May 2012
3 posts
Reading your fortune
by Juan Gabriel Vásquez/ tr. Jeremy Osner __ Juan Gabriel Vásquez reflects on the continued prevalence of  sortes vergilianæ, a form of bibliomancy, or choosing a passage from a book at random in the belief that the verses one finds will describe one’s fate. __ [[MORE]] Last Tuesday, amid the closing gasps of the Feria del Libro, we were chatting with Conrado Zuluaga; Juan Esteban Constaín...
May 18th
Greece's Election and Its Aftermath
By Harris Mylonas and Akis Georgakellos. __ After Greece’s elections, everything suddenly looks very different. But it remains unclear whether anything much will actually change. [[MORE]]__ Greece’s elections last Sunday are a historic low for the country’s two traditionally dominant parties, PASOK and Nea Demokratia (ND), which have ruled the country since the collapse of the Junta in...
May 9th
2 notes
Has Russia Gone Back to Sleep?
By Georgy Satarov __ The widespread protests against electoral fraud and state malfeasance that spread throughout Russia nine months ago are largely over. However, Putin and his regime may be celebrating “stability” too early. Russian society has become a dry peat bog, waiting for a spark to ignite it.  [[MORE]]__ In just six months, from the end of September 2011 to March 2012,...
May 2nd
April 2012
2 posts
Europe's Implementation Problem
By Alex Gourevitch and Chris Bickerton __ The unravelling of political support for Eurozone agreements is not just a product of a far right surge across Europe.  Elite opinion lacks consensus on the modalities of austerity and the deficit-reduction assumptions of the EU’s fiscal compact, and national governments are finding it increasingly difficult to implement unpopular fiscal policies. ...
Apr 27th
The Challenge of Islamic Finance
By Andrew Sheng, Ajit Singh __ With Britain now in talks to sell part of the government’s 82% stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland to Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth funds, the Islamic world’s growing financial clout is once again on display. That clout also poses a systemic challenge to the dominant way that finance is now practiced around the world. [[MORE]] __ Despite skepticism regarding...
Apr 23rd
March 2012
2 posts
Shame
by Juan Gabriel Vásquez/tr. Jeremy Osner __ “War is hell,” said Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense in the Obama administration: he said it following the killing of 16 civilians, among them children, by a deranged sergeant in the Afghan province of Kandahar. This massacre  unleashed on the world a series of images that one cannot look at without being reminded of similar massacres from...
Mar 20th
Jeremy Lin and the Political Economy of Superstars
By Kenneth Rogoff __ High salaries for athletes and movie stars are easily accepted by the public. So why, if a financial trader or a corporate boss is paid a fortune, does the public suspect that he or she must be undeserving or, worse, a thief? __ The biggest news around Cambridge in recent weeks has been Jeremy Lin, the Harvard economics graduate who has shocked the National Basketball...
Mar 3rd
February 2012
8 posts
Weimar Europe?
By Harold James __ Germany’s position in Europe looks increasingly peculiar and vulnerable. In the chaos of German unification in 1990, when Germany’s neighbors were terrified of the new giant, then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl promised a European Germany, not a German Europe. Today, however, the terms of any European rescue effort are obviously set by Germany. __ There is widespread recognition...
Feb 26th
Too Big to Jail
By Simon Johnson __ Breaking an oath to tell the truth is perjury, and lying in official documents is both perjury and fraud. These are serious criminal offenses, but apparently not if you are at the heart of America’s financial system.  __ Among the fundamental principles of any functioning justice system is the following: Don’t lie to a judge or falsify documents submitted to a court, or...
Feb 23rd
Is the Web Closing?
By Esther Dyson __ Within the tech community, there is much angst about whether the Web is about to be “closed.” However,  the Web’s openness or closure is not a matter to be settled once and for all, but rather a fluctuating situation  __ Within the tech community, there is much angst about whether the Web is about to be “closed.” Will it be controlled by companies like Apple, Facebook, and...
Feb 21st
Bullies and their certainties
By Juan Gabriel Vásquez; translated by Jeremy Osner. __ After Salman Rushdie cancelled his trip to the Jaipur Literary Festival due to apparent death threats, a writer named Hari Kunzru downloaded passages of Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses, which is banned in India, and read them in public at the festival. While many disagreed with his actions, he did something important: he kept the...
Feb 19th
Nixon Then, China Now
By Minxin Pei __ Nixon himself was probably not bothered by the nature of the Chinese regime four decades ago. The fact that the question must be addressed now attests to China’s astonishing progress since then. But it also shows that China’s long march toward global integration remains unfinished. __ When US President Richard Nixon embarked on his historic trip to China 40 years ago, he...
