European citizens are almost homogenously turning to governments that are promising more "security" and more "protection" from today's challenges and threats. European leaders' discourse has downgraded the commitment to growth, cohesion and convergence. Similarly, self-interest policies overrun the pledge to inclusiveness, deregulation, competition and competitiveness. A re-mix of sovereign-style power and ethno-economic identity make the new euro-conservatism entangle both the idea of progress as well the one of liberty and liberism. The new euro-conservatism appears primarily anti-reformists...
Since the blast of the "Internet bubble" in March 2000 (by September 10, 2001, the Nasdaq had declined roughly 34% for the year, while the S&P index had sunk 18%) a series of ‘Parmalat-style' and ‘Enron-style' defaults in diverse economic sectors have occurred in the US and the EU alike. Profits at U.S. banks declined from$35.2 to $5.8 billion (-83.5%) during the fourth quarter of 2007 versus the prior year, due to provisions for loan losses. As of August 2008 sub-prime-related and other credit losses or write downs by global financial institutions stood at about 500 billion dollars.
Building international capacity for energy, food and climate securityResource scarcity issues – above all climate change and soaring prices for energy and food – are uniquely integrated. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the multilateral institutions and processes charged with managing them. This paper sets out a route map towards the more integrated and effective multilateralism needed for the transitions ahead.
Global issues are diffuse and rest on the decisions and behaviour of millions, if not billions, of people. Governments must respond by changing the way they practise diplomacy, offer development assistance and deploy force. This means making the new public diplomacy a core foreign policy tool.
EXPECTATIONS for the Copenhagen climate conference, held next month in Denmark, have been steadily dwindling. On Sunday November 15th, as Barack Obama toured Asia, he and the Danish prime minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, quietly agreed what many had anticipated—that no binding agreement would be reached at the conference. There is now no hope of new legal targets for emissions-reductions to replace those set out in the Kyoto Protocol and which will lapse in 2012. Instead the pair suggested that the best to be expected is a political deal on cutting emissions.
It's such an honor to receive you here in the northern capital of the Middle Kingdom as you pay tribute to the hub of the already developing 21st-century multipolar world.
Excuse us if we may diverge for a while from the outlines of established diplomatic finesse, but as we fully admire your integrity, honesty and magnificent intellectual accomplishments, allow us to address you with a measured degree of frankness.
Knowledge is a public good for the benefit of all. Acting on this philosophy, EduLab is a model for an alternative knowledge environment and experience, not simply a new e-learning community. EduLab is committed to be open, free, comfortable, inspiring, and practical.
There is no limit to the power of the mind. Convinced of this truth, EduLab model integrates and centralizes multistream channels of contents into a dynamic learner-centered learning experience. EduLab does not replace traditional educational and research institutions but it does all what they do not do.
We took the 10-year total return performance of the S&P 500 back to 1900 (non-inflation adjusted) and charted the results below. When the line is highlighted in red, 10-year returns were lower than they are now.
2008: financial or breakdown crisis? Strategic Outlook
The correlation between economic and financial data with geopolitics endeavours suggests that no long-term economic and financial solution can be implemented without first re-defining a sustainable geopolitical environment. Today time is not ripe to change the 1944-45 balance of world powers. Sooner rather than later it will be possible to tackle this critical issue and to found a more inclusive international governance system, though establishing a new world order. However, it is of paramount importance that the debate and the diplomatic negotiations resume as soon as possible around the reform of the Security Council of the United Nations. The WTO model may prove useful also to reform the IMF and the World Bank systems. This would probably spare the world new geopolitical tensions and armed conflicts. Politics first!
