China Protects Sudan from Sanctions

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 5/31/2007 03:19:00 AM
To America’s chagrin, China has taken a realpolitik stance towards the task of securing resources needed by its fast-growing economy by cultivating ties with states that America has iffy relations with. In line with its professed policy of non-intervention in other states’ domestic affairs, China makes for a desirable partner for these African, Asian, and Latin American states by making no demands for political transparency, economic reform, or human rights; providing markets for their raw materials; and supplying investment, trade, training, and weapons. Last but not least, China is also there to water down UN sanctions...
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"Al Qaeda Strikes Back"

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/31/2007 03:07:00 AM
In the current issue of Foreign Affairs, the Brookings Institution's Bruce Reidel warns of a resurgent Al Qaeda that may be planning yet another attack on the United States after focusing its attention on Iraq and elsewhere in recent years.Summary: By rushing into Iraq instead of finishing off the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Washington has unwittingly helped its enemies: al Qaeda has more bases, more partners, and more followers today than it did on the eve of 9/11. Now the group is working to set up networks in the Middle East and Africa -- and may even try to lure the United States into a war with Iran. Washington must focus on attacking al Qaeda's leaders and ideas and altering the local conditions in which they thrive.A FIERCER FOEAl Qaeda is a more dangerous enemy today than it has ever been before. It has suffered some setbacks since September 11, 2001: losing its state within a state in Afghanistan, having several of its top operatives killed, failing in its attempts...
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Viewpoints on BMW Buying Volvo

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/31/2007 02:38:00 AM
The rumor mill is working overtime in this time of merger mania that BMW is in talks to purchase Volvo from Ford. If you will remember, Ford is in dire financial straits and has already sold Aston Martin to David Richards of Prodrive. Will Volvo be next on the auction block? BMW has denied that it is interested. We'll see if this is so. BMW did not have so much luck with its previous acquisition of MG Rover, so this new rumored deal leaves some scratching their heads in wonderment. From MarketWatch:"I don't really think it's a good fit," said David Healy, an auto analyst at Burnham Securities commenting Tuesday on reports...
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Huh? The Cold War is Over?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 5/30/2007 04:54:00 AM
The increasing hostility of Vladimir Putin's Russia to just about everyone else has been widely noted. [WARNING: A lump of coal polonium might end up in your Christmas stocking for trumpeting this observation too loudly.] In any event, Putin is boasting about a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that can overcome the USA's proposed missile defense system, purportedly safeguarding against an Iranian attack. Put it down to another cockamamie military-industrial complex scheme to get more defense spending, but Russia is taking it seriously enough--as if the Cold War never ended. With Russia's massive export receipts...
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China's Latest Market Cooling Effort

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 5/30/2007 04:39:00 AM
With a price-to-earnings ratio of 48, valuations of Chinese stocks are becoming more unrealistic than reality show TV. With that in mind, the government has tried various measures to curb speculation such as raising interest rates and reserve requirements, to no avail so far. Its latest effort involves raising taxes on stock transactions threefold:China's stocks dropped from a record after the government tripled the tax on securities transactions, halting a rally that's made the shares Asia's most expensive. The CSI 300 Index fell 110.61, or 2.7 percent, to 4057.68 as of 10:30 a.m. in Shanghai, after initially tumbling as much as 6.3 percent. The measure has almost doubled this year, the best performance of 90 global benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg, as an influx of new investors stoked demand. China's brokerage accounts this week topped 100 million for the first time, according to the China Securities Depository & Clearing Corp. Stamp duty...
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Bob Zoellick: Next Neocon WB Chief?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/30/2007 12:04:00 AM
When I last talked about the matter of possible neoconservative-leaning World Bank heads, I ended with this: Who's next from these guys? Ahmed Chalabi for World Bank chief? My wish list for the next World Bank chief was simple: First, s/he should not be a neoconservative. Second, s/he should have previous experience with development. Your faithful correspondent thought he was being crafty with suggesting that the next nominee would be another neoconservative, but it turns out that the next nominee from Bush isn't far away from the neocon creed [sigh]. I greatly regret having raised the possibility [a thousand lashes onto me]....
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Military-Industrial Complex & China