Feb 14th
China’s Syrian Folly
By Steve Tsang __ A rising great power like China taking on a proactive global role is, in principle, a positive development. But the world will not be a better place if China’s newfound assertiveness is focused – or, just as importantly, is perceived to be focused – almost exclusively on helping autocrats to stay in power through brutal repression of their citizens. __ In vetoing the...
Feb 10th
Seizing Sustainable Development
By Jacob Zuma and Tarja Halonen __ The world is on an unsustainable path, and must urgently chart a new course forward, one that brings equity and environmental concerns into the economic mainstream. To do so, we must put sustainable development into practice now, not in spite of the economic crisis, but because of it. __ __ Our challenges today are many. Economies are teetering, ecosystems...
Feb 8th
The Decline of the West Revisited
By Schlomo Ben-Ami __ The West faces serious challenges – as it always has. But the values of human freedom and dignity that drive Western civilization remain the dream of the vast majority of humanity. __ __ Since the publication in 1918 of the first volume of Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West, prophecies about the inexorable doom of what he called the “Faustian Civilization” have...
Feb 3rd
January 2012
9 posts
Austerity vs. Europe
By Javier Solana __ Ominously, the same arguments that turned the 1929 financial crisis into the Great Depression are being used today in favor of austerity at all costs. We cannot allow history to repeat itself. __ It is now increasingly clear that what started in late 2008 is no ordinary economic slump. Almost four years after the beginning of the crisis, developed economies have not managed...
Jan 31st
2 notes
Latin America’s Stymied Innovators
By Andrés Velasco __ Latin America’s challenge is to transform its huge natural-resource wealth into the kind of wealth that does not run out, because it is constantly enlarged by human creativity.  The big question is how quickly its anti-innovation culture can change. __ First, there was one disappointed foreign entrepreneur. In December, Israeli venture capitalist Arnon Kohavi, whose...
Jan 29th
The Occupy Effect
By Alex Gourevitch and Chris Bickerton __ In an earlier post, we commented on the difficulty movements such as Occupy Wall Street or Indignados were having in influencing the course of electoral politics. That might all be changing. __ In an earlier post, we commented on the difficulty movements such as Occupy Wall Street or Indignados were having in influencing the course of electoral...
Jan 27th
Will Emerging Markets Fall in 2012?
By Jeffrey Frankel __ Emerging markets have performed amazingly well over the last seven years. As 2012 begins, however, investors are wondering if emerging markets may be due for a correction, triggered by a new wave of “risk off” behavior.  __ Emerging markets have performed amazingly well over the last seven years. In many cases, they have far outperformed the advanced industrialized...
Jan 23rd
Does Debt Matter?
By Robert Skidelsky __ As with “the specter of Communism” that haunted Europe in Karl Marx’s famous manifesto, so today “[a]ll the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise” the specter of national debt. But statesmen who aim to liquidate the debt should recall another famous specter – the specter of revolution. __ Europe is now haunted by the specter of debt. All...
Jan 22nd
Does Austerity Promote Economic Growth?
By Robert J. Shiller __ Policymakers cannot afford to wait decades for economists to figure out a definitive answer, which may never be found at all. But, judging by the evidence that we have, austerity programs in Europe and elsewhere appear likely to yield disappointing results. __ In his classic Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits (1724), Bernard Mandeville, the...
Jan 19th
The Unholy Alliance of Monetary Expansion and...
By Alex Gourevitch and Chris Bickerton __ While the credit crunch was supposed to have discredited economic orthodoxy, in fact it seems to have created the conditions for its consolidation. The result: easier money for those who have, less for those who don’t. __ Anyone observing the course of macro-economic policy in industrial countries over the past few years cannot help but notice an...
Jan 17th
Why Development Aid is Not Enough
By Erik Solheim __ We must be careful not to fool ourselves into believing that the MDGs can be achieved through development aid alone. The wider politics of poverty must be placed at the top of the international agenda, along with the three factors most critical to development: climate, conflict, and capital. __ Poverty is not only about not having enough money. It is also about...
Jan 12th
North Korea's Tears
By Ian Buruma __ How can we explain North Korea’s dramatic public outpouring of grief a the death of its brutal dictator Kim Jong-il? Is it mass-delusion, or a ritual of collective masochism, or perhaps a traditional Korean way of expressing grief ginned up with fear and propaganda? The answer may be even more complex. __ Can an entire people go mad? Sometimes it certainly seems so. ...
Jan 4th
1 note
December 2011
8 posts
Pakistan on the Precipice
By Shahid Javed Burki __ Political change in Pakistan is assured, but it will come about in a way that cannot be foreseen. The Arab Spring, America’s declining influence in the Muslim world, and citizens’ determination to be heard have combined to create an environment in which the unprecedented and the unpredictable are the only certainties. __ Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari...
