Global Agenda articles from July 2006

Global Agenda archives from July 2006

Calderon's close contest; In the balance.(Felipe Calderon)
July 3, 2006... Mexico faces an edgy day or two pending a final outcome to Sunday's close-run presidential vote AS MORE votes were counted today from Mexico's close-run presidential election on Sunday, victory looked increasingly likely for Felipe...

Off with their EADS.
July 3, 2006... Managers at EADS and Airbus need to spend less time squabbling and more time making decent planes ADMIRERS of European integration used to cite Airbus, a Franco-German plane maker, and its parent company, EADS, as a fine example of how...

Central Europe's muddled politics.(parliamentary elections in Czech Republic and Slovakia)
July 3, 2006... The Czech Republic goes nowhere, and Slovakia goes wrong ONE does well and the other badly. That has been true (one way or another) for the Czech Republic and Slovakia since they split at the end of 1992. But now the Slovaks, who were doing...

Calderon's close contest.(Mexico waits for its next president , Felipe Calderon runs for the presidential seat)
July 4, 2006... Mexico awaits an official outcome to Sunday's presidential vote FINANCIAL markets in Mexico rose sharply on Monday and Tuesday in the belief that Felipe Calderon, the candidate of the centre-right, had won Sunday's presidential election....

So much hot air; The Buttonwood column: So much hot air; Europe's carbon-trading scheme has started awkwardly.(emissions trading scheme, air pollution control forecast and trends)
July 4, 2006... Europe's carbon-trading scheme has started awkwardly but could be a useful model IMAGINE a world in which the driver of a small, fuel-efficient car, or even a cyclist, can sell his quota of pollution credits to the owner of a gas-guzzling...

Three carmaker pile-up.
July 4, 2006... An alliance between Renault, Nissan and General Motors could transform the car industry, if GM only agrees to it GENERAL MOTORS (GM), the world's largest carmaker, has looked more and more looked like an old banger lately, sputtering on in...

Calderon's close contest.(Democratic Revolution Party's Lopez Obrador)(Institutional Revolutionary Party's Roberto Madrazo)(National Action Party's Felipe Calderon )
July 5, 2006... Mexico awaits an official outcome to Sunday's presidential vote FINANCIAL markets in Mexico rose sharply on Monday and Tuesday in the belief that Felipe Calderon, the candidate of the centre-right, had won Sunday's presidential election....

Central Europe's muddled politics.(Slovak National Party's Jan Slota,)(Vladimir Meciar)
July 5, 2006... The Czech Republic goes nowhere, and Slovakia goes wrong ONE does well and the other badly. That has been true (one way or another) for the Czech Republic and Slovakia since they split at the end of 1992. But now the Slovaks, who were doing...

So much hot air; The Buttonwood column: So much hot air; Europe's carbon-trading scheme has started awkwardly.
July 5, 2006... Europe's carbon-trading scheme has started awkwardly but could be a useful model IMAGINE a world in which the driver of a small, fuel-efficient car, or even a cyclist, can sell his quota of pollution credits to the owner of a gas-guzzling...

Three carmaker pile-up.
July 5, 2006... An alliance between Renault, Nissan and General Motors could transform the car industry, if GM only agrees to it GENERAL MOTORS (GM), the world's largest carmaker, has looked more and more like an old banger lately, sputtering on in the...

Backfiring.
July 5, 2006... North Korea's missile test gets attention but not the right results BY TEST-LAUNCHING a string of missiles on Tuesday July 4th North Korea achieved a number of small results which it probably found gratifying. It poked a finger in...

Backfiring.
July 6, 2006... North Korea's missile tests get attention but not the right results BY TEST-LAUNCHING a string of missiles on Tuesday July 4th North Korea achieved a number of small results which it probably found gratifying. It poked a finger in...

High and mighty.(China's new railway through Tibet)
July 6, 2006... China's new railway through Tibet HOWEVER questionable the political logic behind China's new railway linking the city of Golmud in Qinghai province with Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, the practical achievement is a formidable one. Built at...

Working out who's out of work.
July 7, 2006... Unemployment rates are what you make of them AMERICA said on Friday July 7th that its unemployment rate for June held steady at 4.6%. On the face of it, this would suggest a pretty healthy labour market, one where the supply and the take-up...

Happy days in Novi Sad.
July 7, 2006... Franz Ferdinand rocks the Balkans, and lives to tell the tale IF THE words "Franz Ferdinand", "Serbs" and "the Balkans" make you think only of the assassination of an archduke of that name by a Serb in Sarajevo in 1914, you are just not...

