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Ashoka Mody the Indian visiting Professor in International Economic Policy and former Deputy Director in the International Monetary Fund’s Research and European Departments, has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘Misreading the Global Economy’ in which he states “…Consider India, where growth is now running at an annualized rate of 4.5%, down from 7.7% annual growth in 2011. To be sure, the IMF projects that India’s economy will rebound later in 2013, but the basis for this optimism is unclear, given that all indicators so far suggest another dismal year. The emerging economies’ supposed resilience, which has buoyed economic forecasts in recent years, needs to be reassessed. Like the advanced economies, emerging economies experienced a boom in 2000-2007. But, unlike the advanced economies, they maintained high GDP growth rates and relative stability even at the height of the crisis. This was viewed as powerful evidence of their new economic might. In fact, it was largely a result of massive fiscal stimulus and credit expansion. Indeed, as the effects of stimulus programs wear off, new weaknesses are emerging, such as persistent inflation in India and credit misallocation in China. Given this, the notion that emerging economies will recapture the growth levels of the bubble years seems farfetched. Economic forecasts rest on the assumption that economies ultimately heal themselves. But economies’ powerful self-healing capabilities work slowly. More problematic, a misdiagnosis can lead to treatments that impair the healing process. Overly optimistic economic projections based on mistaken assessments of the global economy’s ailments thus threaten recovery prospects – with potentially far-reaching consequences. In Europe, the banks’ wounds must be closed – weak banks must be shut down or merged with stronger banks – before recovery can begin. This will require an extensive swap of private debts for equity. For the global economy, the malaise reflected in anemic trade growth calls for coordinated fiscal stimulus by the world’s major economies. Otherwise, the risk of another global recession will continue to rise.”  Inspired by Ashoka Mody, Project Syndicate ow.ly/lCCay Image source politicalworld ow.ly/lCC3V Risk of another global recession (June 17 2013)

 

Ashoka Mody the Indian visiting Professor in International Economic Policy and former Deputy Director in the International Monetary Fund’s Research and European Departments, has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘Misreading the Global Economy’ in which he states “…Consider India, where growth is now running at an annualized rate of 4.5%, down from 7.7% annual growth in 2011. To be sure, the IMF projects that India’s economy will rebound later in 2013, but the basis for this optimism is unclear, given that all indicators so far suggest another dismal year. The emerging economies’ supposed resilience, which has buoyed economic forecasts in recent years, needs to be reassessed. Like the advanced economies, emerging economies experienced a boom in 2000-2007. But, unlike the advanced economies, they maintained high GDP growth rates and relative stability even at the height of the crisis. This was viewed as powerful evidence of their new economic might. In fact, it was largely a result of massive fiscal stimulus and credit expansion. Indeed, as the effects of stimulus programs wear off, new weaknesses are emerging, such as persistent inflation in India and credit misallocation in China. Given this, the notion that emerging economies will recapture the growth levels of the bubble years seems farfetched. Economic forecasts rest on the assumption that economies ultimately heal themselves. But economies’ powerful self-healing capabilities work slowly. More problematic, a misdiagnosis can lead to treatments that impair the healing process. Overly optimistic economic projections based on mistaken assessments of the global economy’s ailments thus threaten recovery prospects – with potentially far-reaching consequences. In Europe, the banks’ wounds must be closed – weak banks must be shut down or merged with stronger banks – before recovery can begin. This will require an extensive swap of private debts for equity. For the global economy, the malaise reflected in anemic trade growth calls for coordinated fiscal stimulus by the world’s major economies. Otherwise, the risk of another global recession will continue to rise.”

 

Inspired by Ashoka Mody, Project Syndicate ow.ly/lCCay Image source politicalworld ow.ly/lCC3V

Paul De Grauwe the 66 year old Belgian Economist and Professor emeritus in European Political Economy, and former member of the Belgian Federal Parliament, has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘Debt Without Drowning’. De Grauwe states “Since the 1970’s, economists have warned that a monetary union could not be sustained without a fiscal union. But the eurozone’s leaders have not heeded their advice – and the consequences are becoming increasingly apparent. Europe now faces a difficult choice: either fix this fundamental design flaw and move toward fiscal union, or abandon the common currency. Choosing the latter option would have devastating consequences. Indeed, while the desirability of establishing a monetary union may have been open to question in the 1990’s, dismantling the eurozone now would trigger profound economic, social, and political upheaval throughout Europe. To avoid this outcome, Europe’s leaders must begin designing and implementing strategies aimed at bringing the eurozone closer to a fiscal union. To be sure, a fiscal union such as that in the United States is a distant prospect that eurozone leaders should not expect to achieve any time soon – or even in their lifetimes. But that does not mean that establishing a fiscal union is a chimera. Small steps in the right direction now can make a significant difference. …the eurozone is gripped by an existential crisis that is slowly, but inexorably, destroying the monetary union’s very foundations. The only way to stem the erosion is to take determined action that convinces financial markets that the eurozone is here to stay. A debt-pooling scheme that satisfies the requirements outlined here would signal that the eurozone member countries are serious about sticking together. Without this gesture, further market turmoil is inevitable – and the eurozone’s collapse will become only a matter of time.”  Inspired by Paul De Grauwe, Project Syndicate ow.ly/l2YzK Image source kuleuven ow.ly/l2YmE Debt Without Drowning (June 1 2013)

 

Paul De Grauwe the 66 year old Belgian Economist and Professor emeritus in European Political Economy, and former member of the Belgian Federal Parliament, has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘Debt Without Drowning’. De Grauwe states “Since the 1970’s, economists have warned that a monetary union could not be sustained without a fiscal union. But the eurozone’s leaders have not heeded their advice – and the consequences are becoming increasingly apparent. Europe now faces a difficult choice: either fix this fundamental design flaw and move toward fiscal union, or abandon the common currency. Choosing the latter option would have devastating consequences. Indeed, while the desirability of establishing a monetary union may have been open to question in the 1990’s, dismantling the eurozone now would trigger profound economic, social, and political upheaval throughout Europe. To avoid this outcome, Europe’s leaders must begin designing and implementing strategies aimed at bringing the eurozone closer to a fiscal union. To be sure, a fiscal union such as that in the United States is a distant prospect that eurozone leaders should not expect to achieve any time soon – or even in their lifetimes. But that does not mean that establishing a fiscal union is a chimera. Small steps in the right direction now can make a significant difference. …the eurozone is gripped by an existential crisis that is slowly, but inexorably, destroying the monetary union’s very foundations. The only way to stem the erosion is to take determined action that convinces financial markets that the eurozone is here to stay. A debt-pooling scheme that satisfies the requirements outlined here would signal that the eurozone member countries are serious about sticking together. Without this gesture, further market turmoil is inevitable – and the eurozone’s collapse will become only a matter of time.”

