The Long View: Three reads for Christmas: Glamour, Cicero’s web and high-tech fiction December 12, 2013 I WROTE at the end of November that the rise of the selfie marked the death of the audience and the rise of an age committed to universal self-expression and performance. This week, even world leaders have been joining in. When David Cameron and Barack Obama were caught taking silly pictures of themselves at Nelson [...]
EU wargame: Reform can happen but Brexit could still be amicable December 12, 2013 IN BUSINESS, as in diplomacy, “war games” or simulations are a useful tool for mapping out tricky negotiations or complex geopolitical issues. The technique is often used by the CIA to play out security scenarios. But it was also reportedly used by Germany to work out what a Grexit might mean for the Eurozone economy [...]
Letters to the Editor – 13/12 – Drug legalisation, Airport debate, Best of Twitter December 12, 2013 Drug legalisation [Re: Failing UK drugs policy should take a leaf from Uruguay and Portugal, yesterday] Those that support the continuation of the failed policy of drugs prohibition are supporting the continuation of criminal control, as well as the shameful waste of vast sums of taxpayer money in trying (and failing) to prevent distribution and [...]
Volcker Rule is nothing to celebrate and financial markets could suffer December 11, 2013 FORMER Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker made his way through the snowy streets of Washington, DC on 10 December to attend a celebratory lunch. To widespread applause, the new rule that bears Volcker’s name has now been finalised by the five regulatory agencies responsible for it. Yet after the thousand page rule has taken hold [...]
Banking regulations are causing problems for the humanitarian chain to Syria December 11, 2013 WHENEVER anyone dips a hand into their pocket for a worthy cause on the other side of the world, it’s only human to focus on the striking images of a starving child or a bereaved family. Thoughts of the world’s banking and regulatory systems will hardly loom large, so those who give could be forgiven [...]
Failing UK drugs policy should take a leaf from Uruguay and Portugal December 11, 2013 DRUGS are harmful, whether they are legal or illegal. The challenge is how to reduce the harms they cause. For decades, countries have tried to stop drug use by handing out criminal justice sanctions. People are arrested, tried, and convicted, at vast expense. But this has not stopped the ready availability of a huge range [...]
Letters to the Editor – 12/12 – Blocked reports, Tech giants, Best of Twitter December 11, 2013 Blocked reports [Re: Here’s what Theresa May doesn’t want you to see, Tuesday] Recently, we have seen a report into HS2 blocked because its message would bring “political and presentational difficulties”. And now, it seems Theresa May has delayed the publication of a review into the impact of EU migration because of fears that it [...]
We’ve neglected the Commonwealth and Britain’s prosperity has suffered December 10, 2013 AN IMPORTANT feature of the modern Commonwealth has become worryingly obscured in UK debates about its significance: intra-Commonwealth trade and investment flows between its 53 member states (about a third of the world’s population) are growing at a huge pace. Far from being a relic of Britain’s imperial past, today’s Commonwealth connects at least half [...]
Against the Grain: Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs and the economics behind the Top One Per Cent December 10, 2013 BORIS Johnson has got into trouble for his provocative argument that it is “surely relevant to a conversation about equality” that just 2 per cent of “our species” has an IQ over 130. Over the past couple of years, the Occupy movement has made the headlines by attacking the top 1 per cent, criticising a [...]
Forget a Bitcoin bubble: A wider crypto revolt is challenging everything December 10, 2013 FOR ALL the talk of a Bitcoin bubble, it’s easy to miss the real significance of what is currently happening. The rise of Bitcoin is just the beginning. Cryptocurrencies are no longer the domain of activists and grassroots movements, they are nothing less than “new money”. Many are waiting for the moment when a central [...]