Visiting Europe this week, President Barack Obama urged leaders of the European Union to be more forgiving of Greece and its debts. No doubt reflecting on events back home, he said that economic stress and suspicion of unresponsive institutions were empowering populism. Addressing those worries needed to be a high priority, and supporting Greece’s flattened economy would help. He’s ...
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UAE on the right path towards green economy
A dopting green economy is the best way to move towards sustainable development. The UAE has become the first member of World Green Economy Organisation (WGEO). It is a huge step to make the world realize the importance of transforming the business landscape and decarbonizing the economy. A green economy would need coordination between various financial institutions, the civil ...
Read More »Hong Kong needs a champion to preserve its autonomy
When he retired from Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal in 2012, Justice Kemal Bokhary predicted that a “storm of unprecedented ferocity†was gathering over the city’s judicial system and rule of law. Though dismissed as alarmist at the time, he’s turned out to be right. And all of Hong Kong’s friends — both within and abroad — should ...
Read More »Facebook’s algorithms didn’t tilt US election
Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and chief executive officer of Facebook Inc., finds himself in some hot water. His company is being blamed (or credited, depending upon your point of view) for Donald Trump’s election because its algorithms facilitated the circulation of misleading or false news stories. This controversy is misdirected: it should be less about Facebook’s algorithms and more about ...
Read More »How to make drug prices fair for US consumers
Red Jahncke Americans pay far more for branded prescription drugs than people in any other developed nation, exactly the kind of bad deal that President-elect Donald Trump decried repeatedly in his campaign. The U.S. was reminded of this outrage in September when it learned that drugmaker Mylan NV has been charging Americans more than $600 for its EpiPen two-pack ...
Read More »Deterrence should come before detente
The White House sent a secret “hotline”-style message to Russia on Oct. 31 to warn against any further cybermeddling in the U.S. election process. Russia didn’t escalate its tactics as Election Day approached, but U.S. officials aren’t ready to say that deterrence worked. The previously undisclosed message was part of the high-stakes game of cyber brinkmanship that has been ...
Read More »IoT can be found everywhere, except in GDP data
In the world of making everyday life more digital, something is starting to tip. You can see it at Noyes Air Conditioning Inc. on Monday mornings. They used to be a nightmare, as recently as 2013, says General Manager Chris Kaufman in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Seventy technicians would dump a week’s worth of service tickets on accountants who’d then scramble ...
Read More »How not to fight climate change, pipeline edition
A pipeline in North Dakota has become a rallying cry for protesters seeking to stop new fossil fuel projects. Their goal — reducing emissions — is the right one, but their methods —opposing and sabotaging pipelines — are wrong. Climate Change Maybe the pipeline, which once completed would carry oil to a shipping terminal in Illinois, needs to be ...
Read More »South Korea needs an urgent revamp
South Korean President Park Geun-hye is in the middle of a political scandal that may lead to her impeachment. It centres on Choi Soon-sil, a shadowy confidant of the president, accused of using her personal ties with Park to coerce local firms to donate millions of dollars to non-profit foundations Choi set up and then used for personal gain. ...
Read More »India’s new strike against black money backfires
One week after India’s sudden declaration that 500- and 1,000-rupee notes were no longer legal tender, the economy is in chaos. And that’s perhaps because the policy was designed as much to shock and awe observers with the government’s command of the Indian economy as to control India’s “black money†problem. What seemed at first to be a masterstroke ...
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