Global Agenda articles from January 2004

Global Agenda archives from January 2004

Ditching the peace; The WTO's "peace clause" expires; Taking farm trade into dangerous territory.(World Trade Organization)
January 1, 2004... Nine years ago, members of the World Trade Organisation agreed not to take each other to court over farm subsidies. But the "peace clause", as this agreement is known, expired on December 31st. Will its end mean the beginning of a trade war?...

Bring on the marshals; Homeland security in America and Europe; Danger in the skies.
January 2, 2004... As some airlines cancel flights to Washington, officials say America may be at the highest risk of a terrorist attack since September 11th 2001. Will putting armed air marshals on international flights, and introducing biometric identification...

Back to basics; The car industry; U-turn in Detroit.
January 5, 2004... Having concentrated on SUVs, pick-ups and minivans for the past decade, America's big auto companies are rediscovering the passenger car FOR much of the past decade, America's Big Three carmakers--Ford, General Motors and Chrysler (now...

A $45 billion shot in the arm.(China economic conditions)
January 6, 2004... A massive cash infusion for two of China's largest state-owned banks is just the beginning of a much-needed overhaul of the sickly financial sector CHINA'S newish prime minister, Wen Jiabao, is a geologist by training. So far, the...

Back to playing cricket.(Pakistan and India make great strides towards peace )
January 6, 2004... In a breakthrough in the long-running Kashmir conflict, India and Pakistan have jointly announced that peace talks will start next month INDIA and Pakistan have already been to war three times--twice over the disputed territory of Kashmir....

More security, more delays.
January 7, 2004... More than two years after the September 11th hijackings, aviation security is still being tightened, as are immigration procedures. America's stringent new restrictions have provoked a storm IT WAS probably the best-inspected flight in...

The huddled masses can stay.(immigrants influenced the presidential elections)
January 8, 2004... Recognising that America needs the labours of its millions of illegal immigrants, President George Bush is proposing to give them legal status "GIVE me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...Send these, the...

Plenty of crying over spilt milk.(Parmalat S.p.A. securities fraud investigations)
January 8, 2004... Almost a month after the Parmalat scandal first broke into the open, the vast scale of the fraud at the insolvent food and dairy group is becoming clear. The company has been compared to Enron, but there are crucial differences IT HAS been...

More security, more delays.
January 9, 2004... More than two years after the September 11th hijackings, aviation security is still being tightened, as are immigration procedures. America's stringent new restrictions have provoked a storm IT WAS probably the best-inspected flight in...

Plenty of crying over spilt milk.(Parmalat S.p.A. securities fraud)
January 9, 2004... Almost a month after the Parmalat scandal first broke into the open, the vast scale of the fraud at the insolvent food and dairy group is becoming clear. The company has been compared to Enron, but there are crucial differences IT HAS been...

A trying year.(American financial service sector)
January 13, 2004... Corporate America starts 2004 in its sunniest mood for four years, with profits on the up and the latest scandals--Parmalat and Adecco--reassuringly far away. But the allegations against Enron's Andrew and Lea Fastow and a slew of corporate...

Dollar dilemma.(exchange rate)
January 13, 2004... Nobody has a good word to say about the dollar, which may augur well for the battered currency ONE-WAY bets should be treated with the same healthy suspicion as racing certainties. In the same spirit of scepticism--no more--Buttonwood...

An illegitimate fix; Silvio Berlusconi; Official: he's not above the law.(Italian primeminister)
January 13, 2004... Italy's constitutional court has struck down a law granting Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution. The ruling's impact is likely to be political rather than judicial SINCE becoming Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi has...

Sharon under fire.(Ariel Sharon)
January 14, 2004... Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has been attacked by all sides over his threat to impose his own version of a peace settlement on the Palestinians. His Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qurei, seems uncertain how best to respond ARIEL...

