CEF Blogs
When Nixon went to China he changed the global strategic map with one stroke, and of course the Chinese knew what he was doing. Could the US change the strategic map of the Middle East by bringing together Iran and Turkey? It's a thought.
One of the most fascinating historical questions is why the mid-19th century modernisation of Japan succeeded and why it failed in China. Given the commitment made so far to a similar project in Afghanistan perhaps we ought to ask the same question there. A fascinating deconstruction of President Obama's speech on Iraq, speaking 'merican.
As we wind ourselves early every morning merrily through buckets of the world's leading English language media to think about and research Canada's Excellent Future a few key themes have now presented themselves.
Kanae Doi is the Japan Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW). She posted a short but important little piece on the HRW site last week. Her thoughts, a plea really, highlight the great failure of Japan to play a major and sustained role in the spread of human rights in Asia.
Doi’s argument could also act as an Asian policy blueprint for an activist and enlightened Canadian government, were such a thing to reappear at any point.
As financial products have become increasingly complicated, what are the benefits and risks of these technologically driven financial innovations?
Paul Summerville is a senior fellow at the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria. Paul has held senior positions as an economist, equity research director, and Asian regional head at several prominent global investment banks in Tokyo, Toronto, and Boston. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo. Paul ran for the NDP in the Federal Election of January 2006 in the riding of St. Paul's.
Much of the reporting in the West related to Afghan women depicts voiceless victims subjected to relentless discrimination or implies that human rights are alien to Afghan culture, and therefore not something for which there is any homegrown demand.
This is an absolute falsehood which I have addressed elsewhere, see http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2010/womens-rights-are-called-cultural-imperialism.
Catching up with Stephen Roach, previously with Morgan Stanley now at Yale, on the current state of the global economy. Niall Ferguson discusses Siegmund Warburg's view of the UK and Europe.
Fears about the coming impact of massive debt rollover on the cost of capital. How to get people to change.
Stephen Roach speaks.
Martin Wolf on the growing reality that the consumption (US; UK) - welfare state (most of Continental Europe) - export (Japan, Germany, China) model of the global economy of the past quarter century is no longer sustainable. The shift will be awful for many reasons.
Declining velocity of money in the United States is a function of lenders that are afraid to lend, and when then do lend charge extra, and borrowers that are afraid to borrow and can't afford it when then want to. Bernanke's Complaint and other thoughts.
Across countries people aren't dying as young increasingly at the same rate but do die older at increasingly different rates. The British government announces new reforms for its National Health Service (NHS), India's new China strategy, more Wolf on taxing land not income, and America's permanent war debt trap.
Economists use a measure of money supply called 'velocity' that can tell us a lot about the health of the economy. Velocity up the economy is probably in good shape, velocity down the economy is probably not in good shape. Right now velocity is falling. Money's not working.
More charts that underline the near term risk to the economy. The risk of short term debt to banks. A longish discussion of Paul Volker's thinking about US financial reform. Myths about homelessness. And Ian Buruma tries to navigate a normal conversation about Israel.
On the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of To Kill A Mockingbird some commentators are shocked to discover, and thus prone to condemn it, that the book's hero, father, lawyer, and philosopher Atticus Finch, does not try to break the system he was born into but simply navigates it, complete with its prejudices, that are by definition are his too. Deconstructing Atticus.
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About the book
Canada's Excellent Future: Five Simple Steps© will discuss the five steps that can help ensure an excellent future for Canada.
The challenges to an excellent Canadian future need to be understood, studied, and choices need to be made.
Canada's excellent future is a challenge not a statement.
Canada's Excellent Future: Five Simple Steps © will try to navigate and make those choices.
