Economy

The end of February 2018 was marked by the victory celebration at the Ukrainian gas market as Ukrainian Naftogaz won the case on gas transit against the Russian Gazprom at the Stockholm Arbitrage Court. The Gazprom has to pay the Naftogaz USD 4.6 bn for violating the “take or pay” clause.

Because of the binding constraints of European treaties and EU law, there are few remaining lines of attack against the Bank of Slovenia’s independence. This article places these developments within the normative and positive contexts of free markets.

December 1, 2017, marked the five-year anniversary of the full implementation of plain packaging in Australia. The removal of brands and trademarks from packaging remains a gross violation of intellectual property rights and has failed to achieve its intended goal.

The Slovak Ministry of Agriculture lists among its goals the support of Slovak agricultural production. Except their heavy subsidizing under EU common agricultural policy, it uses several tools of nationalist protection of local production.

John Chisholm wrote an inspirational book based on his own business experiences, including his work in the Silicon Valley. In Unleash Your Inner Company, the author explains how to combine passion with perseverance in order to succeed in business, where passion without perseverance \"can be fleeting\".

Can money distribution really motivate people to find a job? It doesn\'t seem like it. But this depends on the level of basic income. If it is high, people might lose the incentive to look for an employment. However, the financial side of the Finnish experiment is not a tricky one.

No, this is not a story about the fear of computers. This is the story of how well-established civilization gains can be transformed to send the citizens, businesspeople, and civil servants on a terrible odyssey with entirely new bureaucratic processes.

The year 2017 brought wins and failures. The Ukrainian Government was able to approve important reforms, which was still not sufficient to receive scheduled assistance from the IMF and the EU. 2018 will be tough as Ukraine should make large progress in many areas, while the 2019 elections are approaching.

On December 7, 2017, the Ukrainian Parliament had the day of Budget-2018. During one day, the Verkhovna Rada amended the Budget Code and Tax Code, as well as adopted the State Budget Law for 2018. The decisions were taken in a very non-transparent way with changes approved from the voice.

With several policy proposals on introducing a progressive taxation model put on the table, the upcoming parliamentary session in Lithuania is sure to become a heavily debated one. In fact, every tenth taxpayer is threatened with higher tax burden as personal income tax might increase from a flat 15%up to 20%.