 

Inspired by Paul De Grauwe, Project Syndicate ow.ly/l2YzK Image source kuleuven ow.ly/l2YmE

Peter Hoffmann the American former Washington and foreign correspondent for a major business/technology news service has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘The Hydrogen Solution’ in which he states “Around the world, governments and businesses are constantly being called upon to make big investments in solar, wind, and geothermal energy, as well as biofuels. But, in the United States, unlike in Europe and Asia, discussion of hydrogen energy and fuel cells as systemic, game-changing technologies is largely absent. That needs to change: these clean, renewable energy sources promise not only zero-emission baseload power, but also a zero-emission fuel for cars and trucks, the biggest polluters of them all. By now, many have heard about plans by big carmakers – including Honda, Toyota, and Hyundai – to launch hydrogen fuel-cell cars commercially around 2015. Daimler, Ford, and Nissan plan to launch such cars around 2017. Germany plans to build at least 50 hydrogen fueling stations by 2015 as the start of a countrywide network. Japan and Korea have announced similar plans. But a bigger, largely unreported, message is that some European countries, especially Germany, have launched projects that combine renewables like solar and wind with hydrogen for energy storage, implying clean, zero-emission, stable power grids that require no coal, oil, or nuclear power. Indeed, the bottom line of a new study by two American researchers, Willett Kempton and Cory Budischak, is that the combination of renewables and hydrogen storage could fully power a large electricity grid by 2030 at costs comparable to those today. Kempton and Budischak designed a computer model for wind, solar, and storage to meet demand for one-fifth of the US grid. The results buck “the conventional wisdom that renewable energy is too unreliable and expensive,” says Kempton.”  Inspired by Peter Hoffmann, Project Syndicate ow.ly/kBbQa Image source hydrogenambassadors ow.ly/kBbHO Hydrogen energy game-changing technologies (May 28 2013)

 

Peter Hoffmann the American former Washington and foreign correspondent for a major business/technology news service has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘The Hydrogen Solution’ in which he states “Around the world, governments and businesses are constantly being called upon to make big investments in solar, wind, and geothermal energy, as well as biofuels. But, in the United States, unlike in Europe and Asia, discussion of hydrogen energy and fuel cells as systemic, game-changing technologies is largely absent. That needs to change: these clean, renewable energy sources promise not only zero-emission baseload power, but also a zero-emission fuel for cars and trucks, the biggest polluters of them all. By now, many have heard about plans by big carmakers – including Honda, Toyota, and Hyundai – to launch hydrogen fuel-cell cars commercially around 2015. Daimler, Ford, and Nissan plan to launch such cars around 2017. Germany plans to build at least 50 hydrogen fueling stations by 2015 as the start of a countrywide network. Japan and Korea have announced similar plans. But a bigger, largely unreported, message is that some European countries, especially Germany, have launched projects that combine renewables like solar and wind with hydrogen for energy storage, implying clean, zero-emission, stable power grids that require no coal, oil, or nuclear power. Indeed, the bottom line of a new study by two American researchers, Willett Kempton and Cory Budischak, is that the combination of renewables and hydrogen storage could fully power a large electricity grid by 2030 at costs comparable to those today. Kempton and Budischak designed a computer model for wind, solar, and storage to meet demand for one-fifth of the US grid. The results buck “the conventional wisdom that renewable energy is too unreliable and expensive,” says Kempton.”

 

Inspired by Peter Hoffmann, Project Syndicate ow.ly/kBbQa Image source hydrogenambassadors ow.ly/kBbHO

Shinzo Abe the 58 year old and youngest post-World War II Prime Minister of Japan and also the President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been the subject of article by Joseph Stiglitz on the Project Syndicate titled ‘The Promise of Abenomics’. Stiglitz states “…Abe’s program for his country’s economic recovery has led to a surge in domestic confidence. But to what extent can “Abenomics” claim credit? Interestingly, a closer look at Japan’s performance over the past decade suggests little reason for persistent bearish sentiment. Indeed, in terms of growth of output per employed worker, Japan has done quite well since the turn of the century. …as many Japanese rightly sense, Abenomics can only help the country’s recovery. Abe is doing what many economists (including me) have been calling for in the US and Europe: a comprehensive program entailing monetary, fiscal, and structural policies. Abe likens this approach to holding three arrows – taken alone, each can be bent; taken together, none can. …Government efforts to increase productivity in the service sector probably will be particularly important. For example, Japan is in a good position to exploit synergies between an improved health-care sector and its world-class manufacturing capabilities, in the development of medical instrumentation. …There is every reason to believe that Japan’s strategy for rejuvenating its economy will succeed:  the country benefits from strong institutions, has a well-educated labor force with superb technical skills and design sensibilities, and is located in the world’s most (only?) dynamic region. It suffers from less inequality than many advanced industrial countries (though more than Canada and the northern European countries), and it has had a longer-standing commitment to environment preservation. If the comprehensive agenda that Abe has laid out is executed well, today’s growing confidence will be vindicated. Indeed, Japan could become one of the few rays of light in an otherwise gloomy advanced-country landscape.”  Inspired by Joseph Stiglitz, Project Syndicate ow.ly/kuCAs Image source TTTNIS ow.ly/kuCDc The Promise of Abenomics (May 16 2013)

Shinzo Abe the 58 year old and youngest post-World War II Prime Minister of Japan and also the President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been the subject of article by Joseph Stiglitz on the Project Syndicate titled ‘The Promise of Abenomics’. Stiglitz states “…Abe’s program for his country’s economic recovery has led to a surge in domestic confidence. But to what extent can “Abenomics” claim credit? Interestingly, a closer look at Japan’s performance over the past decade suggests little reason for persistent bearish sentiment. Indeed, in terms of growth of output per employed worker, Japan has done quite well since the turn of the century. …as many Japanese rightly sense, Abenomics can only help the country’s recovery. Abe is doing what many economists (including me) have been calling for in the US and Europe: a comprehensive program entailing monetary, fiscal, and structural policies. Abe likens this approach to holding three arrows – taken alone, each can be bent; taken together, none can. …Government efforts to increase productivity in the service sector probably will be particularly important. For example, Japan is in a good position to exploit synergies between an improved health-care sector and its world-class manufacturing capabilities, in the development of medical instrumentation. …There is every reason to believe that Japan’s strategy for rejuvenating its economy will succeed:  the country benefits from strong institutions, has a well-educated labor force with superb technical skills and design sensibilities, and is located in the world’s most (only?) dynamic region. It suffers from less inequality than many advanced industrial countries (though more than Canada and the northern European countries), and it has had a longer-standing commitment to environment preservation. If the comprehensive agenda that Abe has laid out is executed well, today’s growing confidence will be vindicated. Indeed, Japan could become one of the few rays of light in an otherwise gloomy advanced-country landscape.”

