| The Global Impact of Taiwan's Future
Much has been discussed about China and its growing power. The awakening dragon, the poised-to-be super nation, the astonishing economic growth rate, and the laughable human rights records -- all these aspects have been receiving extensive attention. However, what could be the most important factor in the future of China, or even the world, is mainly neglected: the Taiwan issue.
East Asia has played a key role in globalization, thanks to its rapid economic development. Five of the world's top 20 economies are East Asian nations. Yet it is far from the peaceful region one would like to see. Japan, the second largest economy in the world, has been a historical rival of China, the third largest economy. Both are thirsty for energy resources, and efforts of the two governments to ease hostilities remaining from World War II can be said insufficient at best.
Overseas markets rebound
Remember that 9 percent decline in China's domestic stock markets that set off a worldwide rout in equity prices on Feb. 27? Like a toddler who fell off a swing and clambered back on, the young Chinese market recovered quickly from the tumble. The Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 index has posted a string of new highs over the past week and a half and is now 5.3 percent above its Feb. 26 close. Other developing markets have also bounced back. The MSCI emerging markets index is just a hair below its Feb. 26 close. It's the mature U.S. market that's still aching from the fall. The Dow Jones industrial average, which lost a hair-raising 416 points on Feb. 27, is still 250 points or 2 percent below the Feb. 26 close. Economist Edward Yardeni notes that the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 1 percent in March, ranking only 25 out of 35 among the global stock markets he monitors.
Memo To The Media: How To Cover The Debt Crisis
Well over a year ago, I wrote an article for Harvard's journalism journal Nieman Reports complaining about deeply flawed media coverage of credit and debt issues in America. “There is a credit divide in America that fuels our economic divide," I wrote, warning of a potential economic implosion because so many Americans are trapped by a debt squeeze. I was not alone in projecting a crisis, although my focus was more on the failure of many media outlets to track the problem and ask deeper questions. “Ours has become a nation in which the carrot of instant affluence is quickly menaced by the harsh stick of bill collectors, lawsuits, and foreclosures," I argued. “And yet, this bubble can burst and has: The slickest of our bankers and the savviest of our marketers have been able to undo the law of gravity, that what goes up must come down." One didn't have to be an expert to see the warning signs which have since led to a massive market meltdown, a collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market, bankruptcies by leading financial lenders, billions of dollars in losses by top banks and financial lenders, and predictions of more pain to come for nearly two million Americas facing foreclosures.
German Spending on Information and Communications Technology is ...
DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c53500) has announced the addition of the Frost & Sullivan report: Social Infrastructure & Labor Analysis for the German Information and Communication Technologies Industry to their offering. The global information and communications technology (ICT) industry has provided the supporting infrastructure for economic growth across the world in the last decade. Despite the setbacks following the failure of dot com enterprises, the ICT industry continues to show enormous growth potential. ICT is a vital component of the infrastructural support needed for the development of any economy. Global trends in telecommunications indicate a shift toward open access, creation of a healthy competitive environment, and a consequent drop in prices.
The Mid-Life Crisis of the EU
The 50th birthday of the European Union, born in Rome in March 1957 as the European Economic Community or Common Market -- of Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg -- was a pallid affair. Understandably so. For though the EU has expanded to embrace 27 nations and boasts an economy equal to that of the United States, it is like a man well into middle-age whose career accomplishments are behind him. The EU birthday party was further proof, were any needed, that no transnational institution can elicit the love and loyalty of a country. World Government is a vision of elites no patriot will ever embrace. Men have died in the millions for Poland, France, Italy, England and Germany. Who would walk through fire for the European Union? The EU's champions claim its great achievement is to have kept the peace of Europe.
Britons would rather spend familiar faces
As the Bank of England issues a new £20 note with a picture of economist Adam Smith, a new survey shows Britons would rather carry John Lennon or Winston Churchill in their wallets. A Virgin Money survey of 1,267 people showed they would rather have see better known and more modern people on bank notes. "Brits work hard enough to earn their money, so perhaps we should all have more of a say on whose faces we see when we spend it," said Jason Wyer-Smith, a spokesman for Virgin Money. About three quarters of those polled did not know who Smith was. Top guesses: a politician or an artist. Answer: one of the founders of modern economic theory. Respondents' first choice, with 52 per cent support, was Churchill, the former prime minister who led Britain through the Second World War.
|
