Financial Times (October 31)
“In the past 10 years, South America never had it so good” as economies soared, fortunes were made and poverty fell. Now, however, “there is a new sense of anxiety” as China’s economy slows and commodity prices drop. “Like all good things… the party is ending.”
Tags: Anxiety, China, Commodity prices, Economy, Fortunes, Poverty, South America
Institutional Investor (October 29)
“The U.S. is finally enjoying a self-sustaining economic recovery, but slow global growth remains a concern, and financial markets are bouncing up and down by the day.”
Wall Street Journal (October 29)
Spain may be Europe’s “only real turnaround story in this crisis.” Growth looks poised to hit 1.3% for 2014. “The economy added 151,000 jobs, and unemployment fell 0.8 percentage points.” But Spain remains a qualified success. At 23.7%, the unemployment rate is “still a numbing figure, but well down from last year’s 26%.”
Tags: Crisis, Economy, Europe, Growth, Jobs, Spain, Turnaround, Unemployment
New York Times (October 28)
“It is anyone’s guess how much more turmoil the Ukrainian people can take after they have watched their country battered, dismembered and bankrupted.” Nevertheless, Sunday’s elections “demonstrated that a large majority still support reform and a Westward course. At this critical juncture, it is imperative that the United States and European Union support them with immediate, tangible and generous support.”
Los Angeles Times (October 26)
“North Korea is, by all accounts, on the brink of enormous change. It is a failed state, isolated and mostly reliant on foreign aid. It exists in an ideological reality that is anachronistic and contradictory. Discontent is growing.” Yet those of us in the west often remain ignorant of how deep the discontent runs because the media presents an inaccurate picture of the hermit kingdom.
Tags: Anachronistic, Change, Contradictory, Discontent, Failed state, Foreign aid, Hermit kingdom, Isolated, Media, North Korea
The Economist (October 25)
“America and its friends benefit from falling oil prices; its most strident critics don’t.” The price of crude has dropped substantially, about $30 a barrel, since June. While the IMF estimates the cheaper crude will benefit global GDP overall by 0.2%, there are some winners and losers. The biggest losers “are three vitriolic critics of America: Venezuela, Iran and Russia.”
Globe and Mail (October 23)
“It has been a difficult, sad week.” Two shootings shook the Canadian calm, but not the Canadian spirit. “Canada isn’t going anywhere. Nothing about what makes us, us, is ‘over.’ We have had a bad week. There is much loss to mourn. But we are still here. We are still standing. The True North remains, strong and free.”
Bloomberg (October 23)
“It’s easy to see why Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants Japan’s $1.2 trillion government pension fund to start buying more stocks…. But attempts to game the stock market have failed to revive Japan in the past and are doomed to failure again, unless Abe puts more effort into the harder work of real reform.”
Tags: Abe, Failure, Government, Japan, Market, Pension fund, Reform, Stocks
Washington Post (October 23)
It’s reassuring to think “that the Islamic State is its own worst enemy, so extreme in doctrine and practice that it will galvanize opposition within the Islamic world.” The “sobering truth” is less comforting. “The Islamic State also has picked up popular support and the allegiance of other militants in countries as far away as Algeria and Pakistan.”
Tags: Algeria, Allegiance, Doctrine, Enemy, Islamic State, Militants, Opposition, Pakistan, Reassuring, Support
Financial Times (October 22)
“Hitherto it has been assumed that China, rather than western democracies, will face chronic problems of governance.” But China’s political system is not its Achilles heel. “Rather than dismiss the Chinese governing system as fragile and tenuous, we need to understand what has been…. an extraordinarily successful institution, one that the world will increasingly come to recognise it must learn from.”
Tags: Achilles heel, China, Democracies, Governance, Institution, Successful
