Financial Times (June 6)
“The world’s trading system needs to ditch its paper trail.” The current global trading system “is suffocating under a mountain of billions of paper documents.” A recent survey “found 35 per cent of UK companies trading internationally say bureaucracy is a barrier to their business overseas. At the same time, 65 per cent said they will remove paper as soon as laws enable them to do so.” Estimates show that removing paper barriers to trade in the Commonwealth alone, “would deliver $1.2tn in economic growth by 2026. It would also reduce trade transaction costs by 80 per cent and enable more SMEs to participate. If combined with customs digitalisation, this number increases to $2tn.”
Tags: $1.2tn, Barrier, Bureaucracy, Commonwealth, Customs digitalization, Economic growth, Global, Laws, Overseas, Paper documents, Suffocating, Trading system, Transaction costs, UK companies
The Economist (October 19)
“Constitutionally, the emperor is ‘the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people’. But the imperial cocoon in which he is kept risks making him more of a relic. Much like his father, Emperor Naruhito is relatively informal when touring the country, petting dogs and chatting with schoolchildren.” However, “the royal family has scant leeway to make itself more relevant” as it remains bound by “stifling bureaucracy and ritual.”
Tags: Bureaucracy, Constitution, Emperor, Imperial cocoon, Informal, Naruhito, Relic, Risks, Royal family, Stifling, Symbol, Unity
Washington Post (November 13)
“Nobody, probably including Donald Trump himself, really knows what he will do in foreign affairs. The fear is he will drive the world deeper into chaos and start a global trade war, or maybe a real war. The hope is that he will be tamed, as outsiders promising radical change frequently are, by sane advisers, the bureaucracy, Congress and — just maybe — a sense of the responsibilities of office.”
Tags: Advisers, Bureaucracy, Chaos, Congress, Foreign affairs, Trade war, Trump, War
Time (October 26)
“The approval of Heathrow’s extension risks being not a symbol of Britain’s openness to global investment, but a reminder that the country is frequently hamstrung by turgid, centralized bureaucracy, deficient planning laws that act as a brake on growth, and a thornily complicated legal system that can bind up investors in court for decades.” Though the British Government approved expansion of Heathrow Airport, this is just the beginning of the process, which still requires a vote of Parliament next year and subsequent approvals from various governmental bodies. The earliest construction start for the new runway is 2021, with most experts agreeing 2030 is realistic for completion. Some, however, “think it may never be built, that the roadblocks in its way are insurmountable.”
Tags: Approval, Bureaucracy, Extension, Growth, Hamstrung, Heathrow, Investment, Openness, Parliament, Planning laws, UK
Washington Post (May 22)
“With the Asian economic juggernaut coming to an end, due to lower growth in China, an aging Japan and South Korea, and India’s ongoing problems with corruption and a bureaucracy that impedes structural reform, the continent must be viewed from another angle: as a department store of many of the world’s gargantuan political and military challenges. Indeed, unless Asia’s strategically consequential states can significantly mitigate, if not resolve, the region’s political and military deficits, Asia’s rise will never be completed.”
Tags: Aging, Asia, Bureaucracy, Challenges, China, Corruption, Economic juggernaut, Growth, India, Japan, South Korea, Structural reform
Financial Times (December 13)
“France is in a similar situation to Italy. Both are attempting structural reform while fighting the threat of recession and asking the EU—which is to say Berlin—for more leeway on fiscal policy.” The reforms will help to remove “the bureaucratic sclerosis that chokes off innovation and growth.”
Tags: Berlin, Bureaucracy, EU, Fiscal policy, France, Growth, Innovation, Italy, Recession, Structural reform, Threat
The Economist (September 27)
With the Scottish issue solved, the UK now turns to the sticky English question which gives Scottish representatives votes on English issues, without any reciprocity. “It is simply not fair to disadvantage English voters in this way. The system must be changed, ideally in a way that enhances democracy, buttresses the union and does not increase bureaucracy. Sadly, these aims clash.”
Tags: Bureaucracy, Democracy, Disadvantage, England, Reciprocity, Scotland, UK, Union, Voters
Washington Post (May 27)
The EU’s many achievements have been “accompanied by an ever-expanding bureaucracy and a loss of any purpose higher than crisis management, as if the powers that be in the European Union see ‘Europe’ as an end in itself, independent of its actual impact on the daily lives of ordinary people.” It is this disconnect that must be fixed, “otherwise, the very real benefits that union has brought will be at risk.”
Tags: Achievements, Benefits, Bureaucracy, Crisis management, Daily lives, Disconnect, EU, Fix, Higher purpose, Impact, Risk, Union
