Think-Tanks'Press

Much of this growth can be attributed to the Department of Treasury. At 8 billion hours, largely from IRS regulations, whenever there is a large collection of information, Treasury’s rise will significantly increase the national total as well.

From 7.6 billion hours in 2009 to roughly 8.1 billion hours today, Treasury is responsible for approximately 28 percent of the cumulative increase in regulation.

The Health and Human Services has the largest role administering the Affordable Care Act, and unsurprisingly, its regulatory burden has dramatically increased.

From the paperwork perspective, Agriculture is second only to HHS in the number of federal forms. The largest drivers of this growth result from a measure for agriculture worker protection.

ON 22 NOVEMBER 2016, the National Assembly of Vietnam ratified their government’s decision to hold off the building of its nuclear reactor. Cost was cited as the main reason. Another possible factor could be the unfolding lessons from the event of Fukushima, and the safety and security of nuclear reactors in cases of intentional attacks such as cyberattacks or terrorism still need to be assessed.

This is good news for the region. A possible regional nuclear energy race would now be avoided, and Vietnam’s neighbours would not have to brace themselves for a potential nuclear fallout. The region should now focus on developing renewable energy to meet its energy demand.

To increase the penetration level of renewable energy resources, ASEAN has launched many initiatives to promote solar and biomass, and to facilitate trade and cooperation in the region. Renewable energy has been considered not only to reduce the dependency on oil but also to minimise the environmental impact with regard to climate change. ASEAN targets to increase the level of renewable energy to 23% by 2025 in the ASEAN Energy Mix.

The future of the UN reform and the further institutionalisation of G20 is frustrating the western countries’ approach to global governance.

This article discusses how China’s approach in making global governance an inclusive one by building a formal relationship between the UN and G20 will get support from most developing countries.

” The G20 should establish formal relations with the IMF, World Bank, WTO, and Financial Stability Board (FSB), and take them as implementation branches. ”

The solution to stagflation was to switch from demand management to supply-side policies. The logic was powerful: The only way to achieve lower prices and higher output was to make economies more productive. This prescription would still be effective if today’s problems were those of the 1970s. But they are the reverse: Demand is depressed. To exit stag-deflation requires a break with current economic orthodoxy.

There is no shortage of examples of such breaks: Roosevelt’s New Deal; the creation of the Bretton Woods system; the break from Bretton Woods; Russia’s post-Soviet privatization and marketization; and China’s opening-up policy.

The trade-off between accessing European markets and managing EU immigration lies at the heart of the current Brexit policy debate. Various voices from both sides of the negotiating table have set out their red lines. But we have heard relatively few constructive proposals for a deal that might square this circle and work both in the UK and in the capitals of Europe.

The report details a new, three-tier immigration system which offers preferential access to EU workers, with free movement maintained for workers that pass a skills or salary threshold; but brings unskilled immigration under UK control, through annually set quotas. Importantly, the first opportunity to fill those low-skilled migrant quotas would go to Britain’s preferential trade partners, such as the EU.

Many think immigration presents an impossible conundrum for the Brexit negotiations.  A new, preferential system, we argue, could rebuild trust on immigration in Britain while offering UK negotiators a positive offer to make as it seeks a strong trade deal with the EU.

There can be no security in contemporary Europe without the creation of a new ‘iron triangle’ – the US, NATO and the EU. Right now, ‘reality’ looks more like a meringue triangle – the appearance of a hard crust on the outside, very soft in the middle. Until the hybrid threat is seen as the strategic threat it is NATO and the EU will continue to act like two wary bull elephants dancing around each other on the head of a shrinking pin. Real progress will only be seen when effective and real strategy is crafted and the agility and adaptability central to the conduct of effective hybrid warfare is realised.