Global Agenda articles from August 2003

Global Agenda archives from August 2003

Taking offence over a fence; Israelis and Palestinians; An offensive fence.
August 1, 2003... In their Washington talks, President George Bush failed to deter Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, from continuing to build a security fence in the West Bank--to the Palestinians' fury THE talks that President George Bush held on...

An ocean apart; American and European economies; That elusive recovery.
August 4, 2003... America has posted unexpectedly strong second-quarter growth in GDP, owing partly to a surge in defence spending. But Europe is still trailing behind, and economies on both sides of the Atlantic face continued uncertainties SO MUCH for the...

A nuclear breakthrough; North Korea; Willing to talk on America's terms.
August 4, 2003... North Korea has indicated that it is willing to take part in multilateral talks over its nuclear-weapons programme, after insisting for months that it would talk only to America. But many Asian observers continue to worry that North Korea might...

Godly gays seek brotherly love; Sex, religion and politics; Gay guys in frocks shock.
August 6, 2003... The appointment of Gene Robinson as the Anglican church's first openly gay bishop highlights the struggle to reconcile society's growing liberalism towards homosexuality with the still-strong opposition by social conservatives to gay priests...

Bond bashing; Turmoil in bond markets; Farewell, Fannie and Freddie?(Industry Overview)
August 6, 2003... American bond prices have fallen sharply, sending yields up more rapidly than at any time over the past 20 years. This is partly due to expectations that the economy is set to recover, and partly due to forced selling by holders of...

The Nigerians arrive; will Taylor go? The war in Liberia; Enter the peacekeepers.
August 6, 2003... Nigerian peacekeepers have arrived in Liberia amid renewed promises by Charles Taylor, the despised president, to step down. Is peace finally on the way, even without direct help from America? RELIEF may be finally on the way for wretched...

Reform or bust; Latin American reforms; The struggle for progress.
August 7, 2003... Battling against strikes and protests, Brazil's President Lula da Silva is pushing on with his controversial reform plans. Other Latin American leaders, urged on by the IMF and other international bodies, are also struggling to revive the...

Monti v Microsoft; Microsoft's antitrust battles, continued; An ultimatum from Europe.
August 7, 2003... The European Commission gives the world's largest software company one last chance to defend its behaviour before dishing out remedies and fines EVEN critics now admit that Microsoft has matured as a company, in particular after its recent...

A spreading menace.
August 8, 2003... Islamist terrorists have struck again in Indonesia, killing at least ten people with a car bomb at an American-run hotel. Recent successes in rounding up militants across South-East Asia only go to show how far they have spread WHEN a car...

All for one and one for Alstom; France's rescue of Alstom; A controversial re-engineering.
August 8, 2003... The French, it seems, have no word for laisser-faire. The government is rallying to the aid of a beleaguered national champion, the engineering group Alstom, investing €300m of taxpayers' money into the firm as it fights to stave off a...

Keeping the dissidents at bay; The Northern Ireland peace process; Small successes, superficial calm.
August 8, 2003... The head of one of Northern Ireland's remaining active terrorist groups has been convicted. But the dissident groups opposed to the peace process show no sign of disbanding, nor for that matter does the mainstream IRA, despite its continued...

Overproductive and underemployed.
August 11, 2003... America's labour productivity is soaring, but its labour market is stagnant. The economy--"new" or otherwise--is working well below its full potential WHEN American productivity accelerated in the late 1990s, many looked forward to the...

Trouble down south; Unrest in Iraq; Oh no, not Basra too.
August 11, 2003... Continued guerrilla attacks and disquiet in Iraq's second-largest city do not bode well for efforts to restore order ANOTHER week, another batch of casualties among coalition forces trying to bring order to Iraq. On Sunday August 10th, an...

Liberia's despot departs; Liberia's president departs; But the fighting goes on.
August 12, 2003... Charles Taylor, Liberia's outgoing president, has handed power to his vice-president and left for exile in Nigeria. This is welcome news, but Liberia's troubles are far from over "GOD willing, I will be back," said Charles Taylor,...

The Buttonwood column; The message of the markets.
August 12, 2003... American Treasury-bond yields have been rising sharply, a fact which has almost nothing to do with growth prospects or inflationary pressures THE bond market has had a torrid time of it while Buttonwood was sunning himself in Sark, a small...

Call this a ceasefire?
August 12, 2003... Two suicide bombings of Israelis by Palestinian militants have put the short-lived Middle East truce in danger THE ceasefire reluctantly accepted by three of the main Palestinian militant groups at the end of June was intended to end a...

The Fed "does nothing" A stimulating status quo.
August 12, 2003... At its meeting on Tuesday, the Federal Reserve left American interest rates unchanged. It might go on doing so for another year or two ON TUESDAY, the members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) assembled around their oval table,...