 

Inspired by Joseph Stiglitz, Project Syndicate ow.ly/kuCAs Image source TTTNIS ow.ly/kuCDc

Barry Eichengreen the 61 year old American Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘The Use and Abuse of Monetary History’. In the article Eichengreen states “Imagine two central banks. One is hyperactive, responding aggressively to events. While it certainly cannot be accused of ignoring current developments, its policies are widely criticized as storing up problems for the future. The other central bank is unflappable. It remains calm in the face of events, seeking at all cost to avoid doing anything that might be construed as encouraging excessive risk-taking or creating even a whiff of inflation. What I have just described is no mere hypothetical, of course. It is, in fact, a capsule depiction of the United States Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. One popular explanation for the two banks’ different approaches is that they stem from their societies’ respective historical experiences. The banks’ institutional personalities reflect the role of collective memory in shaping how officials conceptualize the problems that they face. The Great Depression of the 1930’s, when the Fed stood idly by as the economy collapsed, is the molding event seared into the consciousness of every American central banker. As a result, the Fed responds aggressively when it perceives even a limited risk of another depression. By contrast, the defining event shaping European monetary policy is the hyperinflation of the 1920’s, filtered through the experience of the 1970’s and 1980’s, when central banks were enlisted once again to finance budget deficits – and again with inflationary consequences. Indeed, delegating national monetary policies to a Europe-wide central bank was intended to solve precisely this problem. … For the Fed, it is important to ask whether the 1930’s, when its premature policy tightening precipitated a double-dip recession, really is the best historical analogy to consider when contemplating how to time the exit from its current accommodating stance. Certainly, the Great Depression is not the only alternative on offer.”  Inspired by Barry Eichengreen, Project Syndicate ow.ly/k6FvO Image source Twitter ow.ly/k6FsF Use and abuse of monetary history (May 9 2013)

 

Barry Eichengreen the 61 year old American Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘The Use and Abuse of Monetary History’. In the article Eichengreen states “Imagine two central banks. One is hyperactive, responding aggressively to events. While it certainly cannot be accused of ignoring current developments, its policies are widely criticized as storing up problems for the future. The other central bank is unflappable. It remains calm in the face of events, seeking at all cost to avoid doing anything that might be construed as encouraging excessive risk-taking or creating even a whiff of inflation. What I have just described is no mere hypothetical, of course. It is, in fact, a capsule depiction of the United States Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. One popular explanation for the two banks’ different approaches is that they stem from their societies’ respective historical experiences. The banks’ institutional personalities reflect the role of collective memory in shaping how officials conceptualize the problems that they face. The Great Depression of the 1930’s, when the Fed stood idly by as the economy collapsed, is the molding event seared into the consciousness of every American central banker. As a result, the Fed responds aggressively when it perceives even a limited risk of another depression. By contrast, the defining event shaping European monetary policy is the hyperinflation of the 1920’s, filtered through the experience of the 1970’s and 1980’s, when central banks were enlisted once again to finance budget deficits – and again with inflationary consequences. Indeed, delegating national monetary policies to a Europe-wide central bank was intended to solve precisely this problem. … For the Fed, it is important to ask whether the 1930’s, when its premature policy tightening precipitated a double-dip recession, really is the best historical analogy to consider when contemplating how to time the exit from its current accommodating stance. Certainly, the Great Depression is not the only alternative on offer.”

 

Inspired by Barry Eichengreen, Project Syndicate ow.ly/k6FvO Image source Twitter ow.ly/k6FsF

Rachel M McCleary the American Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, conducts research on the political economy of religion, focusing on how religion interacts with economic performance and the political and social behavior of individuals and institutions across societies. McCleary along with her husband Robert Barro have published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Popes, Saints, and Religious Competition’ in which they state “The election of the first non-European pope is long overdue. After all, Pope Francis’s native region, Latin America, is currently home to nearly half (44%) of the world’s Catholics. But the Catholic Church is increasingly losing out to Protestant competition there and elsewhere. …The Catholic Church understands this competition, but it confronts a chronic shortage of priests. As a result, the creation of saints is becoming an important way of retaining the faithful. Indeed, the choice of a Latin American pope echoes a prior shift in the geographical distribution of new saints. …The rationale for this shift is to use national saints to inspire Catholics – and thereby counter the competition from Protestants, especially Evangelicals. This phenomenon is most clear in Latin America, but it applies to North America, Asia, and Africa as well. …The idea of using saints to compete with evangelicals in Latin America goes back a long way – the friars accompanying conquering Spanish troops introduced patron saints in every nucleated community. Coupled with persistent shortages of priests, the worship of saints in Latin America became more embedded in the region’s culture than in that of Europe. …The combination of the highest share of Catholics in the world with a decline in the share of religious adherents leaves Francis facing a strategic dilemma. Either he can focus on regaining Latin America for the Catholic Church, or he can place longer-term bets on Sub-Saharan Africa, where both the population and Catholicism are now growing faster than anywhere else in the world. Where will the next saints come from?”  Inspired by Rachel McCleary & Robert Barro, Project Syndicate ow.ly/k2RKa Image source LinkedIn ow.ly/k2RF9 Where will the next saints come from? (May 1 2013)

 

Rachel M McCleary the American Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, conducts research on the political economy of religion, focusing on how religion interacts with economic performance and the political and social behavior of individuals and institutions across societies. McCleary along with her husband Robert Barro have published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Popes, Saints, and Religious Competition’ in which they state “The election of the first non-European pope is long overdue. After all, Pope Francis’s native region, Latin America, is currently home to nearly half (44%) of the world’s Catholics. But the Catholic Church is increasingly losing out to Protestant competition there and elsewhere. …The Catholic Church understands this competition, but it confronts a chronic shortage of priests. As a result, the creation of saints is becoming an important way of retaining the faithful. Indeed, the choice of a Latin American pope echoes a prior shift in the geographical distribution of new saints. …The rationale for this shift is to use national saints to inspire Catholics – and thereby counter the competition from Protestants, especially Evangelicals. This phenomenon is most clear in Latin America, but it applies to North America, Asia, and Africa as well. …The idea of using saints to compete with evangelicals in Latin America goes back a long way – the friars accompanying conquering Spanish troops introduced patron saints in every nucleated community. Coupled with persistent shortages of priests, the worship of saints in Latin America became more embedded in the region’s culture than in that of Europe. …The combination of the highest share of Catholics in the world with a decline in the share of religious adherents leaves Francis facing a strategic dilemma. Either he can focus on regaining Latin America for the Catholic Church, or he can place longer-term bets on Sub-Saharan Africa, where both the population and Catholicism are now growing faster than anywhere else in the world. Where will the next saints come from?”

