USA Today (May 28)
“Despite what politicians say,” entrepreneurs don’t create many jobs. “Successful entrepreneurs almost always create real value in the economy and grow the economic pie for all of us,” but they “do not always create enormous numbers of jobs, particularly for the middle class.” In fact, “the creative destruction that accompanies entrepreneurship today often destroys middle-class jobs.”
Tags: Creative destruction, Economy, Entrepreneurs, Jobs, Middle class, Politicians, Value
The Economist (April 26)
With the population of those aged 65 and over nearly set to double in the next two decades, many economies seem poised for stagnation. In actuality, there are new possibilities for older workers to continue contributing to the economy. Skilled workers are already doing this, but “politicians need to convince less-skilled older voters that it is in their interests to go on working. Doing so will not be easy. But the alternative—economic stagnation and even greater inequality—is worse.”
Tags: Economy, Inequality, Older workers, Politicians, Population, Skilled, Stagnation, Voters
Wall Street Journal (October 11)
The misleading “story you hear in Brussels, Berlin and Frankfurt” is that “Greece’s fiscal adjustment is on track and its economy is bottoming out.…. Europe’s politicians prefer the status quo of eternal, rolling bailouts because it serves their purposes. They never have to present their taxpayers with a bill for the Greek rescue. And while Greece’s economy never really recovers, it might avoid any new crisis.” The time has come for more realistic reckoning.
Tags: Bailouts, Crisis, Economy, Europe, Greece, Greek rescue, Politicians, Recovery, Status quo, Taxpayers
The Economist (September 28)
“Has Brazil blown it?” The nation had been flying high, with an economy barely impacted by the Lehman crash and the prestige of being selected to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. “Since then the country has come back down to earth with a bump. In 2012 the economy grew by 0.9%. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in June in the biggest protests for a generation, complaining of high living costs, poor public services and the greed and corruption of politicians.” The Economist believes “Brazil is not doomed to flop,” especially if it makes progress in cutting “red tape, merging ministries and curbing public spending.”
Tags: Brazil, Economy, Lehman, Olympics, Politicians, Prestige, Protests, Public services, Public spending, Red tape, World Cup
Financial Times (September 10)
“The sheer triviality of the German election campaign is a tribute to the success of the country. Only a nation that is secure and prosperous could afford to have a political debate that is so focused on the little things of life.” The big debate in Germany is not intervention in Syria or safeguarding the future of Europe. “The moral issue that has divided Germans this election” is vegetarianism. A proposal from the Green party that public cafeterias quit serving meat, one day a week, “has stirred up an impassioned debate about whether politicians have the right to get between Germans and their sausages.”
Tags: Cafeterias, Campaign, Debate, Election, Europe, Germans, Green party, Meat, Politicians, Sausages, Syria, Vegetarianism
The Economist (June 29)
“Over the past few weeks, in one country after another, protesters have risen up with bewildering speed. They have been more active in democracies than dictatorships. They tend to be ordinary, middle-class people, not lobbies with lists of demands. Their mix of revelry and rage condemns the corruption, inefficiency and arrogance of the folk in charge.” Whether it’s Brazil, Turkey, Sweden, Bulgaria, India or elsewhere, politicians should beware.
Tags: Brazil, Bulgaria, Corruption, Democracies, Dictatorships, India, Inefficiency, Middle class, Politicians, Protesters, Rage, Revelry, Sweden, Turkey
South China Morning Post (June 3)
“Loose-lipped politicians are a problem for any government. Japan seems particularly bedevilled by them. Rising political star Toru Hashimoto has been especially insensitive, his recent comments on comfort women heightening regional outrage and prompting criticism in Europe and North America. Coming on the heels of a string of incidents involving dozens of right-wing lawmakers, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe most prominent among them, it is not surprising that the nation is again being called on to apologise for its wartime atrocities.”
Chicago Tribune (January 29)
In the U.S., immigration reform has been a lethal subject for politicians. That is changing. Now that a bipartisan group of Senators have lent support, immigration reform legislation, which would affect 11 million illegal immigrants, may pass. “Americans support it. Latino voters expect it. Democrats want it. Republicans need it.”
Tags: Democrats, Illegal immigrants, Immigration, Politicians, Reform, Republicans, U.S.
Chicago Tribune (December 25)
This Christmas is also “Cliffmas, the day none of us wanted to reach with our elected officials in Washington not through heaving lumps of coal at one another. Remember, all of us are a week from a rush of federal tax increases and needlessly abrupt spending cuts because they wrote this showdown into law last year.” One can only hope that in the coming days, the politicians may “decide they’d rather not toss all of us into the chasm.”
Tags: Christmas, Cliffmas, Fiscal cliff, Politicians, Spending cuts, Tax increases, U.S.
The Economist (October 6)
“For investors around the world, the recovery seems assured. The MSCI global share index has risen almost 10% since July. The credit for this largely goes to central bankers.” This is not, however, a time for overconfidence. “As long as politicians in the world’s big three economies continue to dither, another global recession is possible.”
Tags: Central bankers, Economy, Investors, MSCI, Politicians, Recession, Recovery
