Forbes: Iran’s Economy To Sink Even Faster This Year Than Last

By SIMON CONSTABLE

U.S. sanctions are squeezing the life out of the Iranian economy, and the malaise is likely to get even worse.

“We expect the contraction to deepen,” states a recent report by Garbis Iradian and his team at the Washington D.C.-based think tank, the Institute of International Finance.

How bad? In the current fiscal year, which ends in March, the Islamic Republic’s economy will likely shrink by 7.2%, that’s even worse than the already-dire 4.6% drop the prior year, according to the report. Read more here.

Forbes: Gold Investors: Should Brace For More Volatility, Report Says

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Last year gold investors had a lucrative but bumpy ride. Expect more of the same for 2020, according to a new report. Ultra-low interest rates, a frothy stock market, and geopolitical tension stand out as things that could both support more price gains over the next 12 months and lead to wild swings. Read more here.

Korn Ferry: Call Me By My Name -- The Netherlands

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Holland has a New Year’s request: stop calling it Holland.

Holland refers to a region of the Netherlands, but the name itself has frequently been used to refer to the whole country. Now, through an effort led by the country’s board of tourism, the country’s government has decided that “all official government communications and promotions” will reference “the Netherlands” exclusively. Read more here.

John Batchelor Show: After Brexit, Scotland is not leaving either the Queen's UK or the Church of the NHS

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Korn Ferry: Women on Boards -- Hitting an Ambitious Goal

By SIMON CONSTABLE

It was an ambitious goal when it was set in 2010: triple the percentage of female board directors on corporate boards by 2020. But as this new year dawned, more than three out of every ten directors—30.6%, to be exact—at the 250 largest publicly traded firms in the UK are women. The goal now? Keep up the effort without a highly publicized campaign. Read more here.

Photo by Katherine Hanlon on Unsplash

Medium: 35 Questions About California’s AB5 Law That Limits Freelance Journalists to 35 Stories A Year

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Starting January 1, there are new laws in California that have all the look of outright war on the media.

While President Donald Trump has from day one as a candidate consistently hurled abuse at the press, what California has done makes Trump look like a rank amateur in the field. Read more here.

“corona typewriter” by lexly87 aka Duc N. Ly is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Constable's Work on Italy Cited by the Center for American Progress

Constable's work was recently cited by the Center for American Progress in a paper titled: Embrace the Union: A New Progressive Approach for Reviving the Trans-Atlantic Alliance. Among a slew of things, the paper discusses the importance of a unified Europe.