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/29/2007 01:17:00 AM
The 2007 edition of the United States Department of Defense's Military Power of the People's Republic of China recently came out, and it once again raised concerns about China's growing military capabilities:China’s near-term focus on preparing for military contingencies in the Taiwan Strait, including the possibility of U.S. intervention, appears to be an important driver of its modernization plans. However, analysis of China’s military acquisitions and strategic thinking suggests Beijing is also generating capabilities for other regional contingencies, such as conflict over resources or territory.The pace and scope of China’s military transformation has increased in recent years, fueled by continued high rates of investment in its domestic defense and science and technology industries, acquisition of advanced foreign weapons, and far reaching reforms of the armed forces. The expanding military capabilities of China’s armed forces are a major factor in changing East Asian military...
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The Competition State circa 2007

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/29/2007 12:21:00 AM
Just out is Swiss business school IMD's World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) 2007. It brings to mind exactly what Paul Krugman wrote about a few years back in "Competitiveness: A Dangerous Obsession." Here's a Krugman excerpt, though you can read the whole thing online:After all, the rhetoric of competitiveness -- the view that, in the words of President Clinton, each nation is "like a big corporation competing in the global marketplace" -- has become pervasive among opinion leaders throughout the world. People who believe themselves to be sophisticated about the subject take it for granted that the economic problem facing...
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London Cab: Made in China

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/28/2007 11:56:00 PM
Pretty much everything is "Made in China" nowadays, so I suppose this was inevitable: The London Cab has moved production to the Middle Kingdom. That ubiquitous symbol of Britishness has been sold to Geely, a Chinese automaker keen on spearheading the Chinese automakers' charge into overseas markets. But first these cabs will be sold in domestic Chinese markets as taxis and--get this--luxury cars. ("OK kids, it's down to either the urbane E-Class, stylish 5-Series, or hulking London Cab.") It lends a whole new meaning to "giving the family a lift." From Reuters:London's iconic cabs will soon be picking up fares on the streets...
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Wolfowitz on BBC Radio Four

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/28/2007 09:00:00 PM
I sincerely hope that this is the last Wolfowitz post I will ever have to make. Somehow, though, I think this guy won't be taking it easy with a well-deserved retirement sipping pina coladas in the Bahamas. BBC Radio Four interviewed Wolfowitz today. This clip is in RealPlayer format. Wolfowitz's bottom line: it's the media's fault, and the World Bank's as well. He takes umbrage to the interviewer's line of questioning as one would expect. After the interview, Kiwi economist Robert Wade offers his afterthoughts on the matter. Perhaps surprisingly, Wade is somewhat sympathetic to Wolfowitz, particularly his perceived "passion"...
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The Reinvention of Singapore

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/28/2007 03:19:00 AM
Singapore fears that it may be losing its attractiveness as a destination for highly-skilled global knowledge workers by remaining a dowdy place where sticking chewing gum is a punishable offense. Accordingly, it has tried to become more bling by inviting two large casino operators to set up shop. Also, it has loosened immigration restrictions as birth rates in the city-state fall. Give me your smart, your rich, your Gucci-shod emigres, etc. This article from TIME has the scoop on Singapore's remaking into Las Vegas via Silicon Valley via Monaco of the Orient:There was something a bit unusual about Lee Kuan Yew's annual Chinese...
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John Bolton for World Bank Chief

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/28/2007 02:25:00 AM
Well, not really. However, Kevin Hassett of the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) suggests in a Bloomberg op-ed that another Wolfowitz-lite persona would best serve as the United States' next nominee for World Bank head honcho. Remember when Bolton said that the top ten floors of the UN could be blown away and no one could tell the difference? Hassett says that blowing away the entire World Bank could be done and no one would care. Talk about the World Bank having enemies (on the political) Left and Right.The complaints Hassett makes are boilerplate neoconservative stuff: the World Bank is a waste of money,...
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Quantifying International Migration

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/28/2007 02:10:00 AM
Have I got a paper for you migration aficionados, data freaks, and completists. Migration data is spotty on source and destination countries as well as the number of persons involved because there is no standardized worldwide system for recording and classifying migration (though there should be one, it goes without saying). However, this almost heroic paper attempts to collate as much data as possible. Whatever has been left uncollected has been subject to advanced missing data techniques to provide perhaps the most comprehensive picture yet on global migration patterns. The paper is available for download in its entirety from the Social Science Research Netrwork (SSRN):CHRISTOPHER R. PARSONS Affiliation UnknownRONALD SKELDON University of SussexTERRIE LOUISE WALMSLEY Purdue University - Center for Global Trade AnalysisL. ALAN WINTERS World Bank - Department Research Group (DECRG); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ...
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Pesticide Case Comes to the US

