The jobs report is out and like all of the other economic indicators, it shows that the US economy is going nowhere fast. The whole of this year has been about watching the optimism that started the year turn sour bit by bit as the remaining effects fr…
Continue readingTag: China
Things Are Good: Like Bixi….but Waaaaaay Bigger
At a time when owning a car in China has become the ultimate symbol of success, it’s very encouraging to see systems like Hangzhou’s bike share working so well.
The city of Hangzhou, with its population of roughly seven million, has 50 000 bikes in their bike share program!
Hangzhou’s 2,050 bike-share stations are spaced less than […]
RedBedHead: The Tories’ Bankrupt Brains
“I see, said the blind man to the deaf dog, who wasn’t listening anyway” is a phrase that comes to mind reading reports of federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s press conference on the economy. Generally speaking we expect governments to do more to s…
Continue readingRedBedHead: The Return Of Stagflation?
Those of us around in the 1970s will remember the term stagflation – a combination of economic stagnation and inflation that created a conundrum for bourgeois economists: do you move to rein in inflation by tightening credit and imposing wage and price…
Continue readingNo jasmine revolution for China—Pew survey
With revolution all the rage, so to speak, in the Middle East, pundits have been pondering the prospects of similar passions being sparked elsewhere. Inevitably China, the blossoming superpower on everyone’s mind, comes up for consideration. To examine…
Continue readingJimBobby Sez: Is Canadian Uranium Fueling Iran’s Nuclear Program? Follow the links.
Whooee! Well, friends an’ foes, seems like a dog’s age since I done any boogin’. I been twitterin’ up a storm but I reckon I ain’t been motivated enough to typewrite more’n a hunnert an’ forty characters at a time. Until now, that is.
Wh…
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: China: Fear of its Rise is Fear of Ourselves
A recent Economist article, The dangers of a rising China, leads a 14 page report loosely discussing the dangers posed to the world by China’s eclipsing of the USA’s international economic and military order. The article attempts to draw parallels in the power-balance shift between Britain and Germany which led
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: Switzerland: Swiss Franc -ly Under Attack
Separate reports this week in the Swiss newspaper Neue Zuericher Zeitung (NZZ) are highlighting the difficult choices Switzerland, and by extension other nations, are facing in the continued onslaught of effective currency devaluation by US and Eurozone officials. The Greenback and the Euro have fallen significantly against the Franc and
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: Peas in a Water Pod: China, India and Bangladesh; Atlanta, Alabama and Florida
Two Economist articles of recent publication draw attention to the imminent threat that the availability of water, or the lack thereof, poses to social, political and economic stability. A Himalayan rivalry, Aug 21; and Chattahoochee blues, Sept 18; describe current and potential disputes on both domestic and international levels. In
Continue readingCameco, poisoning minds and kids
Not only is Cameco poisoning northern Saskatchewan through its uranium mining practices, but it is also poisoning the minds of children who happen to take in the Much More Munsch display at the Children’s Discovery Museum in Saskatoon. As cor…
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: East eats West?
This week’s Economist magazine’s headlining articles and cover-page, ‘Buying up the world- The coming wave of Chinese takeovers’ highlight the process and nature of foreign takeovers by Chinese firms. The piece offers surprisingly little discussion or speculation as to China’s deeper motivations and timing in its recent takeover bids for
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: Seoul G20: Perplexing Conclusion, Clear Result
The conclusion of the most recent G20 summit in Seoul last Friday, hailed as a success for political reasons by attending politicians, was punctuated with the following agreed upon statement: “Uneven growth and widening imbalances are fueling the temptation to diverge from global solutions into uncoordinated action… uncoordinated policy actions
Continue readingTattered Sleeve: Greenbacked-up as hell and not taking it anymore
Roll out red carpetsHere come the China boys– The Payola$ (1979)A report by Robert Fisk (the only Western journalist to ever interview Osama bin Laden) in today’s Independent augurs ill for the continuance of the United States’ dominance of world fina…
Continue reading