 

Inspired by Rachel McCleary & Robert Barro, Project Syndicate ow.ly/k2RKa Image source LinkedIn ow.ly/k2RF9

Dominique Moisi the 66 year old French political scientist and writer, co-founder and senior advisor of the Paris-based Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI), has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘France’s German Mirror’. Moisi states “…Berlin is a construction site that has managed to transform its multiple pasts into positive energy. …That positive energy contrasts starkly with the decadent beauty of Paris, a city that is on a path of “museification.” Of course, if you can afford to live there, Paris remains a great place to be. But Berlin is a better place to work, even if what you do is very poorly paid. …Thanks to its moderate housing costs, Berlin has not become, like Paris, a ghetto for the rich. Unlike the French, who are handicapped by the high cost of housing, Germans’ purchasing power is more harmoniously distributed, creating more room for household consumption to contribute to economic growth. Germany’s positive energy is, of course, the result of success translated into confidence, which Chancellor Angela Merkel incarnates with strength and simplicity. Merkel has changed profoundly while in office. Five years ago, she did not exude the natural authority that she now possesses. Today, like Pope Francis, she is clearly at ease with herself. Has there been a French president since François Mitterrand who was truly a match for a German chancellor? If France has replaced Germany as “the sick man of Europe,” it is for political reasons, above all: vision, courage, and strength on the northern side of the Rhine, and vacillation, inertia, and weakness on the southern. …France’s current direction is a source of deep concern in Germany, whose evolution should be seen in France as a source of inspiration – an example to be emulated, even if the country must not fall into self-flagellation. …France today can and should learn from Germany.”  Inspired by Dominique Moisi, Project Syndicate ow.ly/jBdO4 Image source Voltairenet ow.ly/jBdJt France can and should learn from Germany (April 24 2013)

 

Dominique Moisi the 66 year old French political scientist and writer, co-founder and senior advisor of the Paris-based Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI), has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘France’s German Mirror’. Moisi states “…Berlin is a construction site that has managed to transform its multiple pasts into positive energy. …That positive energy contrasts starkly with the decadent beauty of Paris, a city that is on a path of “museification.” Of course, if you can afford to live there, Paris remains a great place to be. But Berlin is a better place to work, even if what you do is very poorly paid. …Thanks to its moderate housing costs, Berlin has not become, like Paris, a ghetto for the rich. Unlike the French, who are handicapped by the high cost of housing, Germans’ purchasing power is more harmoniously distributed, creating more room for household consumption to contribute to economic growth. Germany’s positive energy is, of course, the result of success translated into confidence, which Chancellor Angela Merkel incarnates with strength and simplicity. Merkel has changed profoundly while in office. Five years ago, she did not exude the natural authority that she now possesses. Today, like Pope Francis, she is clearly at ease with herself. Has there been a French president since François Mitterrand who was truly a match for a German chancellor? If France has replaced Germany as “the sick man of Europe,” it is for political reasons, above all: vision, courage, and strength on the northern side of the Rhine, and vacillation, inertia, and weakness on the southern. …France’s current direction is a source of deep concern in Germany, whose evolution should be seen in France as a source of inspiration – an example to be emulated, even if the country must not fall into self-flagellation. …France today can and should learn from Germany.”

 

Inspired by Dominique Moisi, Project Syndicate ow.ly/jBdO4 Image source Voltairenet ow.ly/jBdJt

Gareth Evans the 68 year old Australia’s former foreign minister and President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group and currently Chancellor of the Australian National University has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Valuing the United Nations’ Evans states “No organization in the world embodies as many dreams, yet provides so many frustrations, as the United Nations.  …The peace plan for Cambodia in the early 1990’s, dragged the country back from hellish decades of horrifying genocide and ugly and protracted civil war. Likewise, the Chemical Weapons Convention, steered through the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, is still the most robust arms-control treaty related to weapons of mass destruction ever negotiated. …In 2005… endorsed the concept of states’ responsibility to protect populations at risk of genocide and other mass atrocity crimes. With that vote, the international community began to eradicate the shameful indifference that accompanied the Holocaust, Rwanda, Srebrenica, Darfur, and too many similar catastrophes. …the UN system’s total cost is still only around $30 billion a year. That is less than half the annual budget for New York City, and well under a third of the roughly $105 billion that the US military has been spending each year, on average, in Afghanistan. Wall Street employees received more in annual bonuses ($33.2 billion) in 2007, the year before the global financial meltdown. The whole family of the UN Secretariat and related entities, together with current peacekeepers, adds up to around 215,000 people worldwide – not a small number, but less than one-eighth of the roughly 1.8 million staff employed by McDonald’s and its franchisees worldwide! …the UN provides fabulous value for what the world spends on it, and that if it ever ceased to exist, we would have to reinvent it. The downsides are real, but we need to remember the immortal words of Dag Hammarskjold, the UN’s second secretary-general: “The UN was created not to bring us to heaven, but to save us from hell.”   Inspired by Gareth Evans, Project Syndicate ow.ly/jyVmH Image source Wikipedia ow.ly/jyUWN Valuing the United Nations (April 15 2013)

 

Gareth Evans the 68 year old Australia’s former foreign minister and President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group and currently Chancellor of the Australian National University has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Valuing the United Nations’ Evans states “No organization in the world embodies as many dreams, yet provides so many frustrations, as the United Nations.  …The peace plan for Cambodia in the early 1990’s, dragged the country back from hellish decades of horrifying genocide and ugly and protracted civil war. Likewise, the Chemical Weapons Convention, steered through the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, is still the most robust arms-control treaty related to weapons of mass destruction ever negotiated. …In 2005… endorsed the concept of states’ responsibility to protect populations at risk of genocide and other mass atrocity crimes. With that vote, the international community began to eradicate the shameful indifference that accompanied the Holocaust, Rwanda, Srebrenica, Darfur, and too many similar catastrophes. …the UN system’s total cost is still only around $30 billion a year. That is less than half the annual budget for New York City, and well under a third of the roughly $105 billion that the US military has been spending each year, on average, in Afghanistan. Wall Street employees received more in annual bonuses ($33.2 billion) in 2007, the year before the global financial meltdown. The whole family of the UN Secretariat and related entities, together with current peacekeepers, adds up to around 215,000 people worldwide – not a small number, but less than one-eighth of the roughly 1.8 million staff employed by McDonald’s and its franchisees worldwide! …the UN provides fabulous value for what the world spends on it, and that if it ever ceased to exist, we would have to reinvent it. The downsides are real, but we need to remember the immortal words of Dag Hammarskjold, the UN’s second secretary-general: “The UN was created not to bring us to heaven, but to save us from hell.”

 

Inspired by Gareth Evans, Project Syndicate ow.ly/jyVmH Image source Wikipedia ow.ly/jyUWN

Sergey Karaganov the Russian political scientist who heads the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, a security analytical institution, and has been Presidential Advisor to both Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘Fatal Thaws’. Karaganov states “During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and, in a milder way, the United States imposed external limits on the activities of states and societies, causing longstanding conflicts among smaller countries to be “frozen”. Following the Soviet Union’s collapse in the 1990’s, those conflicts began to “unfreeze”. With interethnic tensions already on the rise, Yugoslavia was the first country to dissolve into conflict. Soon after, war broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan, followed by fighting in Transdniestria and Chechnya. … Most threatening, however, is the possibility that the EU could collapse, triggering a third unfreezing. The EU, established to break the destructive cycle of European nationalism that had facilitated the rise of two totalitarian systems and caused two world wars, amounted to the creation of a prototype of a humane world order. After being its own – and thus the world’s – worst enemy for centuries, Europe became a beacon of peace. …At the same time, Europeans must prepare for an even more profound transformation. In order to regain economic competitiveness, European countries will have to abandon many of their social-welfare policies and reform their political institutions. Most Europeans prefer to ignore the looming challenge of radical policy reform, owing to the decline in living standards that it implies. Global leaders must encourage Europe to tackle its problems decisively by offering advice, financial support, and constructive criticism. Russia must continue to press for an Alliance of Europe – a new framework for economic and diplomatic relations among the EU, Russia, and the rest of Greater Europe – which could offer a way out of Europe’s systemic crisis. The first unfreezing had serious consequences. Now, global leaders must work to minimize the fallout of the second, and use all available means to prevent a third.”  Inspired by Sergey Karaganov, Project Syndicate ow.ly/j4BYH Image source http://karaganov.ru ow.ly/j4BHb EU could collapse triggering a third unfreezing (April 11 2013)

