Global Agenda articles from May 2009

Global Agenda archives from May 2009

Illegal aliens.
May 4, 2009... Lax enforcement of the rules on importing wildlife risks harming both ecosystems and people ALMOST every country has at least one environmental scare story involving exotic species. One of America's recent tales of woe involves the zebra...

Assuming the worst; Business and the swine-flu outbreak; How firms' disaster plans may fail in a pandemic.
May 5, 2009... How firms' disaster plans may fail in a pandemic THE parallels are eerie. A few people in a poor country start showing symptoms of a strange disease. Then clusters start popping up around the world, each connected to the starting point by a...

Illegal aliens.
May 5, 2009... Lax enforcement of the rules on importing wildlife risks harming both ecosystems and people ALMOST every country has at least one environmental scare story involving exotic species. One of America's recent tales of woe involves the zebra...

Of dragons and dungeons; Electronic games; Video games move to mobile phones.
May 8, 2009... Mobile broadband is rewriting the rules for video games HAVING once lost badly at three-card brag--poker's brutal ancestor played in the pubs and clubs of Britain--your correspondent worked double-shifts to pay off his gambling debt, and...

Rising storm; Russian banks face trouble; With bad debts stacking up, Russian banks face serious trouble.
May 8, 2009... Russian banks face serious trouble Russia's banking system has so far taken the global financial turbulence in its stride, unlike in 1998 when the system collapsed. Government support, in the form of state loans to banks and borrowers, was...

A poet of light; Art.view.
May 11, 2009... Vilhelm Hammershoi's enigmatic paintings VILHELM HAMMERSHOI, who died in 1916 at the age of 51, lived the life of a recluse and almost never appeared in public. His closest friends described him as a shy, reticent eccentric. Emil Nolde, who...

The more the merrier? Banking and competition policy; Competition among banks may be good for stability, not bad.
May 12, 2009... Competition among banks may be good for stability, not bad RAW deals are just about all bank customers can get these days. Interest rates on savings are pitiful. That much is understandable given the historic depths to which central banks'...

Jobs for the boys and girls; A plan to fight youth unemployment in France; President Nicolas Sarkozy unveils a plan to tackle youth unemployment in France.
May 14, 2009... President Nicolas Sarkozy unveils ay pla"to tacklen youth unemploymen in Francet Responding to a sharp rise in unemployment in recent months, particularly among young adults, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has unveiled an...

Jobs for the boys and girls; A plan to fight youth unemployment in France; President Nicolas Sarkozy unveils a plan to tackle youth unemployment in France.
May 15, 2009... President Nicolas Sarkozy unveils a plan to tackle youth unemployment in France Responding to a sharp rise in unemployment in recent months, particularly among young adults, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has unveiled an "emergency...

Caution needed in China; China's economy is performing well; China's economy is faring much better than most.
May 15, 2009... China's economy is faring much better than most China's first-quarter economic data, which showed 6.1% year-on-year GDP growth and a significant acceleration in quarter-on-quarter expansion, triggered a flood of reports suggesting that a...

Growing on trees; Rainforests; A profitable rainforest.
May 18, 2009... A profitable rainforest A MOST unusual document landed on your correspondent's desk recently: a financial report from a rainforest. Iwokrama, a 370,000-hectare rainforest in central Guyana, announced that it was in profit. It added, more...

Marriages made in hell; The motor industry; The troubled history of carmakers' mergers.
May 19, 2009... The troubled history of carmakers' mergers THE bold attempt by Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of the Fiat Group, to use the crisis that has overwhelmed Detroit to forge a three-way merger between Fiat Auto, Chrysler and General Motors'...

Woman power; Four women become MPs in Kuwait's election; The victory of four women in the election reflects a popular shift against Islamist conservatives.
May 19, 2009... Four women become MPs in Kuwait's election The first ever success of women candidates in a Kuwait election brought unexpected drama to the polls on May 16th. The four women MPs are among 21 newcomers to the 50-seat National Assembly, with...

Marriages made in hell; The motor industry; The troubled history of carmakers' mergers.
May 20, 2009... The troubled history of carmakers' mergers THE bold attempt by Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of the Fiat Group, to use the crisis that has overwhelmed Detroit to forge a three-way merger between Fiat Auto, Chrysler and General Motors'...

Messenger shot; Dubai's outspoken finance chief is sacked by the country's ruler; Dubai's ruler has sacked his finance chief, who has spoken frankly about the emirate's debt problems.
May 20, 2009... Dubai's ruler sacks his outspoken finance chief The dismissal of Nasser al-Sheikh as the director of the Dubai Department of Finance has raised questions about the emirate's plans to tackle its daunting debt-service challenge and...

Laughing matters; Russian political humour; A gas about gas in Russia and Ukraine.
May 21, 2009... A gas about gas in Russia and Ukraine YOUTUBE may not be the most scholarly repository of material about energy security and Russian foreign policy, but it is certainly the most entertaining. This, for example, shows a Russian military...

Surplus for requirements; Norway increases the size of its fiscal stimulus; Norway's government allocates part of its oil wealth to boost a planned fiscal stimulus.
May 21, 2009... Norway increases the size of its fiscal stimulus The government is adopting a more expansionary fiscal policy stance to cope with the economic downturn and avoid a steep rise in unemployment. In its mid-term revision to the 2009 budget, the...