Moon-hopping to Mars.(Mars probes)
January 15, 2004... President George Bush has announced plans to send astronauts back to the moon and then on to Mars. The rhetoric is high-flown; will the cost be astronomical? THE loss of seven astronauts when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on...

Countdown to counter-revolution.(cultural changes in Iran)
January 15, 2004... An attempt by Iran's hardline Council of Guardians to ban many pro-democracy candidates from next month's parliamentary elections has caused a storm of protest. Will it all end in victory for the reformists, or repression? IF A house...

Busted budgets, vented spleens.(analysis of budgets)
January 15, 2004... America's fiscal policy is dangerous, says the IMF. Europe's is illegal, say the bureaucrats in Brussels "I CAN only advise the commission to come out of its corner and stop sulking," said Hans Eichel last November after he and his fellow...

Trying times.(Enron Corp's chief financial officer Andrew Fastow)(cases)
January 15, 2004... Enron's former finance chief has admitted two fraud charges and will get ten years' jail. It is a good start to the year for prosecutors pursuing America's biggest financial scandals AFTER months of negotiation, federal prosecutors got what...

Moon-hopping to Mars.
January 16, 2004... President George Bush has announced plans to send astronauts back to the moon and then on to Mars. The rhetoric is high-flown; will the cost be astronomical? THE loss of seven astronauts when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on...

The troublesome, vote-loving ayatollah.(elections in Iraq)
January 20, 2004... America is getting more international help in its quest to build a peaceful, democratic Iraq but, ironically, its plans are under threat because the spiritual leader of the country's Shia majority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, is demanding...

Black and the Barclays; Newspapers; The Barclays swoop on Black's troubled empire.
January 20, 2004... The secretive Barclay brothers have offered to buy Hollinger Inc, the holding company for Conrad Black's international media empire. This would alleviate Hollinger's financial problems, but the deal is far from done THE Barclay twins are...

A primer on primaries.
January 21, 2004... What is the difference between a primary and a caucus? Primaries and caucuses allow American citizens to choose their party's presidential nominee, who is then formally anointed at each party's national convention in the summer. Often,...

Surprise in the cornfields.(John F. Kerry's victory)
January 22, 2004... John Kerry won this week's Iowa caucuses convincingly, while the one-time favourite, Howard Dean, stumbled badly, leaving the race for the Democratic nomination wide open. George Bush lies in wait for the winner HE USUALLY seems rather...

Corporate Germany on trial; The Mannesmann trial; Deutschland AG v the Anglo-Saxon marauders.(cases)
January 22, 2004... Some of Germany's most prominent businessmen have gone on trial, accused of a breach of trust in awarding, or accepting, huge bonuses in the wake of Vodafone's controversial takeover of Mannesmann. But many feel the defendants should be...

Inflated fears, deflated hopes.(China and Japan)
January 22, 2004... The Chinese fear inflation; the Japanese long for it WILL the year of the monkey be marked by economic mischief? The Chinese celebrated the lunar new year on Thursday January 22nd, gladdened by the news that the economy grew by 9.1% in...

Kodak changes the picture.(management and securities)
January 22, 2004... Kodak's shares jumped this week on some sobering news: the photographic company is cutting its workforce by a fifth. Has Kodak finally grasped what it needs to do to compete successfully in digital photography, or has it missed the point? ...

A hard-fought battle for New Hampshire; America's Democrats; Kerry on a roll.(presidential candidate John F. Kerry)
January 22, 2004... All eyes are on next Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire, following Senator John Kerry's surprising victory in Iowa RATHER in the spirit of their state's motto ("live free or die"), New Hampshire's voters insist they...

Corporate Germany on trial; The Mannesmann trial; Deutschland AG v the Anglo-Saxon marauders.
January 23, 2004... Some of Germany's most prominent businessmen have gone on trial, accused of a breach of trust in awarding, or accepting, huge bonuses in the wake of Vodafone's controversial takeover of Mannesmann. But many feel the defendants should be...

