The technology industry has seen a lot of ups and downs throughout the last three years, especially after the end of the pandemic. However, through the boom of technology created and engaged with during the pandemic, the tech industry is looking at a continuing rise of activity; but, is that truly what will happen? A main way that people and companies grow in this industry is through digital competitiveness. Digital competitiveness is the "ability to adopt and explore digital technologies to create economic transformation within business, government, and across al societal secto ..read more

It has been over a year since Vladimir Putin authorized Russia's “special military operations” in Ukraine, eventually leading to what we now know as the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine. The human cost of the conflict is undeniable. It is difficult to estimate the number of casualties related to this invasion; however, the most extreme estimates by U.S. general Mark Milley suggest that over 100,000 Ukrainian and over 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or injured. Milley’s estimates indicate that nearly 40,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the conflict, while UN ..read more

Oil prices continue to fall, hitting almost 15-month lows. One of the new factors impacting the global price of oil is the current banking turmoil further adding to the confusion of world prices.  The fragile marketplace of the banks is one of the reasons the oil prices are fluctuating. Oil prices have now fallen 10% since regulators closed the Silicon Valley Bank. Credit Suisse, another prominent bank, is also struggling, even after receiving a $54 billion loan meant to purposely avoid collapse. And if that wasn't enough, First Republic Bank just announced t ..read more

The 2022 Market Potential Index (MPI) has been released on globalEDGE! This study ranks the market potential of the largest economies, focusing on the United States, by compiling statistics from several sources and analyzing the results based on eight dimensions. This study can help businesses determine which international markets best fit for them to enter. Some notable ranking increases to this year's MPI include Denmark rising from 21st to 12th place, Norway rising from 36th to 13th, and Ghana rising from 71st to 47th. Spain, Cyprus, and Vietnam all s ..read more

American Football and the National Football League is mainly known as American sport, but the National Football League (NFL) is trying to change that perception; and their efforts internationally are reaching an economic boom. The NFL has been working on this project for a long time. The first international regular season game played in the NFL was in Mexico City, Mexico, on October 2, 2005, between the Arizona Cardinals and the San Francisco 49ers. The game hosted an NFL record in attendance with 103,467 fans. Now they are looking further. The most recent country that the NFL is outreaching t ..read more

In March 2021, China put a large tariff on any imported wine from Australia, it's the largest supplier. This blog covers the economic impact on the wine industry in Australia and China, the background to the current situation, and what lies ahead for the wine industry. In 2015, China and Australia enacted the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) that phased the removal of import tariffs on Australian wine. As a result, between 2015 - 2020, the two countries traded heavily with each other, especially in the wine industry. By 2019, China represented 40% of exports of Aust ..read more

The collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has had a significant impact not only on the United States but on businesses and countries around the world. As one of the largest and most successful banks in the world, SVB has played a vital role in providing financial services to many of the most innovative and high-growth companies in the technology sector.  The SVB collapsed on March 10th, 2023, and is marked as the largest bank failure since the financial crisis. Founded in 1983, SVB specialized in banking for tech startups. It provided financing for almost half of US venture-backed tec ..read more

Animal rights have been a topic of discussion for a substantial amount of time. The debate as to what rights animals truly have has been an essential issue for many animal rights organizations. One notable organization that has been at the forefront of these issues is PETA. Its main goal is to stop animal suffering as a whole. Recently Thailand has been under fire for reports of their alleged mistreatment of animals. Modern-day animal rights began to be recognized in the 1970s. Consequently, this explains the outrage seen by companies mentioned later in this paragraph. In November of 2022, it ..read more

Russia is the world's "most heavily sanctioned" country. More than 30 countries have been a part of these sanctions. Although it has been a year now of intense restrictions since the war on Ukraine, there seems to be little change in the country's economy. U.S. officials predicted that Russia's economy would shrink more than 15% in 2022 - in reality, its economy shrunk 2.2%. In fact, its economy is expected to outperform that of the U.K.'s this year. Although oil tax revenues have decreased, Russia is not facing mass unemployment, and its currency remains strong.  It is expected ..read more

This past Monday, the United States government gave the green light for the Willow Project, a controversial oil and gas development proposal in Alaska. The project, spearheaded by ConocoPhillips, aims to extract up to 600 million barrels of oil and 3.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), a 23 million-acre area on the North Slope of Alaska. After first submitting the proposal in 2017, ConocoPhillips now plans to build a series of drilling pads, pipelines, and processing facilities that would allow for the extraction of up to 160,000 barrels of ..read more