Today we live in a post-truth and highly digitalized era characterized by a flow of (mis-) information around the world. Identifying the impact of this information on stock markets and forecasting stock returns and volatilities has become a much more difficult task, perhaps almost impossible....

This article argues that the global financial crisis has weakened institutional support for financial liberalization in regional trade agreements and increased transaction costs in the financial services sector. Due to the lack of cooperation among international economic organizations, regional...