| A new world currency?
In a sense, it was like a giant pyramid scheme. As long as everyone believed the dollar was strong, it remained strong. But as soon as a crack appeared, the edifice shuddered. If the American dollar were just America's dollar, none of this might matter. Indeed, a lower U.S. dollar, by boosting American exports, will help the U.S. get through any downturn sparked by that country's housing and mortgage crises. But the U.S. dollar is not just America's. It is the world's currency; it provides a platform of stability on which other countries can operate. French president Nicolas Sarkozy sounded the alarm yesterday in his address to the U.S. Congress. For America to stand by and let its dollar collapse, he said, is to risk a trade war of global dimensions.
Bill’s books of wisdom
The reading habits of successful business people are often revealed at this time of the year, when leisure is foremost.Mostly, they seem be top-of-the line thrillers or solid works of history or biography.So I was pleasantly surprised to learn of Bill Gates’ holiday reading list while in central Otago at Christmas.You might expect some heavy duty stuff on technology and the future.But, no, the world’s richest philanthropist is more interested in poverty and how to cure it.In fact, his books are an economist’s work list: Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), William Easterly’s The White Man’s Burden (2006), Professor C K Prahalad’s The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid (2004) and Paul Collier’s The Bottom Billion (2007).Incidentally, Collier, an Oxford professor, is a keynote speaker at the Global Development annual conference in Brisbane this week along with the likes of Jeffrey Sachs and New Zealander Graeme Wheeler, managing director of the World Bank.Other books on Bill's list included Hernando de Soto’s The Mystery of Capital and Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism (2007).
More Heavy Snow on Way to Northwest
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End foreseen to longtime dispute over Truckee River water
RENO, Nev. – Federal officials said they foresee an end to a longstanding dispute over the Truckee River's waters with the release of a document that finds no significant adverse environmental impacts from a proposed agreement between various parties. The final environmental study by the U.S. Department of Interior and California Department of Water Resources concludes the Truckee River Operating Agreement would provide a major boost to the river's water quality and fishery. The operating agreement negotiated by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 1990 is designed to end decades of conflict over the Truckee's water by balancing the interests of Fallon-area farmers, the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe's fisheries and upstream urban users. Betsy Rieke, Lahontan Basin area manager for the U.S.
Inventive and dynamic risk-takers who changed the face of Britain
Vodafone, the mobile telecoms giant; BHP Billiton, the mining company that is trying to consummate one of the largest deals the industry has seen by buying Rio Tinto, its rival; AstraZeneca, the drugs company; and is chairman of Smith & Nephew, the medical instruments maker. A New Zealander, he cut his teeth at BP, which he joined in 1970, rising through the ranks to be finance director from 1996 to 2002. 31 - Hugh Osmond has made huge personal fortunes out of two different sectors: leisure and financial services. He and Luke Johnson bought and floated PizzaExpress. When they went their own ways, Mr Osmond launched Punch Taverns in 1997 through the £564 million acquisition of Bass’s leased pubs division. Two years later, he snatched Allied Domecq’s pubs division from under the nose of Whitbread with an audacious £2.7 billion bid.
Genocide Deniers
Ultimately this is politics, not scholarship," said Simon Payaslian, who holds an endowed chair in Armenian history and literature at Boston University. Turkey’s strategy, which for the first 60-70 years after the mass slaughter was to pretend that it didn’t take place, "has become far more sophisticated than before" and is explicitly appealing to academic values, he said. "They have focused on the idea of objectivity, the idea of ‘on the one hand and the other hand,’ " he said. "That’s very attractive on campuses to say that you should hear both sides of the story." While Payaslian is quick to add that he doesn’t favor censoring anyone or firing anyone for their views, he believes that it is irresponsible to pretend that the history of the period is uncertain.
If the Yoo Fits ...
Nations have wars against each other. People have quarrels or fights." Motz asks whether the government believes even U.S. citizens can be treated this way. "Yes. That was Padilla," says Salmons. At this point Motz is forced to scold Salmons for constantly speaking over her questions: "Mr. Salmons. I am sure you have a lot more things to say … " He interrupts to apologize. The two skirmish about the precedential value of the 4th Circuit's decision in Padilla. She wonders if it needs to be vacated or if the court could simply determine that "it doesn't have much precedential force." That Padilla decision, even though it sent Judge Michael Luttig into orbit, is still the strongest judicial statement of approval for the president's claims to limitless executive authority.
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