Beijing / AFP A US billionaire’s giant gift to one of China’s top universities for a programme echoing Oxford’s Rhodes Scholarships comes as the country seeks to boost its schools’ prestige while tightening ideological control in classrooms. Tsinghua University in Beijing inaugurated its new Schwarzman College at the weekend, named after the co-founder of the Blackstone hedge fund Stephen ...
Read More »TimeLine Layout
September, 2016
-
14 September
Argentina woos investors at ‘mini Davos’
Buenos Aires / AFP Argentina opened a major investment conference, seeking to persuade executives from the world’s top multinational corporations to bet on Latin America’s third-largest economy and its new center-right government. With Argentina stuck in recession, President Mauricio Macri is keen to show foreign investors that things have changed since he took office. The former businessman took over in ...
Read More » -
14 September
Why Trump’s dealmaking could be dangerous
Consider two quotations, the first engraved in modern history and the other less than a week old, and ask yourself what they have in common: “This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. … I believe it is peace for our ...
Read More » -
14 September
Don’t believe the good economic news about Brexit
With the arrival of positive manufacturing and services reports from the U.K., it seems that the British economy is doing fine. There’s dwindling talk of a recession caused by the vote the leave the European Union, and British politicians are wondering if a “hard Brexit†option –rapid withdrawal from Europe without a new trade agreement – might be feasible. ...
Read More » -
14 September
What the US and China should do about Kim Jong Un
In conducting yet another nuclear test last Friday, North Korea has escalated its confrontation with the rest of the world. The regime celebrated, saying it had made progress in miniaturizing nukes and attaching warheads to missiles. South Korea’s president rightly called it an act of “maniacal recklessness.†It’s clear, if it wasn’t already, that North Korea is no longer ...
Read More » -
14 September
Growing plastic culture not good for future
Plastics are destroying our marine life and animals. The ever-increasing trash is polluting the seas and oceans. According to a report few months back, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam made up 55% to 60% of the total plastic found in the world’s marine ecosystem. In Australia, the coastlines are being contaminated by plastic debris. Imagine 12.7 million ...
Read More » -
14 September
Who’s to blame for closing of the world economy?
Pundits and policymakers everywhere are bemoaning the rise of a new, inward-looking populism. Led by the likes of Donald Trump and Nigel Farage, those who’ve felt only globalization’s ill effects, not its benefits, have mounted a fierce counterattack. Border-hopping elites fret that the whole process of opening up and knitting together the world through trade, capital flows and immigration may ...
Read More » -
14 September
What Clinton missed in ‘basket of deplorables’
Hillary Clinton made a mistake when she put half of Donald Trump’s supporters in a “basket of deplorables.†She had already given her big speech on Trump’s ties to the alt right. And she had talked before about some of his supporters being “deplorable.†You could even read her remarks as an attempt to persuade liberals to have more ...
Read More » -
14 September
Spain’s political mess isn’t dysfunction
Spain faces the choice between a third general election in a year or a government based on some painful, improbable compromises. At first glance, this looks like a case study on the dysfunction of European parliamentary democracy. It is, however, nothing of the kind. I’ve heard many Americans say that whoever wins the presidential election, the country will more ...
Read More » -
14 September
Asian markets sink after Wall Street sell-off
AFP Asian markets mostly fell on Wednesday as uncertainty over the future of central bank monetary policy weighed on buying interest while warnings of an extended oil glut sank energy firms. The region’s traders were given a rocky lead from Wall Street where all three main indexes ended more than one percent lower after a plunge in crude prices ...
Read More »