Dec 30th
Sturm und Draghi
By Alex Gourevitch and Chris Bickerton __ The European Central Bank’s new president, Mario Draghi, says  he is holding back funds earmarked to prop up ailing European banks in order to follow existing EU treaty law. In reality, he is working to inscribe the logic of constraint and lowered expectations into the new supranational and by extension national political institutions. __ The...
Dec 28th
The Power of Living in Truth
By Jeffrey D. Sachs __ The world’s greatest shortage is not of oil, clean water, or food, but of moral leadership.  So let us pause to express gratitude to Václav Havel, who died this month, for enabling a generation to gain the chance to live in truth. __ The world’s greatest shortage is not of oil, clean water, or food, but of moral leadership. With a commitment to truth – scientific,...
Dec 23rd
Disaster Can Wait
By Barry Eichengreen __ Nowadays there is no shortage of pundits, economic or otherwise, warning of impending disaster. My view is different: 2012 will not be a year of crisis, but nor will it bring an end to our current economic troubles. Rather, it will be a year of muddling through. __ Nowadays there is no shortage of pundits, economic or otherwise, warning of impending disaster. If...
Dec 11th
Inequality of What?
By Alex Gourevitch and Chris Bickerton __ Despite the traditional liberal focus on inequality of income,  at the level of the firm, the state, and ruling ideology, the key inequality has been an inequality of class power, not just earning potential. That, in the end, is the inequality that matters. __ In a recent post, Jared Bernstein discussed asked ‘Inequality: why now? .’ Among his answers...
Dec 9th
4 notes
Is Modern Capitalism Sustainable?
By Kenneth Rogoff __ For now, as fashionable as the topic of capitalism’s demise might be, the possibility seems remote. Nevertheless, as pollution, financial instability, health problems, and inequality continue to grow, and as political systems remain paralyzed, capitalism’s future might not seem so secure in a few decades as it seems now. __ I am often asked if the recent global...
Dec 6th
1 note
Where next for the Eurozone?
By Alex Gourevitch and Chris Bickerton.  __ The Euro’s collapse isn’t very likely at all, and recent events have made it even less probable. The most important question arising from the present crisis is not whether the Euro will disappear, but how  crisis might transform the Eurozone. __ There has been a lot of talk in recent days about the imminent collapse of the Euro. Some have...
Dec 5th
More Unequal than Others
By Pranab Bardhan __ If India and the US move towards overcoming the most pervasive inequality of all, economic inequality, they will reinvigorate their democracies – and their economies. __ Inequality is on the public’s mind almost everywhere nowadays. Indeed, in the world’s two largest democracies, India and the United States, widespread popular movements against rising inequality and...
Dec 2nd
November 2011
11 posts
Interview with Arthur Goldhammer
By Alex Gourevitch and Chris  Bickerton, with Arthur Goldhammer __ In this interview, writer and translator Arthur Goldhammer elaborates his views on both the US and European dimensions of the recent financial crisis.   __ What are the stories right now that you think people either aren’t paying enough attention to, or about which we have the wrong view? I think we need to pay more...
Nov 29th
Re-Orienting America
By Richard N. Haas __ Regardless of whether the twenty-first century will be another “American century,” it is certain that it will be an Asian and Pacific century. It is both natural and sensible that the US be central to whatever evolves from that fact. __ Some 40 years ago, when I entered Oxford University as a graduate student, I declared my interest in the Middle East. I was told that...
Nov 17th
The Limits of Home Ownership
By Alex Gourevitch and Chris Bickerton __ Our frequent conflation of housing  with home ownership stems from the settler ideal that free people should secure their economic independence by owning productive property. However, industrial capitalism has disconnected home ownership from the economic freedom of control over work. The present crisis is an opportunity to rethink the ideal of home...
Nov 13th
2 notes
The Crisis of Privatized Keynesianism
By Alex Gourevitch and Chris Bickerton __ The current economic crisis is the result of a narrowing social contract which has transformed many rights into privileges accorded only to those daring enough to take on debt. Solutions the present lie not in financial reforms, but in a elaboration of a new social model based more on rights than on debt-funded privileges. __ A contributor to The...
Nov 8th
3 notes
The Revolt of the Debtors
By Daniel Gros __ Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s call to hold a referendum on the rescue package agreed at the eurozone summit in late October has profound implications for European governance. It may also determine the future of the euro. __ Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s call to hold a referendum on the rescue package agreed at the eurozone summit in late October...
Nov 4th
1 note
The Education Solution
By Mahmoud Mohieldin __ The global challenges that we face today are proof that we need a world of problem solvers, people who are productive, resilient, creative, and versatile enough with technology and culture to find solutions to the many challenges we face. Education,  and particularly well-wrought education systems, helps to build that world. __ The world is assailed by problems that ...