Shifting sands; Saudi Arabia; Shifting sands in the desert kingdom.
August 13, 2003... Saudi Arabia has released five Britons accused of terrorism, in the hope of calming its turbulent relations with America and its allies. But, as this week's shootouts between police and militants show, the move will do little to alleviate the...

Mercantilism with Chinese characteristics; China's cheap currency; Holding the world economy back?
August 13, 2003... The Chinese currency is under attack--not from speculators but from finance ministers who think it is unreasonably cheap FIVE years ago, as one currency peg after another fell victim to the Asian financial crisis, the world's economic...

A stimulating status quot; The Fed "does nothing"; A stimulating status quo.
August 13, 2003... At its meeting on Tuesday, the Federal Reserve left American interest rates unchanged. It might go on doing so for another year or two ON TUESDAY, the members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) assembled around their oval table,...

The shoulder-held threat.
August 14, 2003... The arrest of a British arms dealer, caught selling a missile capable of shooting down an airliner to undercover American agents, reflects well on cross-border intelligence co-ordination. But the black-market trade in such weaponry is worrying...

A small step on the road to Cancun; A transatlantic farm-trade agreement; Better than nothing, but only just.
August 14, 2003... Europe and America have presented a plan on agriculture, the main sticking point in the Doha trade talks. But other members of the World Trade Organisation are unimpressed LATE on Tuesday night, bleary-eyed trade negotiators from the...

A dangerous kingdom; Saudi Arabia; Facing up to homegrown terror.
August 14, 2003... British Airways has suspended flights to Saudi Arabia amid warnings by America and Britain that Western targets are under threat. The desert kingdom's crackdown on extremists clearly has not come too soon NOW is not the time for a holiday...

Call this a ceasefire?
August 15, 2003... Two suicide bombings and the killing of a militant leader have put the short-lived Middle East truce in danger THE ceasefire reluctantly accepted by three of the main Palestinian militant groups at the end of June was intended to end a...

The day the lights went out.
August 15, 2003... President George Bush has ordered an inquiry into a massive power failure affecting up to 60m North Americans. Whatever the immediate cause, an overloaded transmission system and poor regulation may be the real culprits SO THIS is what...

Compensation but no real justice; Libya and the Lockerbie bombing; Qaddafi's $2.7 billion rehabilitation.
August 18, 2003... Libya's agreement to admit responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and pay $2.7 billion to victims' families is a step in the rehabilitation of its dictator, Muammar Qaddafi. But he escapes personal blame and remains a menace FOR the past...

The day the lights went out.(North America)
August 19, 2003... A cross-border investigation has begun into a massive power failure affecting up to 60m North Americans. Whatever the immediate cause, an overloaded transmission system and poor regulation may be the real culprits IT HAS all been horribly...

A Nordic no; Sweden and the euro; Protecting the crown.
August 19, 2003... Sweden looks set to vote no in a referendum on joining the euro next month. Other "outs" will take note WHEN does it make sense to join a currency union? Robert Mundell, an economist at New York's Columbia University, argued long ago that...

Giving peace a chance; Liberia's power-sharing deal; This time, maybe.
August 19, 2003... Rebels and government forces in Liberia have signed a peace deal that establishes an interim government to run the country until elections no later than 2005. If all sides preserve the will for peace, the deal could be enough to stop nearly 14...

The price of uncertainty.
August 19, 2003... Why is the equity market so relaxed about the turmoil in the bond market? DO FINANCIAL markets really have double blood pressure: high on the right and low on the left, as per the diagnosis of Groucho Marx's horse doctor in "A Day at the...

A deadly blast in Baghdad.
August 19, 2003... A bomb has ripped through the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, causing many casualties. The attack is part of an escalating series of guerrilla strikes against non-military targets SWIRLS of smoke, a partially collapsed building,...

Battles won, victory still distant.
August 20, 2003... America's defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has visited Colombia to see how its American-backed war on drugs, and on the illegal armies that live off them, is going. Some battles are being won but final victory seems far off COLOMBIA has...

Everyone, and no one, on trial; Britain's Hutton inquiry; Spin-master in the dock.
August 20, 2003... Tony Blair's chief spin-doctor insists he was not responsible for the dubious claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons that sparked a bitter row between the British government and the BBC, and apparently led to a government scientist's suicide ...

Seeking out soft targets.
August 20, 2003... A bomb at the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad has killed at least 24 people, including the UN's top diplomat in Iraq. Will the attack, part of a surge of guerrilla strikes against non-military targets, derail America's efforts to rebuild...

Slaughter of the innocents.
August 21, 2003... After the suicide-bombing of a bus that killed and maimed a number of children, only a crackdown on Palestinian militants will save the peace process SUICIDE attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinian militant groups have been a...