 

Sergey Karaganov the Russian political scientist who heads the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, a security analytical institution, and has been Presidential Advisor to both Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘Fatal Thaws’. Karaganov states “During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and, in a milder way, the United States imposed external limits on the activities of states and societies, causing longstanding conflicts among smaller countries to be “frozen”. Following the Soviet Union’s collapse in the 1990’s, those conflicts began to “unfreeze”. With interethnic tensions already on the rise, Yugoslavia was the first country to dissolve into conflict. Soon after, war broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan, followed by fighting in Transdniestria and Chechnya. … Most threatening, however, is the possibility that the EU could collapse, triggering a third unfreezing. The EU, established to break the destructive cycle of European nationalism that had facilitated the rise of two totalitarian systems and caused two world wars, amounted to the creation of a prototype of a humane world order. After being its own – and thus the world’s – worst enemy for centuries, Europe became a beacon of peace. …At the same time, Europeans must prepare for an even more profound transformation. In order to regain economic competitiveness, European countries will have to abandon many of their social-welfare policies and reform their political institutions. Most Europeans prefer to ignore the looming challenge of radical policy reform, owing to the decline in living standards that it implies. Global leaders must encourage Europe to tackle its problems decisively by offering advice, financial support, and constructive criticism. Russia must continue to press for an Alliance of Europe – a new framework for economic and diplomatic relations among the EU, Russia, and the rest of Greater Europe – which could offer a way out of Europe’s systemic crisis. The first unfreezing had serious consequences. Now, global leaders must work to minimize the fallout of the second, and use all available means to prevent a third.”

 

Inspired by Sergey Karaganov, Project Syndicate ow.ly/j4BYH Image source http://karaganov.ru ow.ly/j4BHb

Jean Pisani-Ferry the 61 year old French Professor, economist and public policy expert, currently the Director of Bruegel a Brussels-based economic think tank, has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘Is the Euro Crisis Over?’. Pisani-Ferry states “Financial crises tend to start abruptly and end by surprise. Three years ago, the euro crisis began when Greece became a cause for concern among policymakers and a cause for excitement among money managers. Since the end of 2012, a sort of armistice has prevailed. Does that mean that the crisis is over? By the usual standards of financial crises, three years is a long time. A year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, confidence in the United States’ financial system had been restored, and recovery had begun. A little more than a year after the 1997 exchange-rate debacle triggered Asian economies’ worst recession in decades, they were thriving again. Has the eurozone, at long last, reached the inflection point? Many battles were fought in the last three years – over Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Italy, to name the main ones. The European Union’s financial warriors are exhausted. Hedge funds first made money betting that the crisis would worsen, but then lost money betting on a eurozone breakup. Policymakers first lost credibility by being behind the curve, and then recouped some of it by embracing bold initiatives. Recent data suggest that capital has started returning to southern Europe. The current change in market sentiment is also motivated by two significant policy changes. First, European leaders agreed in June 2012 on a major overhaul of the eurozone. By embarking on a banking union, which will transfer to the European level responsibility for bank supervision… Second, by launching its new “outright monetary transactions” scheme in September, the European Central Bank took responsibility for preserving the integrity of the eurozone…”  Inspired by Jean Pisani-Ferry, Project Sync ow.ly/j4ps2 Image source Twitter ow.ly/j4p4X Is the Euro Crisis Over? (April 3 2013)

 

Jean Pisani-Ferry the 61 year old French Professor, economist and public policy expert, currently the Director of Bruegel a Brussels-based economic think tank, has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘Is the Euro Crisis Over?’. Pisani-Ferry states “Financial crises tend to start abruptly and end by surprise. Three years ago, the euro crisis began when Greece became a cause for concern among policymakers and a cause for excitement among money managers. Since the end of 2012, a sort of armistice has prevailed. Does that mean that the crisis is over? By the usual standards of financial crises, three years is a long time. A year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, confidence in the United States’ financial system had been restored, and recovery had begun. A little more than a year after the 1997 exchange-rate debacle triggered Asian economies’ worst recession in decades, they were thriving again. Has the eurozone, at long last, reached the inflection point? Many battles were fought in the last three years – over Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Italy, to name the main ones. The European Union’s financial warriors are exhausted. Hedge funds first made money betting that the crisis would worsen, but then lost money betting on a eurozone breakup. Policymakers first lost credibility by being behind the curve, and then recouped some of it by embracing bold initiatives. Recent data suggest that capital has started returning to southern Europe. The current change in market sentiment is also motivated by two significant policy changes. First, European leaders agreed in June 2012 on a major overhaul of the eurozone. By embarking on a banking union, which will transfer to the European level responsibility for bank supervision… Second, by launching its new “outright monetary transactions” scheme in September, the European Central Bank took responsibility for preserving the integrity of the eurozone…”

 

Inspired by Jean Pisani-Ferry, Project Sync ow.ly/j4ps2 Image source Twitter ow.ly/j4p4X

Jim Hartung the American President of GlobalEnergySolutions an internet-based company providing information about energy and related subjects, having a history in innovative energy technologies includes solar energy, gasification, nuclear power, gas turbines, and enhanced oil recovery. Hartung has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Can NASA Stop Global Warming?’ in which he states “…since the Apollo program, NASA has lacked a clear, overarching goal to guide its activities. To drive progress in crucial areas, the agency needs a compelling vision that is consequential and relevant to current needs… Obama should challenge NASA to address one of today’s most important issues, global warming, by developing safe, cost-effective technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the planet’s atmosphere and oceans. This mission could be accomplished in two phases. During the first phase, which could be completed by 2020, researchers would identify roughly 10-20 candidate geo-engineering technologies and test them in small-scale experiments. The second phase would include large-scale test demonstrations to evaluate the most promising technologies by 2025. Developing these technologies is crucial, given that, over the last half-century, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased from roughly 320 parts per million to almost 400 parts per million, heating up the planet and increasing the acidity of the world’s oceans. At this rate, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere will exceed 450 parts per million in roughly 25 years. …Far from conflicting with other, more traditional NASA programs, this mission would help to reinvigorate NASA and give its other programs greater focus and significance. This new, overarching vision would motivate NASA to gain a better understanding of the planetary processes that may affect Earth’s future, and to advance its capability to influence these processes if needed. Ultimately, this knowledge could be NASA’s greatest contribution to the world.”  Inspired by Jim Hartung, Project Syndicate ow.ly/imWZ5 Image source Global Energy Solutions ow.ly/imWHL Can NASA Stop Global Warming? (March 18 2013)

