Barack Obama comes to London this week – the heads of 20 other governments do too because G-20 has suddenly grown into G-22 but of course it’s Obama who sets the pulse racing. Everybody knows his host, Gordon Brown, needs the G-20 to be an all-out success; anything less – mere solid achievement, for example – will be spun as failure by the UK government’s army of critics. But is Obama in a similar situation?
Author: Dan Smith
G-20 summit: Brown revives Blair’s old Euro-Atlantic dream
So Gordon Brown went to Strasbourg and told the European Parliament that the EU is uniquely placed to provide world leadership in the economic crisis. Is this the Gordon Brown who deliberately avoided EU ministerial meetings and designed impassable tests the UK economy had to pass if he was to let it join the Euro? Why the change? Continue reading
Four issues at (or not at) the G-20 London summit
It looks like there will be some serious demonstrations to welcome the G-20 summiteers to London on 2 April. Protests will reflect anger at the human costs of the recession and a conviction (or hope) that the system has not only failed many ordinary people but is failing full stop. And there will be a lot of sympathy for the protests because it is hard to see the G-20 straightforwardly addressing the big problems. There are four in particular that could do with high-level attention. Continue reading
How green is our valley?
Not outstandingly green by international standards – more a sludgy grey brown. A comparison of the green content of several governments’ bail-out and stimulus packages shows South Korea devoting 80 per cent of the extra finance to green investment and activity, while China notches up 37 and the UK is at a lowly 6 per cent. Continue reading
Rubik’s crisis
As the economic crunch continues to unfold, commentators, politicians and thoughtful citizens alike are trying to get a grip on its multiple dimensions. Pity the policy-makers and political leaders who are trying to find the way to solve a six-sided boxful of dilemmas because this is a real Rubik’s Cube of a crisis. Continue reading
The economic crisis and world power
Moments in history when the world power balance has shifted decisively – or when the result of a slowly accumulating shift has been revealed to general view – have usually been related to war, economic crisis, or both in tandem. Is today’s combination of economic crunch and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan such a moment for the US? And if so, who gains – China? Continue reading
Climate change, conflict and development – under discussion
This is a key year for climate change policy, leading up to the summit in Copenhagen in December, which has the task of coming up with the “post-Kyoto” climate agreement. With the obscurantism of Bush replaced by the energy and commitment of the still new Obama administration, hopes are high though obstacles are many. As part of its preparations for the year ahead, on Thursday 12th the UK Foreign Office held a workshop at London School of Economics on climate security. Continue reading
Poverty, power, development and aid under discussion
The UK Department for International Development (DFID) is preparing a White Paper. It will be its fourth one since the department was founded in 1997 in the early days of New Labour government. On Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th it held a conference in London as part of the work on the White Paper.
Iceland’s economic implosion, masculinity and the credit crunch
There are many analyses around about the credit crunch and how it originated. One of the best, most insightful and innovative gives an anthropological angle on how one part of the story unfolded. It looks at what happened in Iceland that let a small group of over-confident manly men turn a small country into a major player in world finance so fast that its economy imploded. Continue reading
The Douglas Adams theory of economic bubbles
When I hear terms like “quantitative easing” (aka, printing money), I reach for Douglas Adams. I find insight (though not great comfort, it must be admitted) in his definitive if metaphorical theory of economic bubbles – the Shoe Event Horizon.
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