TTCT – Dân Mỹ nói riêng và dân tình cả thế giới nói chung đều hoang mang trước cơn bão giá đang ập đến. Dù chỉ số giá cả chính thức ở Mỹ tăng 7,9% vào tháng 2 so với cùng kỳ năm ngoái, giá cả thực tế tăng cao hơn thế nhiều lần: giá xăng đã tăng chừng 40%, giá món nào trong siêu thị cũng tăng vài ba chục phần trăm.
Trong bối cảnh đó, Cục Dự trữ liên bang (FED) nước này chỉ nâng lãi suất điều hành thêm 0,25 điểm phần trăm vào tuần trước, làm sao thuyết phục thị trường họ đang sử dụng vũ khí hạng nặng để chống lạm phát?
Lạm phát 14,8%, lãi suất phải trên 20%
Nếu đơn giản hóa mọi yếu tố khác chỉ còn tiền với hàng, sẽ dễ thấy nếu tiền nhiều lên mà hàng giữ nguyên, ắt hẳn giá sẽ tăng. Giá còn tăng mạnh hơn nữa nếu cùng lúc đó hàng giảm xuống.
TTCT – Để hiểu được cuộc xung đột ở Ukraine hiện tại, không thể không nhìn lại một lịch sử rất dài, ít ra là từ những ngày ngay sau cuộc chiến lớn gần nhất ở châu Âu.
Việc mở rộng NATO là một trong những vướng mắc lớn nhất của quan hệ Nga – Mỹ suốt thời gian ông Putin cầm quyền, trải 5 đời tổng thống Mỹ. Ảnh: The New York Times
Ngày 5-3-1946, trong bài phát biểu tại Đại học Westminster, bang Missouri, Mỹ, Thủ tướng Anh Winston Churchill, người kiên định sự nghi kỵ không giới hạn với nhà lãnh đạo Liên Xô Joseph Stalin (ngược lại cũng thế), tuyên bố: “Từ Stettin ở Baltic tới Trieste ở Adriatic, một bức màn sắt đã buông xuống trên khắp lục địa”.
The Ukraine war is complicating the calculus of China’s energy security and the prospect of a new energy deal with Russia
Can Beijing afford to be close to a Moscow that is increasingly politically and economically isolated?
Snow covers sections of connected pipework at the Gazprom PJSC Atamanskaya compressor station, part of the Power Of Siberia gas pipeline extending to China, near Svobodny, in the Amur region, Russia, in 2019. Photo: Bloomberg
Two recent developments reveal the possibility of a new energy agreement between China and Russia. First, Russian gas giant Gazprom PJSC announced a contract to design the Soyuz Vostok pipeline across Mongolia towards China. Second, Beijing is reported to be discussing with its state-owned companies opportunities to buy stakes in Russian energy companies, and is also looking at a Power of Siberia 2 pipeline to China.
With the exit of international energy companies from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, Germany’s decision to halt the certification process of the Kremlin-backed Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and rounds of sanctions on Russia, there are certainly new opportunities for the Chinese government and companies to strengthen their position in the Russian market.
However, even as domestic, regional and global factors may push China towards a new energy deal with Russia, Beijing could also face a range of challenges.
Firstly, Beijing’s ambition to be carbon-neutral by 2060 and replace much coal with gas is one of the most important domestic factors prompting China to further improve its relations with Russia.
Russian gas exports – whether liquefied natural gas or pipeline gas delivered through the original Power of Siberia, for example – would help China reduce greenhouse gas emissions as the country makes a green transition.
Secondly, the withdrawal of Western energy companies such as BP and Shell from Russia due to the Ukraine war creates opportunities for Chinese energy companies, especially state-owned ones, to invest in Russia and diversify their portfolio.
Thirdly, while China also imports gas from Turkmenistan, Russian gas is one of the cheapest options for Chinese consumers, making a new energy deal with Russia that much more attractive.
However, there could also be obstacles to such a deal. One problem could be the political and economic uncertainties now looming over Russia; the deterioration of the Russian business environment under current sanctions might discourage Chinese companies from investing in Russia.
Particularly, sanctions led by Washington seem to inspire caution in Beijing and Chinese companies. For example, the state-run Sinopec Group recently suspended talks about a major petrochemical investment and a gas marketing venture in Russia, apparently heeding a government call to tread carefully with Russian assets.
“And yet, just when the climate scientists and governments across the eight Arctic states should be working together to understand and address the climate crisis, Russia’s war on Ukraine has forced the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental group of Arctic states and Arctic Indigenous Peoples, to suspend their joint activities in protest of Russia’s unprovoked aggression.“
The United States is committed to strengthening global resiliency and democratic renewal, and promoting peaceful, self-reliant nations that become strong economic and security partners capable of addressing shared challenges. To that end, the U.S. Government is moving forward in the spirit of partnership with Haiti, Libya, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, and five countries in the Coastal West Africa region (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, and Togo) to implement the ten-year U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers and listeners are advised this article and podcast contain names of deceased people.
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy – a site of First Nations protest in Canberra, Australia – marks its 50th anniversary this year. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we hear about its history and how the ongoing protest has influenced a new generation of Indigenous activism.
Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia (Photo by 
CVD 