 

Jim Hartung the American President of GlobalEnergySolutions an internet-based company providing information about energy and related subjects, having a history in innovative energy technologies includes solar energy, gasification, nuclear power, gas turbines, and enhanced oil recovery. Hartung has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Can NASA Stop Global Warming?’ in which he states “…since the Apollo program, NASA has lacked a clear, overarching goal to guide its activities. To drive progress in crucial areas, the agency needs a compelling vision that is consequential and relevant to current needs… Obama should challenge NASA to address one of today’s most important issues, global warming, by developing safe, cost-effective technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the planet’s atmosphere and oceans. This mission could be accomplished in two phases. During the first phase, which could be completed by 2020, researchers would identify roughly 10-20 candidate geo-engineering technologies and test them in small-scale experiments. The second phase would include large-scale test demonstrations to evaluate the most promising technologies by 2025. Developing these technologies is crucial, given that, over the last half-century, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased from roughly 320 parts per million to almost 400 parts per million, heating up the planet and increasing the acidity of the world’s oceans. At this rate, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere will exceed 450 parts per million in roughly 25 years. …Far from conflicting with other, more traditional NASA programs, this mission would help to reinvigorate NASA and give its other programs greater focus and significance. This new, overarching vision would motivate NASA to gain a better understanding of the planetary processes that may affect Earth’s future, and to advance its capability to influence these processes if needed. Ultimately, this knowledge could be NASA’s greatest contribution to the world.”

 

Inspired by Jim Hartung, Project Syndicate ow.ly/imWZ5 Image source Global Energy Solutions ow.ly/imWHL

Ian Buruma the 61 year old Dutch Professor of Democracy, Human Rights, and Journalism having  authored numerous books, including ‘Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo Van Gogh’ and the ‘Limits of Tolerance and Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents’, has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘Does Europe Need Britain?’. Buruma states “Many people in the United Kingdom believe that their country can do perfectly well outside the European Union. Members of the UK Independence Party even think that Britain would do better, as do a considerable number of Conservative “Euro-skeptics.” They dream of Britain as a kind of Singapore of the West, a commercial powerhouse ruled from the City of London. That is why Prime Minister David Cameron felt obliged to offer the British people a referendum on a simple question: in or out. …In the meantime, there is another question to be considered: how many Europeans want Britain to stay in the EU? The answer depends partly on nationality. …it would be wrong simply to dismiss British doubts about the European drive toward greater unity. It is not just a nationalist reaction. Many Europeans now resent the expanding powers of EU bureaucracy. British resistance to grand European plans is the democratic grit in an enterprise that could become authoritarian, despite having the best intentions, and should serve as a necessary corrective to the utopianism of the technocrats. Those who favor European unification should take criticisms of its political flaws very seriously. Doing so is the only chance to ensure that a united Europe, whatever form it takes, will be democratic, as well as economically beneficial. That is why Europe needs Britain: not as an offshore center of banking and commerce, but as a difficult, questioning, stubbornly democratic partner.” Inspired by Ian Buruma, Project Syndicate ow.ly/hLPmO Image source Larry D. Moore ow.ly/hLPfa Does Europe Need Britain? (February 19 2013)

 

Ian Buruma the 61 year old Dutch Professor of Democracy, Human Rights, and Journalism having  authored numerous books, including ‘Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo Van Gogh’ and the ‘Limits of Tolerance and Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents’, has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘Does Europe Need Britain?’. Buruma states “Many people in the United Kingdom believe that their country can do perfectly well outside the European Union. Members of the UK Independence Party even think that Britain would do better, as do a considerable number of Conservative “Euro-skeptics.” They dream of Britain as a kind of Singapore of the West, a commercial powerhouse ruled from the City of London. That is why Prime Minister David Cameron felt obliged to offer the British people a referendum on a simple question: in or out. …In the meantime, there is another question to be considered: how many Europeans want Britain to stay in the EU? The answer depends partly on nationality. …it would be wrong simply to dismiss British doubts about the European drive toward greater unity. It is not just a nationalist reaction. Many Europeans now resent the expanding powers of EU bureaucracy. British resistance to grand European plans is the democratic grit in an enterprise that could become authoritarian, despite having the best intentions, and should serve as a necessary corrective to the utopianism of the technocrats. Those who favor European unification should take criticisms of its political flaws very seriously. Doing so is the only chance to ensure that a united Europe, whatever form it takes, will be democratic, as well as economically beneficial. That is why Europe needs Britain: not as an offshore center of banking and commerce, but as a difficult, questioning, stubbornly democratic partner.”

 

Inspired by Ian Buruma, Project Syndicate ow.ly/hLPmO Image source Larry D. Moore ow.ly/hLPfa

Jeffrey Alexander Frankel the 60 year old American Professor of Capital Formation and Growth at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and former member of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Bill Clinton has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Will Europe’s Fiscal Compact Work?’. Frankel states “At the start of 2013, the eurozone’s “fiscal compact” entered into force... The compact – technically called the Treaty on Stability, Coordination, and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union – requires member countries to introduce laws limiting their structural government budget deficits to less than 0.5 % of GDP (or less than 1% of GDP if their debt/GDP ratio is “significantly below 60%”). So, will this new approach work? A limit on the “structural deficit” means that a country can run a deficit above the limit to the extent – and only to the extent – that the gap between revenue and spending is cyclical (that is, its economy is operating below potential due to temporary negative shocks). In other words, the target is cyclically adjusted. …The aim is to fix Europe’s long-term fiscal problem, which has been exacerbated by three factors: the failure, since the euro’s inception, of the eurozone-wide Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) to enforce deficit and debt limits; the crisis that erupted in Greece and other countries on the eurozone periphery in 2010; and the various bailouts that have followed. …Ever since the eurozone was established, its members have issued official fiscal forecasts that are systematically biased in the optimistic direction. Other countries do this, too, but the bias among eurozone countries is, if anything, even worse than it is elsewhere. …if forecasts are biased, fiscal rules will not constrain budget deficits. In any given year, governments can forecast that their growth rates, tax revenues, and budget balances will improve in subsequent years, and then argue the following year that the shortfalls were unexpected.”  Inspired by Jeffrey Frankel, Project Syndicate ow.ly/hnJJp Image source Harvard ow.ly/hnJIm Will Europe’s Fiscal Compact Work? (February 14 2013)

Jeffrey Alexander Frankel the 60 year old American Professor of Capital Formation and Growth at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and former member of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Bill Clinton has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Will Europe’s Fiscal Compact Work?’. Frankel states “At the start of 2013, the eurozone’s “fiscal compact” entered into force… The compact – technically called the Treaty on Stability, Coordination, and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union – requires member countries to introduce laws limiting their structural government budget deficits to less than 0.5 % of GDP (or less than 1% of GDP if their debt/GDP ratio is “significantly below 60%”). So, will this new approach work? A limit on the “structural deficit” means that a country can run a deficit above the limit to the extent – and only to the extent – that the gap between revenue and spending is cyclical (that is, its economy is operating below potential due to temporary negative shocks). In other words, the target is cyclically adjusted. …The aim is to fix Europe’s long-term fiscal problem, which has been exacerbated by three factors: the failure, since the euro’s inception, of the eurozone-wide Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) to enforce deficit and debt limits; the crisis that erupted in Greece and other countries on the eurozone periphery in 2010; and the various bailouts that have followed. …Ever since the eurozone was established, its members have issued official fiscal forecasts that are systematically biased in the optimistic direction. Other countries do this, too, but the bias among eurozone countries is, if anything, even worse than it is elsewhere. …if forecasts are biased, fiscal rules will not constrain budget deficits. In any given year, governments can forecast that their growth rates, tax revenues, and budget balances will improve in subsequent years, and then argue the following year that the shortfalls were unexpected.”

