Are we really to believe that the biggest worry that China have in all this is that the value of the medals will be devalued? Really? Seriously? That’s the biggest threat that we have over them.
“China’s big party may be a damp squib. Beyond that, it risks foreign governments leading a sporting boycott, devaluing all those medals its athletes will win.”
Tibet and the Beijing Olympics | A sporting chance | Economist.com
“American’s are starting to ask: for all of this investment, how do I benefit? How does it help me put food on the table, heat my home, or send my kids to college?” John Robb’s Weblog: The Cost of War debate
For most of my life American foreign policy has claimed that Europeans are “soft”. They didn’t have massive armies, refused to support American actions overseas and spent all their time negotiating.
Now the rules have changed for the last superpower will they become more “European”?
Of course, European in this context is the wrong label; Japan, China, Russia, Brazil and many others all act this way. Will the US have to do the same?
This sounds good and sensible, the country is booming so they’re investing at the bottom. Fantastic.
“The Indian government is to cancel the entire debt of the country’s small farmers in a giant scheme that will cost 600bn rupees ($15bn; £7.6bn).The move is a centrepiece of India’s latest budget, with the government also increasing education spending by 20% and health funding by 15%.”
The next paragraph states…
“Widely seen as a populist budget ahead of elections due by May 2009, Delhi has also pledged to control food prices.”
A “populist budget”, imagine that; politicians trying to keep the majority of people happy. Maybe they could try that radical idea outside of India!
I’ve bored most people that I know about this by now. If I haven’t, let John Robb do it for me…
“If we think in terms of how rewards/resources are allocated if the global economy operates as a single entity and not many loosely joined parts… then the vast majority of US workers will soon find their wages/salaries normalized to global standards (to those with similar skills etc.). The result will be that the US, as collection of citizens will get poorer (or at best tread water until everyone else keeps up)”.
John Robb’s Weblog: Differentiation and competitive advantage
This is the biggest political challenge of our time. Until everyone is on the same level playing field (and has earnings directly related to their skills and not their birth place, inheritance, color or sex) those of us in the developed world are going to feel the heat.
However, I don’t personally know why we shouldn’t feel the heat. Morally, how can I say that I should be protected because of my place of birth etc.? We’re all human and all deserve the same chance.
Watching Jeremy Clarkson is often like watching a small child. He loves explaining to the world how stupid everyone but Jeremy Clarkson is; that he writes for The Sun just confirms the worst opinions of him.He’s often right but far, far, far more often he’s wrong. Just to prove how clever he was he printed his bank account details in The Sun…
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Clarkson stung after bank prank
Now he’s got a £500 bank transfer on his account. What’s surprising is that is all he seems to have; even better it’s to a charity. I can’t believe that he’s not been wiped out.
Maybe this will help people understand how serious data privacy is.
I was going to write a long post about it; then John Robb did it for me…
John Robb’s Weblog: Interesting NH primary thoughts
I actually said before Christmas that Obama would be the candidate and that he’d loose the general election. I think that most of the press are under-estimating the hill that the Dems have to climb. Nobody saw a massive Bush victory in 2004 and yet that is what they got.
I left the UK 12 years ago and haven’t looked back. This rings so true…
Flushed with shame at Britain | Alice Miles – Times Online
In my experience whenever you point things like this out in the UK you get one of two responses…
– “Well, it would be worse in X country”
– “Well there is no other way of doing it”
The first response shows the slide towards the “you’re either with us or against us” nationalism of Fox News and the second shows a complete lack of fight or belief that they can or should push for change.
I have an old friend who often says”why don’t they just make it work?” about trains, the NHS and other problems. The toilets could be fixed if someone cared.
On a related point; I saw this yesterday…
“The unhappiest emigrants were in France, and the United States, with nearly 19 per cent and 14 per cent respectively disappointed with their new life.”
This is the unhappiest? I bet that more than 19% of people were unhappy with a move within the UK.
It’s all too easy to forget the progress of the last ten centuries…
The next ten years will run roughshod over the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the formation of American democracy, the printing press, interchangeable parts, division of labor, the end of slavery, nuclear technology, antiseptics, the theory of gravity, the theory of relativity, the rise of communism, two world wars, universal suffrage, landing on the moon, and the Internet.”
Political Polarization During the 2008 US Presidential Campaign
Now can we have the same for email addresses in corporate address books?
The FT predicts what will happen in 2008…
FT.com / Comment & analysis / Comment – President Clinton, Google grows, $100 oil, but no US recession – this is 2008
There are a couple of intersting comments; first Iraq…
Will Iraq disintegrate?
Iraq is a broken country – broken by dictatorship, war, invasion and occupation. For most practical purposes it already has disintegrated: it can no longer properly be considered a unitary state. The best hope is a weak central government whose primary role is to allocate oil revenue on an agreed basis.
That would require a broader rapprochement in the region between Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia (which is possible), and the US to bury the past and seek a diplomatic grand bargain with Tehran (which is not – at least in this last year of the Bush administration). David Gardner
Intersting that the obvious is now out in the open. Iraq no longer exists but we continue to pretend that it does.
Now to a good prediction on Sarko. The main reason that Sarko will survive is that he moves faster than the opposition can organize (he launches a debate, last nights was about the “politics of civilisation”, by the time that the opposition has decided what they think he’ll move to another subject) as long as he keeps that up he’ll survive.
Will Nicolas Sarkozy blow up?
Observing Nicolas Sarkozy governing France is a bit like watching a man striking matches in a warehouse full of fireworks: there is constant colour, noise and excitement but also a nagging fear that the whole thing might explode. His determination to reform the country’s rigid labour laws is the most likely spark. But the country’s civil service, universities and banlieues are also combustible. The French president’s impulsive foreign policy seems yet another accident foretold. That said, Mr Sarkozy has an instinctive understanding of his compatriots and a happy knack of skirting disaster. French voters elected him to change the country. He runs the most risks by taking none. There will be plenty of flashes in 2008, but none is likely to prove fatal. John Thornhill