Global Agenda articles from April 2009

Global Agenda archives from April 2009

Unfavoured nation; China and foreign investment; China's troubled international deals.
April 1, 2009... China's troubled international deals Editor's note BUSINESSES around the world may be suffering, but China's largest company, PetroChina, announced its results on March 23rd. Glossing over a decline in earnings, it emphasised capital...

New leader, same old constraints? The ruling parties in Hungary have agreed on a candidate to be prime minister; A new prime minister for Hungary.
April 1, 2009... The ruling parties in Hungary have agreed on a candidate for prime minister Hungary's ruling Socialists and their former coalition partner, the Free Democrats, have agreed on a candidate to lead a new government: the economy minister,...

Memento Meri; The Lennart Meri Conference; Defending liberalism in Tallinn.(Conference news)
April 2, 2009... Defending liberalism in Tallinn BARACK OBAMA, Nicolas Sarkozy and Dmitry Medvedev are looking at an island on a lake. The American president walks there across the water and waits for the others. Mr Sarkozy follows. The Russian head of...

Back to the IMF; Mexico stands ready to tap a new IMF credit line; Mexico could be first to tap a new IMF credit line.
April 2, 2009... The government of Mexico could soon tap an IMF credit line, for the first time since 1995 Amid a deepening recession and eroding international reserves, Mexico's government has said it could soon tap a so-called Flexible Credit Line with...

Lebanon's bankability; Lebanon's central bank governor is cheery; Lebanon's central bank governor remains optimistic.
April 3, 2009... Lebanon's central bank governor is cheery, despite the economic gloom The Lebanese government has concluded a successful rollover of some $2bn of debt that was due to mature this year, and Lebanon's bonds have been upgraded one notch to B2...

The need for speed; Wireless communications; Faster networks sought for mobile video.
April 3, 2009... Faster networks sought for mobile video TEENAGERS are often quick to adopt technological trends. As a result, the monthly mobile-phone bill at Mayhem Manor has gone through the roof. But it is neither the chatting nor the texting that is...

Unexpected friends; Grey whales; How oil companies are helping to monitor whales.
April 6, 2009... The environmental risks and rewards of offshore oil FATE has not been kind to the western grey whale. Its numbers have dwindled to 130 or so, leaving it "critically endangered" in the eyes of the International Union for the Conservation of...

Blood diamonds? Calls to ban the trade in diamonds from Zimbabwe; Are diamonds from Zimbabwe tainted?
April 6, 2009... Calls to ban trade in Zimbabwean diamonds will do little to boost government plans to get investment There have been further calls to ban trade in Zimbabwean diamonds, because of fears regarding human-rights violations. This will do little...

Getting togetherness; Collaboration inside firms.
April 7, 2009... The pitfalls of trying to create a collaborative workplace THE success of the iPod, launched by Apple in October 2001, sparked panic among the American company's competitors. When it became clear that the diminutive device was far...

Reinventing the company; Innovation and patents; Which countries are the most innovative?
April 10, 2009... Patents reveal the most innovative places to do it IMAGINE you are the research director of a high-tech colossus, given the task of transforming your company by devising some game-changing new products. Where in the world would you locate a...

Environmental values; Nature conservation; Putting a financial value on the environment.
April 13, 2009... How to ensure the environment is properly accounted for ANY attempt to put an economic value on fresh air, clean water or tropical rainforests can offend the delicate sensibilities of those who argue that the conservation of nature is a...

Slim spring; Auctions in Asia; Sotheby's trim and tight Hong Kong auctions.
April 13, 2009... Sotheby's trim and tight Hong Kong auctions SOTHEBY'S spring sales in Hong Kong may have spilled over on to an extra fifth day (compared with last year's four), but the final take was far lower: HK$691m ($89m) as opposed to HK$1.8 billion...

On the ball; The business of sport; An IT giant's management style scores in German football.
April 14, 2009... An IT giant's management style scores in German football IT IS now quite unlikely that TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, an upstart football club from a small town near Heidelberg, will achieve the ultimate goal of winning Germany's football...

Accusing Hizbullah; Egypt's security services accuse Hizbullah of planning a terrorist attack; Hizbullah is accused of plotting a terror attack in Egypt.
April 14, 2009... Egyptian charges against Hizbullah risk worsening Arab-Iranian and Shia-Sunni relations The Egyptian security services claim to have found evidence that Lebanon's Hizbullah has been plotting to conduct a terrorist campaign on Egyptian...

On the ball; The business of sport; An IT giant's management style scores in German football.
April 15, 2009... An IT giant's management style scores in German football IT IS now quite unlikely that TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, an upstart football club from a small town near Heidelberg, will achieve the ultimate goal of winning Germany's football...

Havana change of heart; Barack Obama eases restrictions on Cuban Americans; A shifting American approach to Cuba?
April 15, 2009... Restrictions on travel and remittances for Cuban-Americans have been eased. Are more policy shifts to come? The new US administration, as was widely expected, has begun to modify longstanding policies towards Cuba. On April 13th it lifted...