Kodak changes the picture.(Eastman Kodak Co's securities up)
January 23, 2004... Kodak's shares jumped this week on some sobering news: the photographic company is cutting its workforce by a fifth. Has Kodak finally grasped what it needs to do to compete successfully in digital photography, or has it missed the point? ...

One Europe, united in fiscal misrule.(European Union members)
January 26, 2004... In the realm of public spending, many of the European Union's new entrants are faithfully living up to the standards of the union's founding members. Oh dear IN MAY of this year, the European Union (EU) will take in ten new members. Four...

Sharon fights on; Sharon under investigation; The warrior-leader's last stand?(Israel prime minister Ariel Sharon)
January 26, 2004... It looks increasingly likely that bribery and corruption allegations against the Israeli prime minister will force him from office WITH a new attorney-general now in place, Israel has begun a final countdown to a potentially fateful...

Bush and Blair under fire.(American president George W. Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair for Iraq war)
January 27, 2004... The American and British leaders are under renewed attack over their case for war and how they handled officials who questioned it TEN months after America and Britain led the invasion of Iraq which successfully toppled Saddam Hussein,...

The right medicine? Pharmaceutical mergers; Sanofi tilts at Aventis.(Aventis S.A. merges with Sanofi S.A.)
January 27, 2004... Sanofi-Synthelabo has launched a hostile bid for its larger rival, Aventis, valued at around €48 billion. Will this attempt to create a French national champion in pharmaceuticals set off a chain reaction? OVER the weekend the...

What's puffing up profits?(financial sector analysis)
January 27, 2004... Investors are seeing what they want to see in the corporate-profits picture THERE you are, trying to map-read your way to somewhere you've never been to, having already taken an unconscionably large number of wrong turns, and every other...

Blair survives an ordeal.(Tony Blair is cleared by a judicial inquiry)
January 28, 2004... After surviving a parliamentary rebellion over tuition fees, Britain's leader has been cleared over the death of a government arms expert. Not so the BBC, whose chairman has resigned. But the failure to find banned Iraqi weapons remains an...

Averting a global plague.
January 28, 2004... UN agencies have appealed for funds to halt the rapid spread of a lethal strain of bird flu, which they fear could soon evolve into a deadly human disease. Is a global pandemic far worse than the SARS outbreak on the way? THE great...

Sharon fights on; Sharon under investigation; The warrior-leader's last stand?(Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon)
January 29, 2004... It looks increasingly likely that bribery and corruption allegations against the Israeli prime minister will force him from office WITH a new attorney-general now in place, Israel has begun a final countdown to a potentially fateful...

Blair survives an ordeal.(British Prime minister Tony Blair)
January 29, 2004... After surviving a parliamentary rebellion over tuition fees, Britain's leader has been cleared over the death of a government arms expert. Not so the BBC, whose two top bosses have resigned. But the failure to find banned Iraqi weapons remains...

Another coup for Kerry.(John F. Kerry's wins in New Hampshire)
January 29, 2004... Having decisively won New Hampshire's primary, Senator John Kerry is the man to beat in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. But he could still be toppled as campaigning moves south TWO weeks ago John Kerry, the junior...

Auntie's biggest bloomer.(British Broadcasting Corporation strives hard to presnt itself clean)
January 30, 2004... The world's leading public-service broadcaster is in turmoil after being criticised severely in the Hutton report. Can it restore its reputation as a reliable news source? FEW institutions are as central to the life of a nation as the...

Easy money; American interest rates; Is the Fed running risks with inflation?
January 30, 2004... Is America's Federal Reserve running risks with inflation? THE Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged at 1% this week, and said it could still afford to be "patient" before raising rates. Although many economists do not expect...

Saddam's elusive arsenal.
January 31, 2004... With weapons of mass destruction seemingly absent from Iraq, Tony Blair and George Bush face calls from opposition leaders for independent inquiries into pre-war intelligence--and how politicians used it BRITAIN'S prime minister, Tony...