Science and Technology Leadership: A Test for the Emerging Power

The relationship between achievements in science and technology and economic growth has
been long established, but the path is not always predictable. More significant is the overall
effectiveness of a nation’s National Innovation System (NIS)—the process by which intellectual
concepts are moved toward commercialization for the benefit of a national economy. According
to a NIC-contracted global survey of scientific experts, the United States currently boasts a
stronger innovation system than the developing economies of China and India.

Globalization at Risk with the 2008 Financial Crisis?

 

As with most of the trends discussed in this report, the impacts from the financial crisis will
depend heavily on government leadership. Proactive fiscal and monetary policies probably will
ensure the current panic and likely deep national recessions will not turn into an extended
depression, although reduced economic growth could slow globalization’s pace, increasing
protectionist pressures and financial fragmentation.

The crisis is accelerating the global economic rebalancing. Developing countries have been hurt;
several, such as Pakistan with its large current account deficit, are at considerable risk. Even
those with cash reserves—such as South Korea and Russia—have been severely buffeted; steep
rises in unemployment and inflation could trigger widespread political instability and throw
emerging powers off course. However, if China, Russia, and Mideast oil exporters can avoid
internal crises, they will be in a position to leverage their likely still sizeable reserves, buying
foreign assets and providing direct financial assistance to still-struggling countries for political
favors or to seed new regional initiatives. In the West, the biggest change—not anticipated
before the crisis—is the increase in state power. Western governments now own large swaths of
their financial sectors and must manage them, potentially politicizing markets.

TheEconomist: Put the ball in the ECB's court

BREUGEL'S blog rounds up a number of blog opinions on the European Central Bank's move toward explicit conditionality in its policy making, like so:

In the Q&A session following his Introductory Statement Mario Draghi said that “the guidance that we have given to the committees of the ECB differs from the previous programme” [since] “we have explicit conditionality here”. “The first thing is that governments have to go to the EFSF”, but “to go to the EFSF is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one”. “When governments have actually fulfilled the necessary conditions, namely have undertaken fiscal and structural reforms and applied to the EFSF with the right conditionality. At that point, we may act, if needed.”

Can the Eurozone be Saved? by Henning Meyer

The Eurozone crisis is becoming ever more complex and cutting through the chase is becoming more and more difficult. My broad analysis of overlapping structural, political and democratic crisesseems to hold up reasonably well but it is time to expand on these categories following a series of conversations I had with a variety of economists. The different crisis strands are coming together in a toxic mix and there is still a significant amount of confusion about the causes of the predicament. This needs to be clarified.

The Structural Crisis

The structural crisis we are facing is a mixture of the design flaws of the Eurozone itself, the construction and functioning of the financial sector and the results these design flaws have had in several areas. The Eurozone design flaws mean that one country after the other can be picked out and there can easily be contagion and self-fulfilling prophecies of insolvency across the currency union even though the underlying economic fundamental look sound. These issues have been extensively discussed and are reasonably well understood.

Κλιμακώνεται η ένταση Ιαπωνίας-Κίνας για τα νησιά Σενκάκου

Ένας στολίσκος από περίπου είκοσι ιαπωνικά πλοία έφτασε τα ξημερώματα της Κυριακής στα νησιά Σενκάκου ώστε να επιβεβαιώσει την κυριαρχία της Ιαπωνίας στη συστάδα αυτή των νησιών που διεκδικούνται από το Πεκίνο, δήλωσε δημοσιογράφος του Γαλλικού Πρακτορείου Ειδήσεων (AFP) που επιβαίνει σε ένα από τα σκάφη.

Ο στολίσκος με περίπου 150 άτομα έφτασε στις 5:30 τοπική ώρα, (20:30 GMT ) στο κύριο νησί του αρχιπελάγους.

Με «προτροπή» του Στέιτ Ντιπάρτμεντ το πραξικόπημα στην Τουρκία

Η Αμερική, και συγκεκριμένα ο τότε υπουργός Εξωτερικών της κυβέρνησης Μπιλ Κλίντον, Γουόρεν Κρίστοφερ, προέτρεψε τον Οκτώβριο 1996 τους τούρκους στρατιωτικούς να ανατρέψουν την κυβέρνηση Ερμπακάν, όπως διαπίστωσε η έρευνα της τουρκικής Βουλής για τον ρόλο του Στρατού στα πραξικοπήματα και αποκάλυψαν χθες τουρκικές εφημερίδες και πρόσωπα του παλιού πολιτικού κατεστημένου.

Ο πρόεδρος της επιτροπής Γιασάρ Καραγέλ κάλεσε τον αμερικανό πρεσβευτή Φράνσις Ριτσιαρντόνε «για σχετικές εξηγήσεις».