New York Times (April 17)
“If one country defaults on its loans, it’s a big problem for its citizens. If a dozen countries default, it’s a big problem for the world.” Nearing the “verge of yet another debt crisis,” world leaders can still act to prevent it. “They should dust off the tool kit that helped end the Latin American debt crisis, especially the measures that convinced creditors to share the pain and accept less than what they were owed.”
Tags: Citizens, Creditors, Debt crisis, Defaults, Latin American, Leaders, Loans, Owed, Pain, Prevent, Tool kit, Verge
Foreign Affairs (September 2)
“Europe’s supposed commitment to seeing Russia held to account for its actions in Ukraine seems to be trumped by its undeniable energy needs.” An overfocus on symptoms and quick fixes obscures “the path toward energy security.” Absent “coordinated foreign policy—not fragmented individual national responses…. EU member states will find themselves constantly threading the needle between upholding their values and meeting the basic needs of their citizens, a precarious exercise that will hurt the European project itself.”
Tags: Basic needs, Citizens, Commitment, Energy needs, Energy security, EU, Europe, Foreign policy, Fragmented, National, Responses, Russia, Symptoms, Ukraine, Values
New York Times (July 12)
“Mr. Branson’s flight reinforces the hopes of space enthusiasts that routine travel to the final frontier may soon be available to private citizens, not just the professional astronauts of NASA and other space agencies.” Other billionaire entrepreneurs are on his heels, all “risking injury or death to fulfill their childhood aspirations — and advance the goal of making human spaceflight unexceptional.”
Tags: Aspirations, Astronauts, Billionaire, Branson, Childhood, Citizens, Death, Enthusiasts, Entrepreneurs, Final frontier, Flight, Hopes, Human Spaceflight, Injury, NASA, Risk, Routine, Space, Travel
The Economist (May 8)
“India’s national government looks increasingly hapless. Confronted with catastrophe, the state has melted away” leaving citizens enraged. “Indians are accustomed to ineptitude and meagre support,” but “it is a sense of utter abandonment, especially among the politically noisy middle class, that is driving the anger.”
Tags: Abandonment, Anger, Catastrophe, Citizens, Confronted, Government, Hapless, India, Ineptitude, Meagre, Middle class, Support
New York Times (November 26)
“Citizens voted overwhelmingly for pro-democracy candidates” in Hong Kong’s local election this Sunday. “If the Chinese leadership under Xi Jinping had thought that there was a silent majority opposed to the disruptive protests, the turnout and result made clear that a vast majority of Hong Kongers treasure their relative freedoms and have no intention of letting Beijing whittle them away.”
Tags: Candidates, China, Citizens, Election, Hong Kong, Leadership, Overwhelmingly, Pro-democracy, Protests, Turnout, Vote, Xi
BBC (March 29)
“It is certainly the case that not all of our MPs, still less our citizens, would have been reaching eagerly for the bell ropes, had this been Brexit day, as scheduled. Particularly in Scotland.” Instead, “on this non-Brexit day, we might consider the more fundamental issues which have brought us to this impasse,” especially the UK Government’s miscalculation that “the EU would back down at the last moment, as is customarily the case.” Though “the EU has capitulated in the past to dissenting member states, “the UK is on the way out” and “its clout, consequently, is reduced.”
Tags: Capitulated, Citizens, EU, Government, Impasse, Miscalculation, MPs, Non-Brexit day, Scotland, UK
LA Times (July 26)
“Washington’s biggest problem isn’t gridlock or wasted dollars—it’s men…. Men tried to pass a bill that only 13% of Americans supported, contributing to the (true) perception that the majority of Congress does not give a damn about what ordinary citizens think.” Their errant attempts were initially thwarted women who stood up for their beliefs, something they continue to do “even in the face of massive dissent” and political strong-arming.
Tags: Beliefs, Citizens, Congress, Dissent, Gridlock, Men, Strong-arming, Support, Washington, Waste
The Economist (November 21)
“The West has two things to defend: the lives of its citizens, and the liberal values of tolerance and the rule of law that underpin its society. Where these are in conflict, it should choose policies that minimise the damage to values in order to make large gains in protection. Sadly, in the scramble for security, that principle often seems to be the first thing to go.”
Tags: Citizens, Conflict, Liberal values, Lives, Protection, Rule of law, Security, Society, Tolerance
Wall Street Journal (April 10)
“The U.K. and U.S. economies are recovering, and pessimistic predictions that fiscal consolidation was incompatible with economic recovery have turned out to be comprehensively wrong,” writes George Osborne. The UK’s chancellor of the exchequer is equally upbeat that the both countries will surpass the “gloomy arguments” being put forth by pessimists of secular stagnation. Free markets continue to be the “engines of progress…. we can secure lasting economic growth and ensure that all of our citizens benefit.”
Tags: Chancellor, Citizens, Economies, Free markets, George Osborne, Growth, Predictions, Progress, Recovering, Recovery, Secular stagnation, U.K., U.S., Upbeat
The Economist (February 8, 2014)
China is getting “a small breath of fresh air” as new policies stipulate “official data, formerly held secretly, should be published.” This marks “an important step, not just for China’s environment, but also because it gives new power to the large and growing movement of citizen activists who have been lobbying for the government to clean up.”
Tags: Activists, Air, China, Citizens, Data, Environment, Government, Lobbying, Power, Published