 

Inspired by Jeffrey Frankel, Project Syndicate ow.ly/hnJJp Image source Harvard ow.ly/hnJIm

Bjorn Lomborg the 48 year old Danish author, adjunct professor, and environmental writer who became internationally known for his best-selling and controversial book The Skeptical Environmentalist, has published an article on the Project Syndicate tilted ‘The End of Pasta?’. Lomborg states “…increasing temperatures will harm some crops while benefiting others. Because most crops are already grown where they do best, it is not surprising that climate models show that temperature increases will reduce yields if farmers change little or nothing. In fact, farmers will adapt, especially over the course of a century. They will plant earlier, grow more heat-loving varieties, or change their crop entirely. And, as growing wheat and grains becomes possible higher north in Canada and Russia, even more opportunities will open up. …Of course, this does not mean that global warming has no impact on crops. Production will move to new varieties and away from the tropics, implying even higher yields for developed countries, but slower growth in yields for developing countries. For wheat, it is even likely that parts of Africa simply will be unable to sustain production. But cutting back on CO2 is a particularly ineffective way to help the world’s poor and hungry. Even if we managed – at very high cost – a significant reduction, we would achieve only a slightly slower rise in global temperatures. Meanwhile, by embracing biofuels, for example, we are essentially burning food in our cars, which drives up food prices and exacerbates hunger. We could do much more good if we focused on allowing poor countries to use the benefits of extra CO2 fertilization while adapting to the problems caused by higher temperatures. That means greater investment in crop research to produce more robust and higher-yielding varieties, as well as making more irrigation, pesticides, and fertilizer available.”  Inspired by Bjorn Lomborg, Project Syndicate ow.ly/hfPhU Image source Twitter ow.ly/hfPfz 130207 The End of Pasta?

 

Bjorn Lomborg the 48 year old Danish author, adjunct professor, and environmental writer who became internationally known for his best-selling and controversial book The Skeptical Environmentalist, has published an article on the Project Syndicate tilted ‘The End of Pasta?’. Lomborg states “…increasing temperatures will harm some crops while benefiting others. Because most crops are already grown where they do best, it is not surprising that climate models show that temperature increases will reduce yields if farmers change little or nothing. In fact, farmers will adapt, especially over the course of a century. They will plant earlier, grow more heat-loving varieties, or change their crop entirely. And, as growing wheat and grains becomes possible higher north in Canada and Russia, even more opportunities will open up. …Of course, this does not mean that global warming has no impact on crops. Production will move to new varieties and away from the tropics, implying even higher yields for developed countries, but slower growth in yields for developing countries. For wheat, it is even likely that parts of Africa simply will be unable to sustain production. But cutting back on CO2 is a particularly ineffective way to help the world’s poor and hungry. Even if we managed – at very high cost – a significant reduction, we would achieve only a slightly slower rise in global temperatures. Meanwhile, by embracing biofuels, for example, we are essentially burning food in our cars, which drives up food prices and exacerbates hunger. We could do much more good if we focused on allowing poor countries to use the benefits of extra CO2 fertilization while adapting to the problems caused by higher temperatures. That means greater investment in crop research to produce more robust and higher-yielding varieties, as well as making more irrigation, pesticides, and fertilizer available.”

 

Inspired by Bjorn Lomborg, Project Syndicate ow.ly/hfPhU Image source Twitter ow.ly/hfPfz

Justin Yifu Lin born as Zhengyi Lin the 60 year old Taiwanese economist and former Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Industrialization’s Second Golden Age’. In the article Yifu Lin states “…Historically, except for a few oil-exporting economies, no country has ever become rich without industrializing. Thus, all eyes nowadays should be on our economies’ real sectors. Confronted by the global financial crisis that looms over Europe, political leaders around the world are waking up to a stark new reality: unless the developed countries stop relying excessively on financial deal-making and start to rebuild from the ground up, they will lose their current standard of living. The global community must look beyond the eurozone and sovereign-debt crises and pay attention to the opportunity of structural transformation in the developing world’s real sectors. By structural transformation, I mean the process by which countries climb the industrial ladder – their workforces move into higher value-added manufacturing sectors as their sources of production advance. …For developing countries to benefit fully from industrial upgrading in China and other large emerging-market economies, their governments must identify tradable industries that are consistent with their latent comparative advantage. They also must help private firms to resolve information, coordination, and externality issues in the process of industrial upgrading. …In short, the imminent golden age of industrialization in developing countries will help to create jobs and spur recovery in advanced countries. The benefits of this new era will be two-pronged: it will contribute to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals – the plan to cut world poverty in half by 2015 – and also will help to drive a global recovery. Then, we may see a golden age for all.”  Inspired by Justin Yifu Lin, Project Syndicate ow.ly/gT0bU Image source Bdwgast ow.ly/gSZUZ We may see a golden age for all (January 25 2013)

Justin Yifu Lin born as Zhengyi Lin the 60 year old Taiwanese economist and former Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Industrialization’s Second Golden Age’. In the article Yifu Lin states “…Historically, except for a few oil-exporting economies, no country has ever become rich without industrializing. Thus, all eyes nowadays should be on our economies’ real sectors. Confronted by the global financial crisis that looms over Europe, political leaders around the world are waking up to a stark new reality: unless the developed countries stop relying excessively on financial deal-making and start to rebuild from the ground up, they will lose their current standard of living. The global community must look beyond the eurozone and sovereign-debt crises and pay attention to the opportunity of structural transformation in the developing world’s real sectors. By structural transformation, I mean the process by which countries climb the industrial ladder – their workforces move into higher value-added manufacturing sectors as their sources of production advance. …For developing countries to benefit fully from industrial upgrading in China and other large emerging-market economies, their governments must identify tradable industries that are consistent with their latent comparative advantage. They also must help private firms to resolve information, coordination, and externality issues in the process of industrial upgrading. …In short, the imminent golden age of industrialization in developing countries will help to create jobs and spur recovery in advanced countries. The benefits of this new era will be two-pronged: it will contribute to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals – the plan to cut world poverty in half by 2015 – and also will help to drive a global recovery. Then, we may see a golden age for all.”

