The spiralling Syrian regime is yet again imposing its heavy hand on pro-democracy activists. People who dare challenge Damascus, the brave individuals who face persecution and yet persist to tell the truth, are being rounded up and thrown in jail. And to imagine, that at one point in 2000, political prisoners were released and reforms […]
On February 26th, following the Oscar and media hype over the film Slumdog Millionaire, I post the piece, The Reality of Slumdog Millionaire’, in which I highlighted the extreme difficulty in escaping India’s slums, and the harsh reality that money is only a band-aid solution to solving the problem’s of poverty. Money alone cannot bring […]
Today the Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar spoke to oil executives and stated: Just as your shareholders expect you to get a fair rate of return on your investments and to be wise stewards of your balance sheets, the American people are asking the same of us as we manage their resources Bravo, Ken. […]
Question: What happens when an 80% shareholder of a company decides that the $165 million in bonuses contracted to employees prior to the purchase of shares are an abuse of the over $170 billion given in taxpayer bailout? Answer: American International Group CEO, Edward Liddy, asks bonus recipients who received $100,000 or more to return […]
Whether you eat, sleep, and breathe philanthropy or whether you can barely pronounce the word, the entire sector revolves around personal choice. No matter how fancy or interactive our industry is able to make the word, the feeling, the community – the decision on when, where, or whether to participate will always be based on […]
It hasn’t been very long, as these things go, that this World Cup class assemblage of players has been in place. Many of the top deputies at the agencies and staffers at the White House are still in the pipeline. Yet, as we’ve seen, they are moving and, dare I say it, grooving. They’ve definitely […]
The United Kingdom government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, John Beddington, predicted that the year 2030 will witness a “perfect storm of food, energy and water shortages” across the globe. Speaking at the Sustainable Development UK 09 conference in London, Beddington cited a growing global population as the driving factor behind the anticipated shortages. Beddington predicts that […]
The G-20 is the forum of the future. See its web site at http://www.g20.org/. When the international system is in transformation because of a significant shift in the relative power of nations, as it may well be now, this shift could take place with violence or with a flurry of effective diplomacy. Either way, the […]
The IMF has been stepping up to help solve the global financial crisis. Only a few years ago, it was experiencing an identity crisis and was under fire from many corners. This post addresses the IMF’s changing role and shows a chart detailing its planned redistribution of voting rights that will ensure greater representation of […]
The IMF, in an effort to play a useful role in resolving the current financial crisis, has produced the following research and commentary on the crisis. This important analysis can help policy practitioners and observers cut through the fog of media coverage and the associated tendency toward populism. On March 6, the IMF produced […]
It’s no secret that North Korea and China are close. Of all Pyongyang’s neighbors, it has the most intricate and rosy relationship with Beijing. Today Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao welcomed North Korean Prime Minister Kim Yong-Il (not to be confused with Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il) to Beijing. The two men held a very cordial conversation […]
The FOMC today announced plans to buy $300B in treasuries and up to $750B in mortgage-backed securities, effectively agreeing to print a trillion dollars. Well, we knew the money had to come from somewhere. When the federal government wants money, there are four places they can get it: 1) Take from other parts of the […]
The legacy of President George Bush is in the making. His ‘war on terror’ ad hominem seem to belong to another time, distant. But as the months and eventually years unfold, the secrets of his administration will come to light. As will all the associated horrors. So Mark Danner writes in the New York Review […]
14. With Russia rearming and China continuing to modernize its armed forces, it is easy to forget that America’s military spending is more than the next 14 biggest countries combined. Graphic from the Economist.
I thought this op-ed by Fareed Zakaria on the Post Global blog was a nice rebuttal to Kagan’s “there’s been no change in U.S. foreign policy” argument, though with a clear cautionary note on what he sees as the continuing dangers of an imperial foreign policy. I would question whether his criticism on that point […]