Nov 4th
2 notes
Greece’s Referendum is a Good Thing
By Chris Bickerton __ A Greek referendum represents a welcome opportunity to clarify exactly what is at stake in the resolution of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis. It may also serve as a lightening rod for the debate about where the burden of adjustment for the current crisis should lie. __ News from Athens that the government will hold a referendum on the EU and IMF austerity package has...
Nov 2nd
1 note
Obama and Asia’s Two Futures
By Yuriko Koike __ Asia’s choice is clear: either the region embraces a multilateral structure of peace, or it will find itself constrained by a system of strategic military alliances. In the upcoming Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Hawaii, Obama and the other assembled Asian leaders – particularly the Chinese – must begin to choose between these two Asian futures.  __ Despite the...
Nov 2nd
1 note
Debt, Rights and Social Goods
By Alex Gourevitch and Chris Bickerton __ While the previous decade has been represented as a debt-financed spending binge of consumers living well-beyond their means, this turns a complex story into a morality play. Debt-financed consumption was a response to the declining ability of most households to afford consumption levels in a  society where debts, rather than rights, are the major means...
Nov 2nd
1 note
China’s Trouble with the Neighbors
By Zhu Feng __ It is increasingly clear that China’s neighbors will not be reliably good to Chinese interests unless and until China begins to provide essential public goods – not just commerce, but also full-fledged regional governance based on the rule of law, respect for human rights, and regional economic growth. __ China’s “good neighbor” policy is under unprecedented pressure; indeed,...
Nov 2nd
1 note
Is Greece being Reckless or Bold?
By Thomas Meaney and Harris Mylonas __ Greece’s decision to hold a referendum on the Europoean bailout plan has global markets in jitters. But was Prime Minister Papandreou’s shock decision a necessary risk? __ Call it reckless, call it bold, but the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, has attempted to transform a referendum on the European Union bailout plan for Greece into...
Nov 2nd
October 2011
10 posts
A Nation of Vidiots
By Jeffrey D. Sachs __ The past half-century has been the age of electronic mass media. Television has reshaped society in every corner of the world. Now an explosion of new media devices is joining the TV set, and a growing body of evidence suggests that this media proliferation has countless ill effects. __ The past half-century has been the age of electronic mass media. Television has...
Oct 28th
6 notes
Relying on the ECB
By Alex Gourevitch and Chris Bickerton __ Greek economist Yannis Varoufakis makes a compelling argument that the European Financial Stability Facility cannot satisfy the demands of creditors in the ongoing Eurozone crisis. However, Varoufakis’s suggestions rely heavily upon the European Central Bank, ignoring a principal feature of the crisis: the way in which political constraints are...
Oct 27th
1 note
The Responsibility to Protect Comes of Age
By Gareth Evens __ The course of history has seen a dramatic decline in both domestic and international violence. Similarly, while obvious challenges remain, the promulgation and growing acceptance of a Responsibility to Protect justifies hope for continued progress in responding to genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other mass-atrocity crimes.  Good news not only sells less well than bad news,...
Oct 27th
1 note
Regulation, Discretion, Democracy
By Alex Gourevitch and Chris Bickerton __ Amidst the endless debates about discretionary executive power and democratic representation, it is easy to lose sight of a critical related issue: the power wielded by non-elected officials. Shaping the exercise of that power - so easily captured by those better able, and better financed, to operate in the halls of power - is one of the singular tasks...
Oct 25th
1 note
Protests and Representative Politics: Like Ships...
By Alex Gourevitch and Chris Bickerton __ Will the protests currently sweeping the globe eventually help reshape the world of representative politics, or will they crystallize into a form of anti-politics? The results at present are mixed.  __ The Current Moment watched this weekend as a desultory Occupation/We are the 99% demonstration marched past on Amsterdam’s Rokin Avenue. The numbers were...
Oct 25th
The Language of Global Protest
 By Jan-Werner Mueller __ The protest movements that have flared up across the West are not so much demonstrating against those in power as demonstrating to them a sense of moral indignation. Elites and fellow citizens must respond to this indignation conscientiously and creatively.  __ The protest movements that have flared up across the West, from Chile to Germany, have remained curiously...
Oct 25th
1 note
Political Deleveraging and Our Hapless Ruling...
By Alex Gourevitch and Chris Bickerton. __ The implicit social contract of the post-Cold War period has been uninterrupted debt-financed consumption. Now that the political debt of the last twenty years is being called in, our leaders seem incapable of adjusting.  __ Europe is leaderless. Its major figures cannot agree amongst a very narrow range of options to resolve a looming banking...
Oct 21st
1 note