Comments for Global Conditions

Comment on Is the negotiating agenda of the Doha Round too narrow? by “Saving the WTO from Doha” - Can the ITA really set a precedent? « Global Conditions

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:20:40 +0000

[...] – US agricultural subsidies, EU agricultural tariffs and emerging market industrial tariffs (see this post) - is as hard to break as ever. Inferring from Katinka Barysch’s recent post, European motivation [...]

Comment on L’ideal-type de l’homme politique conservateur by Jo

Jo — Wed, 28 May 2008 07:31:56 +0000

An argument = discussion ou plutôt débat dans ce contexte, non ?
(je ne trouve que trois sens à ‘an argument’ : une discussion ou un débat, une dispute, un argument )
Tout à fait d’accord pour la correspondance avec notre très cher, voire coûteux président-dictateur.

@ Jo: En fait dans cette phrase il veut bien dire “argument” au sens ou on l’entend en francais.

Comment on L’ideal-type de l’homme politique conservateur by globalconditions

globalconditions — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:27:46 +0000

Merci Mathieu! Mmoui, assez d’accord avec vous, surtout dans la mesure ou dans ce meme chapitre Hayek aime parler du recours au mysticisme qu’aime bien employer “le conservateur-type”. Toutefois je pense qu’il ne s’agit pas vraiment de rationalisme pur et dur, que Hayek lui-meme rejette. J’ai l’impression qu’il parle davantage de l’argument, rationnel evidemment, en tant que moyen de persuasion en vue de decisions politiques que le recours a l’autorite elle-meme (ou une instance superieure de type Dieu) comme ultime argument. Mais ce sont la des nuances…

J’avoue que je n’ai pas lu de traduction de ce texte en francais….

Comment on L’ideal-type de l’homme politique conservateur by Mathieu P.

Mathieu P. — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:49:54 +0000

“does not really believe in the power of argument” - ne croit pas vraiment dans la force de l’argument

Je traduirais plutôt : ne croit pas vraiment dans la puissance du discours rationnel.

Comment on An eccentric’s* refreshing views on the international economic system (very slight ed.) by Loren Paz

Loren Paz — Mon, 19 May 2008 05:10:23 +0000

Sounds like a good book. Might read it when I get the chance.

Comment on Pop Politics from America by atlanta symbols

atlanta symbols — Sun, 18 May 2008 20:24:34 +0000

[...] I had studied ?? history, politics, international law, a bit of sociology - I took an economichttp://globalconditions.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/pop-politics-from-america/Art on the Green Wichita Falls Times Record NewsThe Kemp Center for the Arts is going green, but not [...]

Comment on Responding to the food crisis: free up by Responding to the food crisis: free up | 30 Minute Meal Ideas

Responding to the food crisis: free up | 30 Minute Meal Ideas — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:17:03 +0000

[...] Shayna Glick wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSoaring food prices in recent months have triggered a real crisis, riots in various countries, and all sorts of government responses that do not seem to work. Striking moves are export restrictions in Asia, and other countries such as … [...]

Comment on Good sense into the climate change debate by globalconditions

globalconditions — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:02:32 +0000

Hi “Ricardo”! Well indeed, what contradictions many well-meaning people run into when it comes to climate change, poverty and the like. And “Small is Beautiful” is mostly only perceived as such by privileged people, generally in the West, who can alway run back to the comforts of high-tech civilisation when it becomes a bit too rough. Anyway Burma is probably indeed a concrete example: what kills people is not so much natural events but criminal mismanagement of a country. The country is literally being taken hostage by a corrupt and predatory military junta, and the way it manages the crisis reveals its only interest: to keep a deathly lid on its people.

Comment on Good sense into the climate change debate by Richard Lorenc

Richard Lorenc — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:30:18 +0000

First off, let me go on the record saying that it was great to meet you in Atlanta–my hometown–at the conference of which you write.

Secondly, I want to add to what you’ve written by bringing up a talk I attended a few weeks ago, given by Acton Institute president Rev. Robert Sirico. He discussed seven priorities of the “religious Left,” a term that he lamented for lack of a better term. I would call them “religious statists.”

Sirico pitted six of these priorities (mostly dealing with alleviating poverty and enforcing “equality” against the seventh: Asserting control over the global environment under the auspices of mitigating the perceived human causes of “climate change”/”global warming.”

He opined how the efforts of those looking to develop the poorest parts of the world will (and do) come in direct contradiction with those of the “climate warriors,” and that this will turn into a painful clash between camps that are considered allies today.

I can demonstrate this no better than to cite a recent event: the devastating cyclone in Burma/Myanmar. Al Gore calls the shocking number of deaths a consequence of human-caused global warming. Fellow reactionary E.F. Schumacher writes in his book ‘Small Is Beautiful’ how the Burmese way of life–immobile and without the “pressure or strain of living”–is superior to cosmopolitan societies. He writes how they have greater security than people in the developed world.

But what kind of security does one have when 100,000 of his/her neighbors die in a storm? An objective assessment of the situation points the finger of blame to an oppressive military government that stifles its people’s natural ingenuity. Were people to have the ability to organize and trade freely the way of life in Myanmar would be greatly improved, and people would have had a better set of opportunities to flee the storm, whatever its cause.

Although I haven’t heard them yet, the anti-poverty folks will no doubt blame the squalid conditions in Myanmar as the reason for so many deaths. They would be right. (How to improve them is for another discussion altogether.)

Therein lies the contradiction with which people who believe in the static power of government planning over the dynamic power of people have yet to deal.

Comment on BRIICS in the global economy by Erik

Erik — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:20:19 +0000

Hello Iana, as I am the producer of these slides I would like to correct my own work.. (yes, I made a ‘copy’ mistake) Note that the figures for Slide 33 should be the following:

Brazil 1.8%
Russia 1.6%
India 0.4%
Indonesia 0.2%
China 2.4%
South-Africa 0.6%
World 100%

The careful reader might already have noticed that the figures resembled a bit to much with Slice 26! Now especially India and China is much lower for Inward FDI Stock.

@ Erik (http://www.ecipe.org/people/erik-van-der-marel) Well, many thanks for these precisions! I am not too much of a thorough reader, so I didn’t notice… Thanks too for the deep, thorough, precise and interesting work you do. And for all the hours that have been put into this presentation, eating into your precious time working on trade in services and health care!