Credit for Poland; Poland asks for a credit line from the IMF; An IMF credit line for Poland.
April 16, 2009... Poland, following Mexico, asks the IMF for a no-strings credit line Poland has approached the IMF for a US$20.5bn, one-year facility. The move is surprising, in that Poland is one of a handful of countries in east-central Europe and the...

Room with a view.
April 17, 2009... Better operating systems than Windows Vista are coming WITH only days to go before the end of the tax year, your correspondent suddenly realised he should replace one of his superannuated computers. The limited budget meant a Macintosh was...

Carving reputations; African art; An inspiring collection from Chaim Gross.
April 18, 2009... An inspiring collection from Chaim Gross ARTISTS were among the first to buy the art that explorers, missionaries and colonial administrators brought back to Europe and America from Africa more than a century ago. Pablo Picasso is the most...

Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble; Tapping natural resources; Using geysers to power copper mining.
April 20, 2009... Chile's energy-guzzling mines look hungrily at nearby geysers SOMETIMES it seems that environmentalists are never satisfied. The mines of northern Chile produce 35% of the world's copper. That takes a lot of electricity. Of all the ways to...

Steady at the helm; Steady at the helm in Denmark; The new prime minister in Denmark faces a strengthening opposition and a deteriorating economy.
April 21, 2009... Denmark's new prime minister faces a strengthening opposition and a deteriorating economy Following the not wholly unexpected decision by Anders Fogh Rasmussen to step down as prime minister to become the next secretary-general of NATO,...

The PCCW buy-out in court; Corporate governance in Hong Kong; A crucial case for shareholders' rights.
April 22, 2009... A crucial case for shareholders' rights IN HIS book "China and Capitalism", David Faure, a historian at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, makes a superb case that China's economic decline in the 19th century had its origins in the...

Voting before the going gets tough; Argentina brings forward mid-term elections; The president of Argentina has brought forward the mid-term elections.
April 22, 2009... The president of Argentina brings forward mid-term elections Argentina's president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, is betting that by bringing forward mid-term legislative elections by four months, to June 28th, she has improved her...

Who's left? Who's right? Moldova; The enduring uselessness of traditional political labels.
April 23, 2009... The enduring uselessness of traditional political labels THE terms "left" and "right" and right don't mean much in politics anymore and in the ex-communist world they are particularly confusing. Last week's report in The Economist on...

Bulgaria's budget blues.
April 23, 2009... Bulgaria comes under pressure from the IMF over the budget The IMF has called on Bulgaria to revise its 2009 budget, insisting that existing plans to curb spending will not be sufficient to avoid a deficit, still less to meet the targeted...

Down the tubes; Broadband communication; Watching television over the internet.
April 24, 2009... Internet television moves from the computer to the living room IN THE land of free enterprise and the home of discount shopping, there can sometimes be an appalling lack of competition. High-speed access to the internet is one. Cable...

Race restrictions in Malaysia; AA policy reversa on race in Malaysial; A change of policy on race in Malaysia.
April 24, 2009... A change of heart by Malaysia's government on race discrimination in some jobs Malaysia's government is set to reverse parts of its long-standing policy of economic discrimination in favour of ethnic Malays and indigenous groups. The move...

Tubular belles; Art Deco painting; Tamara de Lempicka liked sex, lies and cinema.
April 27, 2009... Tamara de Lempicka liked sex, lies and cinema WHEN three of Kees van Dongen's garish women sold in the same sale at Christie's for a combined total of over [pounds sterling]8m ($11.7m) in February 2008, the specialists at Sotheby's must...

Two wheels good; Urban transport; Electric bicycles and scooters.
April 27, 2009... Electric bicycles and scooters are relatively cheap, can ease congestion and are pleasant to ride ELECTRIC cars are all the rage. Every big carmaker seems to be developing one, and governments are vying with each other to support them....

Austerity chic; Shoppers in the downturn; Grocers will suffer in a new era of parsimony.
April 28, 2009... Grocers will suffer in a new era of parsimony SOCIOLOGISTS wanting to understand modern societies could do worse than study their shopping baskets. There is far more to supermarket shopping than just the dry, rational transactions of the...

The political landscape; An altered political landscape in South Africa; The political landscape has changed, a bit, in South Africa.
April 28, 2009... The ANC is a bit weaker and the opposition a bit stronger in South Africa Following its election victory, the ANC and its leader, Jacob Zuma, must try to balance the demands of the impoverished black majority and risk-averse international...

Austerity chic; Shoppers in the downturn; Grocers will suffer in a new era of parsimony.
April 30, 2009... Grocers will suffer in a new era of parsimony Correction to this article SOCIOLOGISTS wanting to understand modern societies could do worse than study their shopping baskets. There is far more to supermarket shopping than just the dry,...

Batten down the cyber-hatches; Cyber-security; Securing vulnerable networks across Europe.
April 30, 2009... Securing vulnerable networks across Europe OVER the past ten years the European Union has failed to protect the continent's energy security. Will it do any better when it comes to cyber-security? At an EU conference on that subject in...