China’s Richest Man Sees Economic Growth Slowing in Second Half

China’s richest man Zong Qinghou said the nation’s growth will slide further in the second half of the year and proposed cutting taxes and breaking up monopolies to drive an economic recovery.

“People will only invest if there is prospect of making a profit,” Zong, chairman of food and beverage conglomerate Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co. (HWGZ), said in an interview in Beijing yesterday. “Medium and small companies are not willing to take loans. If they can’t make a profit, why bother taking a loan?”

Ποιούς επιχειρηματίες και τραπεζίτες είδε και τι συζήτησε ο Σόιμπλε στην Αθήνα

Του Δημήτρη Μαρκόπουλου

Πλήθος Ελλήνων επιχειρηματιών παραβρέθηκαν στη σημερινή ομιλία του Γερμανού υπουργού Οικονομικών Βόλφκανγκ Σόιμπλε στο ξενοχοδείο Χίλτον στην Αθήνα. Ο Γερμανός υπουργός αν και στην αρχή έγινε δεκτός "μουδιασμένα" -κανένας δεν τον χειροκρότησε κατά την είσοδο του- και ενώ είχε φροντίσει να λάβει δρακόντεια μέτρα φύλαξης που δεν επέτρεπαν καν φωτογραφήσεις εκτός προγράμματος, στη συνέχεια κέρδισε τους περίπου 300 παραβρισκόμενους οι οποίοι τον χειροκρότησαν όταν μίλησε για την ανάγκη εξυγίανσης του ελληνικού δημόσιου τομέα.

'Neural Dust,' Implanted In Brain, May Let Minds interact with machines

Earlier this month, five researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, put out a paper discussing the possible development of mind-reading "neural dust," which could be implanted directly into the human brain to allow people to interact with machines.

The paper is what the MIT Technology Review calls a theoretical study: The idea is "littered with challenges beyond the state-of-the-art."

You Didn’t Build That: The Entrepreneurial State

On July 13, 2012, during the heat of the presidential election, President Barack Obama was making the point that entrepreneurs are always dependent on investments by the public in infrastructure, education, and science and technology. Describing a highway that enables a small business to ship its goods to market, the president memorably declared: “You didn’t build that.”

The Republicans instantly seized on the ambiguity in Obama’s phrasing to suggest he was expressing a disbelief in entrepreneurship. They said he was arguing that entrepreneurs had not built their own companies. As the Kenyan Socialist they imagined him to be, the president had let slip his true belief that entrepreneurs do not create businesses; governments do.

Mariana Mazzucato easily could have titled her splendid new book “You Didn’t Build That,” because she comes much closer to making the argument that the Republicans imagined the president to have made. In The Entrepreneurial State, she demonstrates that risk-taking by government agencies has nurtured almost all of the key technological advances of the last hundred years. Her goal is to turn the conventional wisdom on its head. Instead of lazy and inept government officials constraining and inhibiting the entrepreneurial initiatives of the private sector, it is timid and short-sighted business people whose incessant arguments for the free market undermine the proven capacity of public sector officials to take the bold risks that bring transformative new technologies.

Palestinians close to resuming peace talks

Israel and the Palestinians appear to be drawing closer to the negotiations table, during the US secretary of state’s sixth visit to the region since taking office earlier this year. According to a Lebanese report, the Palestinians were leaning toward announcing Thursday that they’re ready to resume talks with Israel.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, says goodbye to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas after their second meeting in Amman, Jordan, on Saturday, June 29 (photo credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

Gaps between the Israeli and Palestinian positions have narrowed substantially after US Secretary of State John Kerry met with PA President Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday in Jordan, a senior Palestinian Authority official told the newspaper Al-Mustaqbal. The official said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to a partial settlement freeze and is willing to negotiate on the basis of the 1967 lines. The freeze would not apply to Jerusalem and the major settlement blocs, the report said.

Global attitudes reflect shifting U.S.-China power balance, survey concludes

People around the globe believe that China will inevitably replace the United States as the world’s leading superpower, but that doesn’t mean they like the prospect, according to a new study on global attitudes.

The survey that the Pew Research Center conducted in 39 countries confirms much of the conventional wisdom in Washington about the shifting balance of power between the United States and China.

To barter trade και η Βόρεια Κορέα

Το barter trade (ανταλλαγή αγαθών χωρίς ανταλλαγή χρημάτων) σε βασικά αγαθά και μακροχρόνιες διπλωματικές σχέσεις, είναι βασικό στην κατανόηση της πιο πρόσφατης απόπειρας παραβίασης του εμπάργκο όπλων των Ηνωμένων Εθνών στη Λαϊκή Δημοκρατία της Κορέας (Βόρεια Κορέα).

Στις 16 Ιουλίου ο πρόεδρος του Παναμά ανακοίνωσε ότι η χώρα του είχε κατάσχει ένα βορειοκορεάτικο πλοίο που μετέφερε λαθραίο στρατιωτικό φορτίο από την Κούβα με προορισμό τη Βόρεια Κορέα. Το φορτίο αποτελείται από εξαρτήματα πυραύλων, κάτι που απαγορεύεται με βάση το εμπάργκο όπλων του ΟΗΕ.