An update on a post I did last week on the Obama administration’s swing toward trade protectionism with its action against Chinese tires: enclosed is this nicely written NYTimes editorial…not an Op-ed, an editorial. The Times editorial board understands economics. American workers in the tire industry, many represented by the United Steelworkers Union, may well lose their jobs […]
Because really, there’s never enough guns in Somalia. If you looked up failed state in the encyclopedia, a picture of a khat-chewing Somali toting an AK-47 he purchased off the street for a hundred dollars—if that—would be plastered front and center. The government controls a few blocks of Mogadishu—at best—while raging Islamist insurgencies have claimed […]
This week in Egypt, two American couples were arrested and charged with human trafficking after they engaged in illegal adoptions.They were sentenced to two years in prison and fined $18,153. According to the AP, “They adopted children from a Cairo orphanage that allegedly gave them forged documents stating the adoptive children had been born to […]
The Obama Administration released yesterday its list of 50 metrics, under three objectives, to designate progress in the war in Central Asia. While it’s important to have a cohesive set of tactics for the war itself—and this document makes our goals much more lucid than before—what strategy does the war itself fit? Are we once […]
You cannot imagine a stronger mix of religion and politics than the news out of Iran today. According to the LA Times, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been prevented from leading the Friday Prayers in Tehran on the occasion of Quds Day. The alleged reformist leaders are being warned to avoid protesting tomorrow, and […]
On Monday, BBC News reported from Aceh province in Indonesia that a new law was passed to make adultery punishable by stoning to death. According to the BBC report, “Sharia law was partially introduced in Aceh in 2001, as part of a government offer to pacify separatist rebels.” Now, the regional parliament for Aceh has […]
During the Great Depression, international trade contracted by a third, as countries around the world erected barriers to trade, aggravating a sharp decline in output already under way and throwing millions out of work. Thus far, in the Great Recession of 2008-09, the end of which some observers may have called too soon, the major powers have avoided […]
I’m always impressed by how much religion permeates the life of Tajikistan, even when it is incorporating trends from abroad. This past week, as Tajikistan celebrated its 18th year of independence, there was a small art festival entitled, “Graffiti is Flight Fantasy.” (sponsored by the Institute for Eurasian Studies). Although most of the panels were […]
Wu Bangguo, the head of China’s Congress, is enjoying a warm welcome in Washington. He met with President Obama, calling for closer economic ties, and attended a dinner on Thursday evening hosted in his honor. Secretary of State Clinton said, as she has done several times before, that “building a strong relationship with China is […]
Washington said that it would accept Tehran’s offer of comprehensive talks, even though Iran continues to refuse to negotiate over its nuclear program. The chess move – a strategy designed to force Iran to talk seriously or encourage rising powers to place greater pressure on Tehran to curb its hostile actions – was announced as […]
40,000. There are now over 40,000 Japanese over the age of 100. The number is staggering and an impressive display of the high level of public health, but it also points to Japan’s aging and shrinking population and a looming demographic crisis. Graphic from Reuters. Hat tip from FP Passport.
Nilson Teixeira ([email protected]) and his team at CreditSuisse Brazil, one of the formidable analytical teams among Brazil’s brokerage firms, today published a comprehensive 170 page guide to the Brazilian economy. Timely, given that the world’s eighth largest economy is now one to be watched, invested in, and profited from. CSFB says this guide is good for […]
Overlook Press has recently published Dilip Hiro’s new book: Inside Central Asia, which is an all-encompassing history of practically everything the average reader of history might want to know about the region. It even considers the ancient history of the 5 major “stan” countries, as well as Iran and Turkey. In fact, the first chapter […]
It wasn’t Paul Kennedy who first said that great powers who over-extend themselves — either externally or internally — fast-forward the date of their decline, but he wrote about imperial over-extension and decline so convincingly in a best-selling book in the late 80’s. Political Scientist Robert Gilpin in War and Change in World Politics argued […]
I discussed Mexico’s fiscal woes and compared them to Brazil’s in a previous post. Today, financial market analysts reacted positively to the Mexican government’s fiscal plan, set to limit the widening of the federal deficit in 2010. Like Barack Obama’s unwillingness to confront Congress on the cap-and-trade carbon emissions plan or health care reform, Felipe Calderon’s government once again skirted the […]