As the BRICS prepare to launch the New Development Bank, Fernando Menéndez explores the political and economic factors motivating its creation and what it might imply for Latin America.

With the launch of the New Development Bank, Curtis S. Chin provides four recommendations the BRICS should consider when creating the international financial institution.

The most recent BRICS summit was noteworthy for generating the first concrete collective initiatives in the group’s history. Whereas the BRICS past meetings and had yielded mostly joint declarations, the July 15 summit in Brazil saw them launch two high-profile financial initiatives. Perhaps even more important, they seem prepared to undertake other collective projects in the energy and nonproliferation realms.

Making progress on a China-U.S. bilateral investment treaty is difficult. There are a variety of economic and political factors that could create setbacks, but both sides need to make a concerted effort to overcome these challenges because concluding an agreement would be in the interests of both parties and the world at large.

No sooner had the dust settled from the World Cup than Brazil played host to the five leaders of the BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. An immediate outcome of the Fortaleza summit was the formation of the New Development Bank, a development finance institution to rival the World Bank. The group also announced a currency reserve pool as an alternative to the IMF. Done right, both initiatives could change the institutional landscape for multilateral development financing.

As China seeks to deepen ties with Israel it also needs to balance inherent contradictions of the relationship. While the defence industry was once the cornerstone of Sino-Israeli relations, Washington’s objections have limited relations. Still, commercial and trade links are set to expand between Israel and China, raising interesting policy implications for China, Israel, and the US.

By initiating the AIIB, China demonstrates its willingness and capability to provide more public goods to the international community, writes Wu Zhenglong.

Qi Jingmei reports that China’s economy is expected to continue grow in the second half of the year, possibility reaching the full year GDP target of 7.5%. Jingmei remarks on the “favorable factors” of economic growth- citing global economic recovery and central government policies, as two ways to stabilize and promote Chinese economy.

In the wake of the news that China’s economy grew 7.5% in Q2, Gordon Chang throws up the warning flags and argues that there exists a very real threat of a “Minsky moment” for China. Additionally, Chang states that the Chinese economy will more than likely continue to expand in the future, but this is not a positive sign.

After the 6th S&ED, both China and the Unites States are striving to intensify the Bilateral Investment Treaty negotiations. He Weiwen discusses the urgency for both sides to agree on the core issues and articles by the end of 2014 in order to promote consumer welfare and economic efficiency.