Reuters (June 6)
“Even though supply disruptions in many parts of the world are severe and policy solutions are challenging, Western governments do have the opportunity to reverse the rising cost of food through the simple scrapping of biofuel mandates. This would remove a very large non-food demand for crops and turn the current grain shortage to a surplus, easing the pressure on inflation.”
Tags: Biofuel mandates, Crops, Demand, Disruptions, Food, Governments, Grain shortage, Inflation, Opportunity, Solutions, Supply, Surplus
PBS News Hour (April 15)
President Trump is now “trying to confront a dilemma that haunted his predecessor, Barack Obama. Syria’s seven-year civil war presents few fast or easy solutions for the U.S., yet the geopolitical rivalries at play, the presence of the Islamic State group and other extremists, and the atrocities perpetrated by the Assad government make the situation impossible to ignore.”
Tags: Assad, Atrocities, Civil war, Confront, Dilemma, Extremists, Geopolitical, Islamic State, Obama, Rivalries, Solutions, Syria, Trump, U.S.
The Economist (August 8)
“Germany is back in its old dilemma: too weak for hegemony, too large for balance. No other country can think of imposing solutions, but Europe will not allow Germany to do so either. That may mean that the EU’s biggest challenges—from immigration to preventing a British exit and fixing the euro—will continue to go unmet.”
Tags: Balance, Brexit, Challenges, Dilemma, euro, Europe, Germany, Hegemony, Immigration, Solutions
USA Today (January 21)
While the manifold challenges we face today “may be obvious, how to resolve them is less clear. In the past you would have looked in the boardrooms or parliaments of the world for solutions.” Today, as the face and style of leadership morphs, “solutions can be found in the minds of a new generation of leaders who have realized that the nature of leadership and power are changing.”
Tags: Boardrooms, Challenges, Leadership, Parliaments, Power, Solutions
Wall Street Journal (March 11)
Japan may be at the leading edge, but population graying is a truly global phenomenon requiring new approaches. “As the over-60 population grows much faster than the younger working-age cohorts, while life expectancy increases, the 20th-century model of work and retirement becomes increasingly unsuitable for economic growth. The key will be finding new solutions to engage older Americans in the workforce.”
Tags: Economic growth, Engage, Graying, Japan, Life expectancy, Over-60, Population, Retirement, Solutions, U.S., Unsuitable, Work, Workforce, Working-age
New York Times (August 26)
In a series of tweets, Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, “has given reason to hope that he is serious about resolving disputes with the United States and other major powers, most urgently about Iran’s nuclear program.” One such tweet reads, “We don’t want further tension. Both nations need 2 think more abt future & try 2 sit down & find solutions to past issues & rectify things.” While promising, “it would be naïve to assume that the path to ending Iran’s isolation is now clear.”
Tags: Disputes, Hassan Rouhani, Hope, Iran, Isolation, Nuclear program, Solutions, Tension, United States
MIT Technology Review (June 5)
Of late, companies have been embracing open innovation contests to pull off low-cost breakthroughs. This approach can succeed. “Open competitions can help find an optimal solution to a well-understood problem,” but typically these contests fail to deliver true innovation for a well-known reason. “Real innovation is always the outcome of ongoing discourse among a small group of innovators who truly understand the importance of what they’re working on. No matter where we look, from the American Revolution to the digital revolution, it’s always a small group of obsessed individuals who know and talk to each other that are responsible for big innovations. As John Stuart Mill observed: ‘Persons of genius, it is true, are, and are always likely to be, a small minority.’”
Tags: Breakthroughs, Genius, Innovation, Innovators, John Stuart Mill, Low-cost, Minority, Open contests, Problems, Solutions
