编号 4 (2023)

The article aims to show economic development in the USA after two years of presidency of J. Biden. The author shows major indicators of macroeconomic situation in 2022, gives estimations for 2023 and foreseeable future. Real GDP increased by 2.1% and accounted for 25.5 trln dollars. The economic growth reflected growth of consumer expenditures, growth of exports, of private investments including fixed capital. On the other side the problem of inflation is exacerbated, the consumer price index increased up to 10% in the middle of the year, reaching the average level of 6.2% in 2022. Since the second part of the year the inflation began to slow down. The level of unemployment remains unprecedentedly low - at 3.6%. The consequences of government economic policy showed positive direction. The federal budget deficit decreased to 5.5% of GDP, mostly because of measures taken by the Federal Reserve. The inflation seems to have a stable downward trend. In August 2022 the Congress passed a law “Inflation Reduction Act”. Most forecasts for 2023 don’t expect a new recession in 2023, though the GDP growth rates will go down significantly - to 0.8-1.0%. The inflation will go down as well, the unemployment remains on a level less than 4%.

Unlike the administration of President Donald Trump, who by his nature paid little heed to the assessments of think tank experts, Joseph Biden’s White House has given more attention to the opinions of independent analysts. The conflict in Ukraine has become one of the main discussion topics for American think tanks, and experts are divided. But all the while, the quality of expertise has been diluted because of the influence of special interest groups and lobbyists. Reforms of some sort are needed. This article examines the evolution of the US policy expert community under Biden and its prospects for reform.

The phenomenon of transfer pricing is becoming more widespread in the largest companies in different countries. However, for the first time it began to be implemented in American concerns at the beginning of the last century. The usual market mechanism was not suitable for intra-company management, which had to solve the tasks of ensuring the smooth functioning of huge corporate complexes, including many links. Nowadays, in the context of the globalization of the world economy, transnational companies have acquired great importance, within which goods and services move across the borders of all countries of the world. Therefore, transfer prices have acquired an international character and international control over their application was required to take into account the national interests of each state. In this regard, official UN and OECD documents have been issued, the tax and antimonopoly legislation of the EU and individual countries. The introduction of digital technologies has had a significant impact on the transfer pricing mechanism in the United States, in other countries and worldwide. The digital revolution has not changed the nature of transfer prices, but has expanded their functions and scope. These issues are the subject of this article

American efforts to prevent the creation of nuclear weapons by Iran from the 1950s to the present are analyzed. The development of the Iranian nuclear weapons crisis is assessed in its historical context: from the concept of Iran's nuclear program under the Shah to the achievement of a threshold level in the creation of nuclear weapons today. It is emphasized that during the years of allied relations with the Shah's Iran, Washington downplayed the role of non-proliferation. It is substantiated that after the victory of the 1979 Revolution, American policy was mainly focused not on the legal and technical aspects of the nonproliferation process, but on the desire to use criticism of the Iranian nuclear program to isolate Iran and achieve a change in the country's ruling religious leadership. It is substantiated that the sanctions did not force Tehran to abandon nuclear research, but only slowed down the pace of development of the Iranian nuclear weapons program. It is shown that President Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the JCPOA in 2018 is a sabotage of nuclear non-proliferation, by early 2023 Iran has become much closer to creating nuclear weapons. It is assumed that Tehran could develop nuclear weapons in just a few months if it chooses to do so.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of Charles III to the throne have revived the debate about the future of the monarchy in Canada. Nationwide opinion polls show that the popularity of this institution is steadily declining and citizens, especially young people, feel growing indifference and alienation towards it. The troublemaker is the French-speaking Québec whose inhabitants have not forgotten how New France was conquered by the British in 1763. Although, unlike some other Commonwealth realms, there is currently nothing directly threatening the monarchy in Canada, supporters and opponents of this form of government have already formulated their arguments and exchanged the first salvos of upcoming political battles.

The article presents the results of a study of the achieved effect of reducing CO₂ emissions when replacing coal and oil with wind and solar energy. The concept of determining the achieved savings developed by the author is described in detail. The author's methodology and step-by-step calculations with comments are presented. The calculations are based on the actual amount of the fee for CO₂ emissions, taking into account the damage caused, the number of people saved from premature death due to CO₂ emissions, the economic cost of living determined by the World Bank for Canada, health care costs due to concomitant diseases, the social discount rate. This makes it possible for the first time to determine the real socio-economic effect of replacing fossil energy sources with cleaner energy carriers. Generation prices are compared. An argument is presented that refutes the arguments about the increase in costs in the economy, which may occur due to an increase in fees for harmful CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere. Taking into account the economic cost of life, health care costs, social discount rates, carbon charges in Canada, it was possible to prevent the premature death of 11,307 people in six years, i.e. more than 5 people per 10 thousand inhabitants of the country. The total savings of the resources under consideration during this period amounted to almost 122 billion USD. In the conditions of the energy crisis, coal mines were partially deconserved to temporarily replace less carbon-intensive natural gas at power plants. I believe that this is a temporary and forced measure, associated with negative environmental consequences, which, of course, will lead to human and economic losses. The results obtained make it possible to establish more accurate benchmarks to justify the construction of wind and solar power plants, and to use hydrocarbon resources more efficiently.

Since the creating of steam engine, there has been a long tradition of regulating the use of technological innovation in society through legal methods and instruments. Government regulation can provide recognition for a particular technology, set standards that can help a technology be accepted by society, and define criteria under which the use of that technology is acceptable. Thus, regulation has a great influence on the development of innovations and the extent to which technologies are introduced into certain areas. Today, many states, like Russia, the United States of America, state-members of the European Union and many others are developing a mechanism for state regulating technological innovations, including artificial intelligence (called as AI). Artificial intelligence is the basis for many applications such as chatbots, smart assistants, and facial recognition devices. The last feature of AI causes the most controversy argues both in society and in the scientific community. The topic of privacy and protection of personal data especially raises very many questions.

Review on V.I. Zhuravleva's book "The Common Past of Russians and Americans: Lecture course/Trans. into English. J. Mackenzie. Moscow: RGGU, 2021. 618 p.