Target: Microsoft; Internet security; An attack of the worms.
August 21, 2003... A new, inelegantly named virus, Sobig.F, is infecting computers around the world. It follows last week's Blaster worm, which caused hundreds of thousands of computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system to crash. Why are internet users...

Homeland insecurities.
August 21, 2003... Although it was not the work of terrorists, the great blackout is reminding American companies that their defences remain haphazard and inadequate WERE the daily assaults in Iraq not enough to alert American firms to the ever-present...

Rethinking Iraq; America, the UN and Iraq; Time for a rethink.
August 21, 2003... A deadly blast at the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad has caused many international organisations to rethink their operations in Iraq. The Bush administration may now seek a new UN resolution that will encourage other countries to...

A death blow for the ceasefire.
August 21, 2003... Israel has assassinated a senior Hamas leader, after one of the group's suicide bombers blew up a bus, killing and maiming a number of children. The tentative ceasefire between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces is over SUICIDE...

Rethinking Iraq; America, the UN and Iraq; Time for a rethink.
August 22, 2003... A deadly blast at the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad has caused many international organisations to rethink their operations in Iraq. The Bush administration may now seek a new UN resolution that will encourage other countries to...

Different this time, maybe; A Japanese recovery? Looking for a way out of the lost decade.
August 22, 2003... A stockmarket rally and stronger growth in Japan. But we've been here before A BUBBLE, a bust and a bounce or two. Japan's economy has had everything in the past 15 years except a sustainable boom. Now, at least, Japanese stocks are...

A death blow for the ceasefire.(Israel and Palestine)
August 25, 2003... Israel has assassinated a senior Hamas leader, after one of the group's suicide bombers blew up a bus, killing and maiming a number of children. The tentative ceasefire between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces is over SUICIDE...

Reading China's tea leaves.(Column)
August 26, 2003... Will China float the yuan, revalue it up a bit, or neither? FORECASTING exchange rates is rather like peering at tea leaves: many clever people get it wrong more than is the norm in financial markets, where the standard is high. The analogy...

Target: Microsoft; Internet security; An attack of the worms.
August 27, 2003... A new, inelegantly named virus, Sobig.F, is infecting computers around the world. It follows the so-called Blaster worm, which caused hundreds of thousands of computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system to crash earlier this month....

Iraq's security void; America, the UN and Iraq; Time for a rethink.
August 27, 2003... Even as humanitarian organisations scale back their work in Iraq owing to security concerns, the Bush administration is reluctant to send more American troops MORE than a week after a massive truck bomb devastated the United Nations...

The usual suspects; Terror in Mumbai; A cycle of vengeance?
August 28, 2003... India's deputy prime minister has accused Pakistan of involvement in Monday's murderous bomb attacks in the heart of Mumbai, the country's commercial capital. The accusation comes as relations between the nuclear-powered neighbours have been...

Jaw-jaw beats nuclear war.
August 28, 2003... Six-country talks on North Korea's nuclear programme have opened in Beijing. Little is expected from them but at least the belligerent North Korean regime is talking GETTING the obstreperous North Korean regime to sit at the negotiating...

Ebbers' tangled legacy; WorldCom; The rocky road out of bankruptcy.
August 28, 2003... WorldCom, now known as MCI, is making great strides in its journey out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as a report by Richard Breeden, a former regulator, acknowledges. But the American telecoms operator still has obstacles to overcome: the state of...

The right fix? A WTO deal on drugs; Big Pharma takes its medicine.
August 28, 2003... India and Brazil are good at making cheap copies of life-saving drugs. Now they can export them too SINCE 1996, Brazil has cut the number of people dying of AIDS in half, by providing patented anti-retroviral drugs to 150,000 people free...

The ordeal of policing Iraq.
August 28, 2003... Security worries continue to dominate Iraq, as aid agencies evacuate their staff following the attack on the UN's headquarters. In a shift, America is discussing the possibility of a multilateral force--under American command IN THE four...

Jaw-jaw beats nuclear war.
August 29, 2003... Six-country talks on North Korea's nuclear programme have ended in Beijing. All they achieved is an agreement to hold a further meeting, but at least the belligerent North Korean regime is talking GETTING the obstreperous North Korean...

The ordeal of policing Iraq.
August 29, 2003... Security worries continue to dominate Iraq, as aid agencies evacuate their staff and Shia leaders come under attack. In a shift, America is discussing the possibility of a multilateral force--under American command IN THE four months since...

WorldCom's unwelcome new suits; WorldCom's rehabilitation; No, Oklahoma.
August 29, 2003... WorldCom, now known as MCI, had been making great strides in its journey out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as a report this week by Richard Breeden, a former regulator, acknowledges. But the state of Oklahoma has filed charges against it, and other...

Dr Spin quits.
August 30, 2003... Alastair Campbell, chief spin-doctor to Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, has resigned--even though both have defended themselves well at an inquiry into the death of a top government official THERE had been rumours for some time that...