Three carmaker pile-up.
July 10, 2006... An alliance between Renault, Nissan and General Motors could transform the car industry, if GM only agrees to it GENERAL MOTORS (GM), the world's largest carmaker, has looked more and more like an old banger lately, sputtering on in the...

Reckoning with Russia.(G8 summit)
July 10, 2006... A few things the West should tell Mr Putin, when it has his ear WHEN the leaders of the world's rich democracies gather in St Petersburg this coming weekend for the first G8 summit hosted by Russia, they should feel awkward and embarrassed...

Brothers grim.
July 10, 2006... Poland ditches a good prime minister for a bad reason THERE are governments that are strong, and governments that are good, but never governments that are both things at once. That is Polish politics in a nutshell; and the fall of another...

Reckoning with Russia.(G8 summit)
July 11, 2006... A few things the West should tell Mr Putin, when it has his ear WHEN the leaders of the world's rich democracies gather in St Petersburg this coming weekend for the first G8 summit hosted by Russia, they should feel awkward and embarrassed...

Sting in the tail; The Buttonwood column: Sting in the tail; Fashions versus fundamentals in the equity market.
July 11, 2006... Fashions versus fundamentals in the equity market In "The Long Tail", a widely praised new book by Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired and once a journalist at The Economist, many of the graphs showing demand curves for products from the...

The axis powers.(Iran and North Korea)
July 11, 2006... Iran and North Korea, the two remaining members of the "axis of evil", are vying to cause the most trouble THE United Nations Security Council is this week occupied with the task of agreeing on a resolution to chastise North Korea for...

Reckoning with Russia.(G8 summit)
July 12, 2006... A few things the West should tell Mr Putin, when it has his ear WHEN the leaders of the world's rich democracies gather in St Petersburg this coming weekend for the first G8 summit hosted by Russia, they should feel awkward and embarrassed...

Bombs on the track.(terrorist bomb attack on Mumbai's commuter trains)
July 12, 2006... A terrorist bomb attack on Mumbai's commuter trains has killed more than 180 people Life in Mumbai, India's commercial capital, is beginning to return to normal after seven co-ordinated bomb blasts on rush-hour commuter trains killed more...

The axis powers.(nuclear non proliferation)
July 13, 2006... Iran and North Korea, the two remaining members of the "axis of evil", are vying to cause the most trouble THE United Nations Security Council is this week occupied with the task of agreeing on a resolution to chastise North Korea for...

Bombs on the track.
July 13, 2006... A terrorist bomb attack on Mumbai's commuter trains has killed nearly 200 people LIFE in Mumbai, India's commercial capital, is beginning to return to normal after seven co-ordinated bomb blasts on rush-hour commuter trains killed nearly...

Rosneft's competitive advantage.
July 14, 2006... Investors are paying a high price for a share of Russia's oil reserves "I AM content", declared Vladimir Putin, Russia's president--and well he might be. As Mr Putin prepared to host the first G8 summit in Russia which begins in St...

From zero to hero?(Japan raises interest rates)
July 14, 2006... Japan has raised interest rates above zero for the first time in years WHEN a central bank increases interest rates by a mere quarter point it is sometimes a momentous occasion. The decision by Japan's central bank to do just that on...

The threat of war.(Israel's campaign in Lebanon )
July 17, 2006... Israel's campaign in Lebanon is supposed to defeat Hizbullah, but risks destabilising Lebanon and the region as a whole FOR days the pictures from both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border have been unremittingly familiar: buildings bombed to...

The threat of war.(Israel's campaign in Lebanon )
July 18, 2006... Israel's campaign in Lebanon is supposed to defeat Hizbullah, but risks destabilising Lebanon and the region as a whole FOR days the pictures from both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border have been unremittingly familiar: buildings bombed to...

After the G8.
July 18, 2006... World leaders have finished their meeting in St Petersburg. Russia's Vladimir Putin will count it as a success, though little was achieved THE curse of the G8 struck in St Petersburg, where the world's richest democracies (plus Russia)...

The return of risk; The Buttonwood column: The return of risk; For once, rising interest rates are something to cheer.
July 18, 2006... For once, rising interest rates are something to cheer THIS columnist--though entirely happy in himself, of course--nevertheless regrets that his employer had not posted him to Tokyo during an earlier, altogether wilder era: you know, when...

