Fast Thinking

FAST THINKING: What’s Iran thinking?

By Atlantic Council

Tehran seized a South Korean tanker while also announcing that it had begun increasing its uranium enrichment levels to 20 percent. Why?

FAST THINKING: There’s finally a Brexit deal. Now what?

By Atlantic Council

Four years of negotiations. Much political acrimony. The fall and rise (and fall and rise) of British premiers. Through it all, a British public wondering what their future would look like and when they could finally move on from their limbo. A Brexit trade deal is here at last. How should we feel?

FAST THINKING: Will a Brexit deal be home for Christmas?

By Atlantic Council

The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator said yesterday that a trade deal could come before Christmas. That would be quite the gift for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who faces the prospect of his country “crashing out” of its old trading arrangements with the EU.

Can Bibi and Biden get along?

Few world leaders have been as close to Donald Trump as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has pushed policies—from suspected covert attacks against Iran to expanded settlements in the West Bank—that will likely antagonize the US president-elect.

How the Federal Reserve just set the terms for the 2021 recovery

This year was perhaps the most ambitious in the history of the US Federal Reserve. To weather the financial effects of the pandemic, the Fed kept interest rates low and injected an unprecedented amount of funds into the economy.

FAST THINKING: The Fed caps its most important year ever

By Atlantic Council

The Fed increased QE to unprecedented levels to keep financial fallout from the pandemic at bay. That, combined with the Fed’s move to lower its benchmark interest rate to zero, made this the most important year in the history of US monetary policy.

FAST THINKING: Why the new Russian hacks are a game-changer

By Atlantic Council

The bad news keeps coming about the scope of a suspected Russian hack: The US Department of Homeland Security was compromised, in addition to the State, Treasury, and Commerce Departments and parts of the Pentagon. What’s going on?

Why Biden’s agriculture Secretary will matter

The Atlantic Council’s Claire Branley and David Bray break down what to expect from Biden’s pick—and how tech and big data can usher in the next agricultural revolution.

FAST THINKING: Get up to speed on India’s new mass protests

By Atlantic Council

Mass protests led by Indian farmers are presenting perhaps the greatest challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to date. The protests have drawn in supporters from across Indian society, as farmers vow to dig in outside the capital for months. Why is the new movement so powerful—and how will Modi respond?

Biden’s Susan Rice pick shows how domestic policy is becoming international

President-elect Biden has named one of America’s leading foreign-affairs veterans to a surprising position: as a top advisor on domestic policy.