1950s in America to write why he believed companies are obliged to be responsible citizens.

I had planned to be in Washington last week at the IMF/World Bank meetings, a chance to hear the latest policy debates and catch up with old friends. Not this spring; the meetings were entirely virtual and didn't offer much clarity beyond a dismal forecast for 2020. I have however indulged in a cornucopia of online offerings, some of which I have included below. 

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This report is written by Eleanor Hughes, Writer & Commentator, East Asian Affairs.

“Nobody wants a trade war,” but the long-lasting trade conflict between the world’s two largest economies, the United States and China, just reached a truce after almost two years.

On 22 March 2018, President Donald Trump directed the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to start investigating China’s ‘unfair’ trade practices covered in Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.