The recent news that India’s microcredit industry is in dire straits should trouble Bangladeshi policy makers. Through a combination of credit-overreach and political demagoguery, Indian banks are facing the prospect of a wave of microcredit loan defaults. Given the nearly $4 billion risk exposure that banks have undertaken in entering into the recently booming microcredit […]
The past few days have brought mixed news regarding India’s economic future.
The Global Fund’s Office of the Inspector General has found that Cameroon, Mauritania, Mali, and Zambia misappropriated about US$25 million in grants meant for fighting AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on the continent. No surprise there! In response Sweden is reported to withholding its pledge to the Global Fund. While Sweden (which has contributed US$85 million […]
There are grounds on which we accept moral doctrines that vary from those we profess. We might say that we have not experienced the history that other people in other places have experienced; we might say that there mores that have not entered our lexicon, for our social arrangements are different. We might call all […]
Yair Lapid, an Israeli pundit and son of a the late left-wing politician Tommy Lapid, appears to have solved the peace process dilemma facing Israel and the Palestinians. I have advocated this solution for years, although never as eloquently and directly as Lapid, who hits the nail on the head. The premise: the peace process […]
World Politics Review: How would you characterize economic relations between Brazil and Mexico?? Sean Goforth: In a word: vacuous. Each nation has liberalized its economy over the past 20 years, in recognition of the benefits of international trade, but they have largely kept their backs turned toward one another. Mexico has looked outside of Latin […]
Hat Tip to Vincent Wade… Lately, there has been much attention paid to China’s growing control over precious finite resources, with the focus being on China’s punitive export embargo on “rare earth” minerals against Japan as outlined here: Without naming China, 37 leading companies and business groups from the U.S., the European Union, Japan, South […]
Before you go off to your weekend shenanigans here is a blast of news stories from Africa that has been accumulating on my desktop, as always, with commentary as apt: After the see-saw of the last few days Guinea is once again calm. For now. Please don’t buy into the simplistic narrative that this is […]
The incident came as Germany was already on high security alert in response to intelligence tips that the country may be the target for terror attacks in the near future. Thanks to the Namibia police, it seems that the Namibian airport security system is working because they detected the bag before the departure of the […]
The timing could not have been more perfect. A new report by Global Financial Integrity about Illicit Financial Flows from India comes as the perfect topping on the 2G spectrum scam, the Adarsh Housing Scam and the Commonwealth Games. According to the report, India lost approximately $213 billion in illicit financial flows from the country […]
In a stunning development, Emin Milli, the second so-called “donkey blogger,” was granted a release from prison today by an Azerbaijani court. Details are still sketchy, and Radio Free Europe does not appear to have confirmation yet that Milli is actually out as of press time. One of my sources claims that Milli has been released, […]
Namibians and the world today woke up to media reports and news that suspicious baggage, with a detonator and a ticking clock destined to be loaded on a German-bound plane was intercepted Wednesday at the Hosea Kutako International airport in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital city. This is still a developing story, but I can’t fathom the thought […]
Faced with considerable pressure to tap into the eurozone bailout fund, Ireland seems about ready to buckle. In particular, Spain and Portugal (worried that Ireland’s troubles will spread, sending their bond yields, and thus borrowing costs, even higher) have shouted from the rooftops of the necessity for Ireland to apply for bailout funds. Although the […]
Israel will pull out of Ghajar, a small town on the Lebanese border that Israel acquired when it took over the Golan Heights, with residents in the early 1980s accepting Israeli citizenship. Ghajar residents are predominantly Muslim, with the town divided in half on each side of the border. Israel has been pressured to leave […]
It is Haiti, It is rape, it is UN peacekeepers and it is nothing new. Peacekeeping patrol Port-au-Prince, Haiti– At a time when uncertainties about upcoming Haitian elections are high, when anxieties over the cholera epidemic are rampant and prevalent rumors identifying peacekeepers as epidemic originators persist, the humanitarian organization must allocate resources to combat […]