Texas hold-em.
July 18, 2006... The arrest of an online gambling executive in America signals a tougher stand against offshore betting sites. But America's appetite for online flutters has not diminished SMART gamblers know when to quit and when to hold their nerve and...

The threat of war.
July 19, 2006... Israel's ongoing campaign in Lebanon has taken a bloody toll and threatens to cause wider instability FOR a week now, the pictures from both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border have been unremittingly familiar: buildings bombed to rubble,...

Texas hold-em.
July 19, 2006... The arrest of an online gambling executive in America signals a tougher stand against offshore betting sites. But America's appetite for online flutters has not diminished SMART gamblers know when to quit and when to hold their nerve and...

Saying no to stem-cell research.
July 19, 2006... George Bush is expected to veto a bill--for the first time in his presidency--on federal funding for stem-cell research, despite wide support for it from Democrats and Republicans RONALD Reagan used his veto 78 times, and Bill Clinton 37....

An escalating war.
July 20, 2006... The war in Lebanon is claiming more lives and threatening the government of Fouad Siniora, but it is unclear that Israel is achieving its stated goal of weakening Hizbullah ISRAELI aircraft dropped 23 tonnes of explosives on a suspected...

Saying no to stem-cell research.
July 20, 2006... George Bush has vetoed a bill--for the first time in his presidency--on federal funding for stem-cell research, despite wide support for it from Democrats and Republicans RONALD REAGAN used his veto 78 times, and Bill Clinton 37. Now,...

An escalating war.
July 21, 2006... The war in Lebanon is claiming more lives and threatening the government of Fouad Siniora, but it is unclear that Israel is achieving its stated goal of weakening Hizbullah ISRAELI aircraft dropped 23 tonnes of explosives on a suspected...

Microsoft thinks ahead.
July 21, 2006... Microsoft has cheered investors with a multi-billion dollar share buy-back scheme, an admission that the firm has more than enough cash--but, perhaps, not enough ideas--to fight its coming battles BILL GATES has a reputation for giving...

Mixed signals on Lebanon.
July 24, 2006... As violence continues in Lebanon and Israel, the United States suggests that a ceasefire, though urgently needed, is unlikely until Hizbullah is weakened SHORTLY before America's secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, arrived in Beirut on...

The dying of the light.
July 24, 2006... After years of hard negotiations the Doha round of trade talks--that were supposed to boost world trade and help poor countries in particular--have apparently ended in failure IT IS nearly five years since the latest round of World Trade...

Buttonwood; The Buttonwood column: Sell-out market; Wilbur Ross sells his own firm to Amvescap.
July 25, 2006... What Wilbur Ross's sale of his own firm says about the buy-out market IF WILBUR ROSS'S career has proved anything, it is that money can be made from unlikely assets. The latest example, just sold for an extraordinary fee, is none other...

A record-breaking buy-out.
July 25, 2006... The $33 billion private-equity deal to buy HCA, an American hospitals group, is the world's biggest-ever buy-out UNTIL now Kohlberg Kravis Roberts's buy-out of RJR Nabisco in 1989 was the private-equity deal by which all others were...

Seeking a ceasefire.
July 26, 2006... Foreign ministers from Europe, America and the Middle East meet in Rome for talks about ending the violence in Lebanon and Israel. But an international peacekeeping force will take time to deploy AS REPRESENTATIVES of 15 countries met in...

India's deadly Maoists.
July 26, 2006... Police in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh say they have killed eight Maoist rebels, the latest deaths among hundreds in a long insurgency that now affects nearly a third of the country's districts "THE single biggest internal security...

Meanwhile, in Iraq.
July 27, 2006... Violence in Iraq, notably in Baghdad, shows no sign of abating. America's decision to move more troops to the capital city is a sign of desperation ALTHOUGH the world's attention has turned to conflict between Israel and militants in...

Under pressure.
July 31, 2006... North Korea's isolation deepens after China, its one formal ally, appears to take a tougher line against the hermit nation. Financial sanctions might be hurting more than many had expected NEARLY a month after it fired seven rockets into...

A long wait for democracy.
July 31, 2006... Congo's first multiparty election in over 40 years has passed off relatively peacefully. But national reconciliation, after a brutal civil war, is some way off MILLIONS queued up patiently at Congo's schools and churches. Where these were...

After the slaughter in Qana.
July 31, 2006... Israel has partially suspended air operations after its bombs killed 56 Lebanese civilians in one attack. Now frantic efforts are under way to rescue a ceasefire THE timing could not have been worse. Israel's bombing on Sunday July 30th of...