Soylent Green
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N° 1 sprog has, commendably, been studying moral philosophy at school. Recently there have been some dinner table discussions of the -if-the-justification-for-eating-animals-is-that-they-are-not-considered-sentient-then-why-can’t-we-eat-non-se...
The Closer
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ROUND-UPThe S&P 500 went into rebound mode, closing up 1.6 per cent at 1,315.99, its largest one-day gain in two months (Bloomberg). Shares in Apple rose 5.8 per cent, helping...
Could travel abroad help build a sense of European Identity?
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Today I read an article in Debating Europe, about whether travelling abroad makes you feel more like an EU citizen or not. The first thought that sprung to mind was that I definitely used the ‘I am an EU citizen’ jargon in the Etterbeek commune w...
Germany: #Blockupy Protests Against Pan-European Austerity
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'Blockupy' protests against the austerity measures being implemented in the Eurozone shook the financial epicenter of Europe - Frankfurt - last week. Online social networks buzzed with citizen reports on the mobilizations that occurred under massive...
Bulgaria: Discussing the “European Idea”
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Young Bulgarians and guests from Italy, with support of the New Bulgarian University and project “Beautiful Europe” [bg] will meet on May 23 to discuss the “European idea” and what Europe means to Bulgarians at an event called...
Bulgaria: Calling for National Protest Against Shale Gas Extraction
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Activists in Bulgaria have called for national protests against shale gas extraction on May 22. There is a Facebook event [bg] “National protest against shale gas and changes in Forest Law!”. Tensions are growing after The Greens' act...
US-China: through a Treasury bond, darkly
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With a hat tip to Blood and Treasure, the Committee of 100 (how mysterious does this lede sound already?) has released a big survey of how the US and China see each other. Previous one was in 2007....
Ed Miliband, you stoke this anti-Europe fire at your peril | Gaby Hinsliff
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A referendum on EU membership will tempt the Labour leader. But a yes campaign would be short of argumentsWell, who would have thought it? Riding high in the polls, touted as a prospective prime minister even in the rightwing papers, finall...
Sustainable development is the only way forward
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Jonathan Glennie: “Development co-operation needs to shift focus from poverty eradication to a broader, more inclusive framework…” Good reframing of the development policy debate looking at the bigger picture on the Guardian’s Poverty...
Stock splits and the volume-price correlations
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We ran a couple of posts last week about the declining daily trading volume in US equities the last few years (during a time in which share prices have climbed).The first asked...
European far right on the rise
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While austerity measures are being implemented to keep Europe’s economy stable, the European citizens are rocking the boat. Support for populist par- -ties is on the rise. Is Europe on the thin end of the wedge?
Will Serbia’s new president stay on course for EU membership?
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Serbia’s president Boris Tadic barely managed to enjoy his success in negotiating the EU candidate status for his country in March, before he was voted out of office yesterday.
ACP-EU updates: African iEPA, development in Uganda and greener CAP
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While criticism has dominated the EU's foreign policy in recent months, positive notes have appeared to prevail in the media last week. Following long negotiations, the first iEPA has come to pass: Four African countries, namely Mauritius, Madagas...
Facebook’s IPO: A Plummet?
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On the day of its IPO, Facebook issued at $38 and went to a high of $45 before returning to near its issue price (closing at $38.23). On the next trading day, the price fell to about $34 in the early afternoon. This represents about 10% off the issue...
Pointlessly Devoted to You
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Any informed person’s first thought is to want to ask: “what austerity?”, but you have to remember that we’re talking about the true black helicopter crowd.By this, I mean Germans doing generally better than virtually anyone else on earth tha...
Inside the Gates: Lobbyists in the White House
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The Washington Post reports that visitor logs for January 17, 2012 show that the lobbying industry that Obama had vowed to constrain was nonetheless a regular presence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Even though the president barred recent lobbyists from j...
Chris Grayling overruled stats chief to spin immigrants as fraudsters
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Employment minister Chris Grayling overruled his senior officials to generate anti-immigrant headlines about “benefit tourism” — despite the majority of claimants in a DWP study being British citizens. With emphasis on “fa...
EU support for New alliance to benefit small farmers
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As a prelude to the G8 Summit, the European Commission welcomed the May 18 launch of the "New Alliance to improve Food and nutrition security". The EU has been actively supporting the preparation of the "New Alliance", which is intended to boost...
Cyberculture roundup: Facebook IPO, World’s first Wikipedia town and more..
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TweetShare via emailMonmouthpedia: The World’s first Wikipedia town, is set to go live from The Next Web by Jamillah Knowles The Internet of things is becoming easier to grasp as household appliances, pot plants and other objects are connected to t...
Beyond the Austerity Debate: the Deficit Bias in the post-Bretton Woods Era
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The growth versus austerity debate is detracting attention from policy issues that may seem less urgent, but which are nevertheless critical in the medium term. I am referring to what I would call the institutional gaps in fiscal policymaking that st...
The quiet frontier
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The border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan (stretching over 1300 km) is one of great international concern. It is important in three aspects. First, there are crossings of militants from Afghanistan into Tajikistan; an issue that Central Asian gov...
