Wall Street Journal (August 20)
“Mr. Modi’s plans to unleash market forces will lift millions of Indians out of poverty, but he also has ideas about how government can better meet the immediate needs of the poor.” Though some of his plans “may sound oddly simple to developed-world ears” (e.g. access to toilets and bank accounts), “the Prime Minister’s humble background gives him an understanding of what the poor need to find their own path to prosperity and the credibility to build a new consensus for those policies.”
Tags: Background, Bank accounts, Consensus, Credibility, Government, Humble, India, Modi, Policies, Poverty, Prosperity, Toilets
Financial Times (February 16, 2014)
The “US and EU must not lose momentum on the TTIP talks.” Successfully concluding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) “would not only bolster prosperity in the participating countries; it could be a springboard for new global trade talks.”
Tags: EU, Global trade, Momentum, Prosperity, Springboard, TTIP, U.S.
Forbes (February 10, 2014)
“Beijing is becoming more dependent on the U.S. and the rest of the world for its strength and prosperity.” Though it may be the largest holder of U.S. Treasuries, this is not a sign of strength. “The idea that a government gains strength by piling up dollars or other foreign currencies is a mercantilist holdover from the 16th to 18th centuries, when France, Spain and others thought amassing gold and silver was how a country became wealthy. Trade, not hoarding, makes for a powerful economy.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Currencies, Dependent, Dollars, Economy, France, Gold, Government, Hoarding, Mercantilist, Prosperity, Silver, Spain, Strength, Trade, U.S. Treasuries, Wealth
Institutional Investor (March Issue)
Chile is facing a “Paradox of Prosperity: Strong growth puts Chile on the verge of becoming Latin America’s first developed economy while fueling popular discontent.”
Tags: Chile, Discontent, Economy, Growth, Latin America, Prosperity
The Economist (February 9)
“Even as another nuclear provocation looms, hope glimmers for the world’s most oppressed people…. a revolutionary force is rising from below: a new class of traders and merchants. Capitalism is seeping through the bamboo curtain.” The North Korean state has repeatedly tried and failed to stamp out this developing class. “North Korea’s capitalists are here to stay” and they are creating cracks from within and deserve the world’s support. “Nothing is more potent than exposing people to the prosperity and freedoms of the world around them.”
Tags: Capitalism, Freedom, Merchants, North Korean, Nuclear, Prosperity, Traders
Forbes (June 25)
“The fundamental importance of sound money has been virtually forgotten by the economics profession today, even though no country has ever achieved sustained prosperity without it. A stable currency is the foundation for the literally billions of transactions and economic arrangements that make growth possible. To simplify, imagine how difficult it would be to function if the number of minutes in an hour were constantly changing. Even cooking would be problematic.”
“The fundamental importance of sound money has been virtually forgotten by the economics profession today, even though no country has ever achieved sustained prosperity without it. A stable currency is the foundation for the literally billions of transactions and economic arrangements that make growth possible. To simplify, imagine how difficult it would be to function if the number of minutes in an hour were constantly changing. Even cooking would be problematic.”
Tags: Economics, Prosperity, Sound money, Stable currency
Washington Post (June 4)
“Can anyone doubt that the euro’s creation in 1999 was a huge blunder? It aimed to promote European prosperity and unity, but it’s doing just the opposite.” Rather than uniting Europe, “the euro now sows rancor” and “actually hinders economic revival.”
Tags: 1999, Blunder, Economic revival, euro, Prosperity, Unity
Wall Street Journal (April 24)
“Europe’s voters have already swept several governments from office, and they seem ready to sweep out more. But what really needs to be swept away is the dominant and debilitating consensus that government spending can conjure prosperity.”
Tags: Europe, Government, Prosperity, Spending, Voters
Washington Post (April 2)
“Though some visitors to China, dazzled by the high-rises and humming factories, may miss the point, the true sources of long-run stability and prosperity, for any nation, are the rule of law and transparent government. China still has neither.”
Tags: China, Government, Law, Prosperity, Transparency
Los Angeles Times (November 7)
With much talk of the growing wealth divide, it’s worth noting that “from 1776 to the present, the bottom 60% of the American population…has never had more than 11% of the country’s wealth. We may embrace the American dream of broad prosperity and wealth equity, but we have never been close to achieving it.”
Tags: Equity, Prosperity, U.S., Wealth