 

Inspired by Justin Yifu Lin, Project Syndicate ow.ly/gT0bU Image source Bdwgast ow.ly/gSZUZ

Esther Dyson the 61 year old American former journalist and Wall Street technology analyst, now entrepreneur who concentrates her investments on emerging digital technologies, and is Chairwoman of EDventure Holdings focusing on issues related to medical technology, aviation, and space travel. Dyson has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘The rise of the attention economy’ claiming people in the attention economy spend their personal time attracting others' attention. Dyson states “…companies go online to earn money. Google is perhaps the purest example of a company that transforms purchase intentions into income; most other "internet" companies offer something of independent value on the other side of those searches. But many individuals, most of the time, go online without any interest in buying something. They are there to find out about the world, catch up with friends, play games, listen to music, chat, or just hang out - and, increasingly, to get the attention of other people. Thanks to highly productive surplus economies, they can spend a lot more time being economically inactive. …This attention economy is not the intention economy beloved of vendors, who grab consumers’ attention in order to sell them something. Rather, attention here has its own intrinsic, non-monetisable value. The attention economy is one in which people spend their personal time attracting others’ attention, whether by designing creative avatars, posting pithy comments, or accumulating "likes" for their cat photos. Just as we are driven to spread our physical DNA, so apparently do we have an urge to spread our virtual identities, so that we cannot be erased. Instead of physical descendants, we are offering our own virtual selves to posterity.” Inspired by Project Syndicate ow.ly/gwVob image source Twitter ow.ly/gwVdO The rise of the attention economy (January 11 2013)

Esther Dyson the 61 year old American former journalist and Wall Street technology analyst, now entrepreneur who concentrates her investments on emerging digital technologies, and is Chairwoman of EDventure Holdings focusing on issues related to medical technology, aviation, and space travel. Dyson has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘The rise of the attention economy’ claiming people in the attention economy spend their personal time attracting others’ attention. Dyson states “…companies go online to earn money. Google is perhaps the purest example of a company that transforms purchase intentions into income; most other “internet” companies offer something of independent value on the other side of those searches. But many individuals, most of the time, go online without any interest in buying something. They are there to find out about the world, catch up with friends, play games, listen to music, chat, or just hang out – and, increasingly, to get the attention of other people. Thanks to highly productive surplus economies, they can spend a lot more time being economically inactive. …This attention economy is not the intention economy beloved of vendors, who grab consumers’ attention in order to sell them something. Rather, attention here has its own intrinsic, non-monetisable value. The attention economy is one in which people spend their personal time attracting others’ attention, whether by designing creative avatars, posting pithy comments, or accumulating “likes” for their cat photos. Just as we are driven to spread our physical DNA, so apparently do we have an urge to spread our virtual identities, so that we cannot be erased. Instead of physical descendants, we are offering our own virtual selves to posterity.”

 

Inspired by Project Syndicate ow.ly/gwVob image source Twitter ow.ly/gwVdO

Politicians congenitally incapable of difficult choices (August 2 2012) Politicians congenitally incapable of difficult choices (August 2 2012)

Kenneth Saul Rogoff the 59 year old American Professor of Public Policy & Economics, and a chess Grandmaster has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘Will Governmental Folly Now Allow for a Cyber Crisis?’ claiming most politicians are congenitally incapable of making difficult choices until risks actually materialise. In the article Rogoff states “When the financial crisis of 2008 hit, many shocked critics asked why markets, regulators and financial experts failed to see it coming. Today, one might ask the same question about the global economy’s vulnerability to cyber-attack. Indeed, the parallels between financial crises and the threat of cyber meltdowns are striking. Although the greatest cyber threat comes from rogue states with the capacity to develop extremely sophisticated computer viruses, risks can also come from anarchistic hackers and terrorists, or even from computer glitches compounded by natural catastrophe. …No economy is more vulnerable than the US, and it is arrogance to believe that US cyber superiority (to all except perhaps China) provides it with impenetrable security from attack. …Unfortunately the solution is not so simple as just building better anti-virus programmes. Virus protection and virus development constitute an uneven arms race. A virus can be just a couple hundred lines of computer code, compared to hundreds of thousands of lines for anti-virus programmes, which must be designed to detect wide classes of enemies. We are told not to worry about large-scale cyber meltdowns, because none has occurred, and governments are being vigilant.”

 

Inspired by Project Syndicate ow.ly/czr9N image source IMF ow.ly/czr1P

The idea of a "responsibility to protect" (July 24 2012) The idea of a “responsibility to protect” (July 24 2012)

Joseph Samuel Nye the 75 year old American political science Professor and co-founder of the international relations theory neoliberalism, developing the concepts of asymmetrical and complex interdependence. Nye has published an article on the Project Syndicate where he discusses with reference to Syria, when should States intervene militarily to stop atrocities in other countries. Nye states, …The idea of a “responsibility to protect” (R2P) was adopted unanimously at the UN’s World Summit in 2005, but subsequent events showed that not all member states interpreted the resolution the same way. Russia has consistently argued that only Security Council resolutions, not General Assembly resolutions, are binding international law. Meanwhile, Russia has vetoed a Security Council resolution on Syria, and, somewhat ironically, Annan has been called back and enlisted in a so-far futile effort to stop the carnage there. …In fact, R2P is more about struggles over political legitimacy and soft power than it is about hard international law. Some Western lawyers argue that it entails the responsibility to combat genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes under the various conventions of international humanitarian law. But Russia, China and others are reluctant to provide a legal or political basis for actions such as what occurred in Libya. …There are other reasons why R2P has not been a success in the Syrian case. Drawn from traditional “just war” theory, R2P rests not only on right intentions, but also on the existence of a reasonable prospect of success.”

 

Inspired by Project Syndicate ow.ly/clw0V image source TED ow.ly/clw6o

The Wrong Austerity Cure (July 21st 2012) The Wrong Austerity Cure (July 21st 2012)

Laura D’Andrea Tyson the 65 year old American Economist Professor and former Chair of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration, has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘The Wrong Austerity Cure’. In the article Tyson states “Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and French President François Hollande are right: Europe needs bold, coordinated policies to promote growth, along with market-based structural reforms to foster competition and an easing of fiscal targets until output and employment recover. But how can significant new growth initiatives be financed? The reality is that the rest of Europe cannot succeed in restoring growth without Germany, and Germany remains wedded to the austerity cure. With a modest fiscal deficit, record-low borrowing costs, and a huge current-account surplus, Germany has the financial firepower to unleash a significant stimulus. But Germany sees no need to stimulate its own economy, and is willing to consider only modest eurozone measures… Despite pleas from the IMF and the OECD, Germany also remains implacably opposed to Eurobonds, which could ease the funding constraints of other eurozone members… the worsening banking crisis, with deposits fleeing from the eurozone periphery, is further strangling Europe’s growth prospects. It is probably too late to save Greece. But a shift towards policies to promote growth, supported by the easing of deficit targets and the issuance of Eurobonds, is essential to bring Europe back from the brink of sustained recession, to stabilise Europe’s financial markets, and to prevent another significant disruption to global capital markets.”

 

Inspired by Project Syndicate ow.ly/cf8Rx image source World Economic Forum ow.ly/cf8R3

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