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/27/2007 01:02:00 AM
The longstanding controversy over Central American workers who claim to have been affected by the use of the pesticide DBCP is coming to the United States. The companies involved have settled some cases abroad, although this is the first time the matter is being contested Stateside. One of the accusations is that the chemical has resulted in male impotence among field workers. From the LA Times:After years of toil in Central American fields where they say pesticide use made them sterile, they're suing Dow, Dole and other firms in L.A. — The people crammed into the stifling basketball gym. They filled the court, lined the walls and tumbled beyond the doors onto the sun-blistered streets.They had gathered to hear a promise of justice.Many had spent their lives toiling on banana plantations that U.S. companies operated in this region some 30 years ago. By day, the workers had harvested bunches of fruit to ship to North American tables. At night, some had sprayed pesticide into the...
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India's Chronic Power Shortages

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/27/2007 12:55:00 AM
Bloomberg's Andy Mukherjee has more on the challenges facing India's dilapidated power generation infrastructure as summer rolls in and demand for air-conditioning stretches power availability:In most Indian cities, being middle- class means owning your own power company. As summer temperatures approach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), energy demand from electric fans and air- conditioners is putting stretched utilities under stress. Against a peak demand of 104,000 megawatts last month, supply was 90,000 megawatts. That's a shortfall of 14 percent. Rationing of power, which goes on throughout the year, becomes unbearable during the summer months. People resign themselves to blackouts that sometimes last all day, even longer if overburdened cables burn or aging transformers collapse. Households and businesses create their own electricity by burning diesel in noisy, inefficient, polluting generator...
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The Safety of Chinese Consumables

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/27/2007 12:41:00 AM
As the world comes to rely more on consumer goods coming out of China, concerns are rising that Chinese quick-buck artists are scamming these goods by including unsafe chemicals as substitutes. Witness the 41 deaths that occurred in Panama due to tainted cough syrup traced to China. Now, the resource-strapped US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has troubles of its own in monitoring Chinese products of this ilk. China leads the FDA import refusal list by a wide margin: Toothpaste from China is the latest official worry. This week, the Food and Drug Administration began testing it at U.S. ports of entry after contaminated Chinese toothpaste began showing up in other countries. It contained a chemical used in antifreeze — the same chemical that killed people in Panama last year when it turned up in cough syrup, mislabeled by Chinese manufacturers as a harmless sweetener. An FDA spokesman says no test results are available yet on the toothpaste at U.S. ports. ...
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Neoliberalism and Income Mobility

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/26/2007 04:22:00 AM
The US and the UK are supposed to be countries following an "Anglo-Saxon" or "neoliberal" economic model. According to this model, the gap between the haves and have-nots is tolerable for it rewards those who work hard enough with upward mobility. As Margaret Thatcher famously said, "It is our job to glory in inequality and see that talents and abilities are given vent and expression for the benefit of us all." But, the evidence suggests this is not so. The US has the highest Gini (inequality) coefficient of all OECD countries, while the UK has the highest for Western European countries. So far, there's no surprise. Worse...
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Fallujah Lynchings Revisited

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 5/26/2007 04:03:00 AM
The image of four lifeless private security contractors hanging from a bridge in Fallujah remains one of the signature images of the Iraq conflict, along with those from Abu Ghraib and "Mission Accomplished." The controversial role of these soldiers of fortune from firms like Blackwater, Titan, and CACI has been explored in the documentary "Iraq for Sale" as well as the book "Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror." When you sign up to work for these firms for a fat paycheck, your life is obviously at risk. However, the families of the four contractors hanged in Fallujah beg to differ as they have filed a case on...
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China Lays Out NGO Welcome Mat

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 5/26/2007 03:52:00 AM
A widely-held view is that NGOs start becoming popular when and where governments or markets are unable to provide for people's needs. If so, this may not so such a good sign as China encourages more NGOs to operate there--as long they don't have political aspirations, that is. No Falun Gong folks should apply. Take a look at this table of civil disturbances in China over the years, then read the story about China encouraging more NGOs to operate in the country. I suspect these two stories are related. Got social problems? Let those NGOs take care of them: China will revise laws and policies to encourage the development of...
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