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Wealth of Nations

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  • E-commerce Growing Despite Downturn

    Newsweek | Nov 20, 2009 12:00 PM
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  • Ungenerous Japan

    Newsweek | Nov 20, 2009 05:57 AM
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  • Grumbling About China and the Renminbi

    Robert J. Samuelson | Nov 19, 2009 06:23 PM

    Wonder why President Obama’s trip this week to China didn’t go more smoothly? Meetings between Obama and top Chinese leaders were reportedly stiff; the Chinese also limited domestic press coverage of Obama’s appearances. The explanation is disarmingly obvious: huge disagreements separate the two countries that can’t easily be papered over.

    Anyone doubting that ought to take a quick read of the latest annual report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a group established by Congress in 2000 to examine the connections between the countries’ economic relations and broader issues of national security. The Commission has typically been more suspicious of Chinese policies and motives than many American analysts. This year’s report is no exception.

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  • Wheat Replaces Poppies as Top Crop in Afghanistan

    Newsweek | Nov 19, 2009 06:00 AM
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  • "Qu’est-ce Qu’être Français?" and French Identity

    Eric Pape | Nov 18, 2009 06:55 AM

    Angry young French minorities in dead-end banlieues have, in mo­ments of frustration, expressed themselves crudely. Some set thousands of cars and hundreds of buildings on fire amid weeks of confrontations with riot police in 2005, leaving Paris to decipher the smoke signals. In calmer times, some of those young men offer coarse, half-joking justifications for their troublemaking along the lines of, "I'll screw France until she loves me." All bravado and misogyny aside, French-Cameroonian author Gaston Kelman suggests that those kids are simply demanding that their country truly recognize them as French--despite their darker skin or exotic names.

    Kelman makes this provocative assertion in his contribution to a collection of 19 personal, analytic, historic, and philosophic essays that respond to the book's title question: qu'est-ce qu'être Français? (what is it to be French?). The collection--authored by intellectuals, lawyers, politicians, authors, activists, and writers--is being released in late November to mark the fourth anniversary of the Paris riots.

    National identity is touchy political terrain in France. On the campaign trail in 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy linked national identity to immigration and integration when he decided to create the Ministry of "Immigration, Integration, and National Identity." The idea paid electoral dividends with nostalgic white rural voters tempted by France's popular far right, essentially guaranteeing Sarkozy's election. President Sarkozy later put the ministry (where Kelman acts as an adviser) in charge of the high-profile expulsions of noncitizens. Some have been shipped off to repressive African states and, more recently, to wartime Afghanistan. Needless to say, this goes against a key element of France's historic identity as a land of refuge--and troubles many people, including some who work closely with Sarkozy.

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  • Wall Street's Ego Bubble

    Rana Foroohar | Nov 17, 2009 12:00 PM

    Last week, we got more proof of Wall Street's utter disconnect from the rest of the world when Goldman Sachs's chief executive Lloyd Blankfein was quoted as saying he's doing "God's work." Apparently, he's also a "blue-collar guy" and "everybody should be happy" that he and his peers are on track to take home billions in bonuses this year. Blankfein's hubris generated disbelief among the foreign CEOs and government officials attending a Chinese business conference, put on by a Swiss outfit called Horasis, in Lisbon last week. "Do you think those quotes might be made up?" one Latin American participant asked.

    Sadly, no (though Goldman says the God comment was "ironic"). At the same conference last year, right after the start of the financial crisis, there was a surprising lack of ire at the U.S. for causing this mess. Now, with emerging markets surging ahead while rich countries face a low-growth decade, everyone felt emboldened to say what they'd been thinking all along: America is useless. Not only has the U.S. stashed financial bombs under everyone's beds, it's doing a terrible job of cleaning up the mess--and it's certainly not in any position to give economic advice. As Hong Kong real-estate tycoon Ronnie Chan put it: "If we listen to America, we're doomed. Leaders there are pushing aside all the rational voices [calling for greater regulation], and the next crisis is already brewing."

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  • China's Yuan May Strengthen Against the Dollar

    Rana Foroohar | Nov 17, 2009 05:50 AM
    Investors last week were buzzing about a report released by the Chinese central bank ahead of President Obama's visit to the country, which indicated that Beijing might once again be thinking of letting the yuan rise to reflect China's growing heft in... More
  • How Long Will the Bull Rally Last?

    Newsweek | Nov 16, 2009 12:00 PM
    With so much cheap money sloshing around, the stock market's been on a roll lately. Given that the economy is still sputtering, how long will the rally last? Robert Prechter Jr. Not long. This is a bear-market rally, not a new bull market. In March panic... More
  • Chavez's War Mongering Is Cover for Domestic Woes

    Mac Margolis | Nov 16, 2009 05:38 AM
    Colombia and Venezuela appear to be on a collision course. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez recently ordered troops to the Colombian border, where violent clashes involving police, narcoguerrillas, and army troops have flared. But don't buy the saber... More
  • Leading Indicator: Credit Cards Still Sticking It to Consumers

    Newsweek | Nov 13, 2009 06:01 AM

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  • Bank Failures Only Getting Worse

    Newsweek | Nov 12, 2009 12:00 PM
  • Africa Turns Away the Troops

    Scott Johnson | Nov 12, 2009 06:16 AM
    Many experts worry that Africa could soon become the world's jihadist base of choice; its combination of failed states, poverty, and pockets of religious extremism offer the perfect breeding ground for terrorists. That's a big reason why in 2007 the Pentagon... More
  • SEC Starting to Target High-Frequency Trading

    Matthew Philips | Nov 11, 2009 12:01 PM
    The arcane world of high-frequency trading, in which sophisticated investors use computer programs to buy and sell huge amounts of stocks at breakneck speeds, is one of the least understood practices in the market. It's also one of the most pervasive.... More
  • Afghans Optimistic Despite U.S. Public Opinion

    Newsweek | Nov 11, 2009 06:00 AM
    By Jerry Guo
    Since barack obama took office, U.S. public opinion has grown increasingly bleak on Afghanistan's prospects. Yet Afghans are increasingly optimistic. In an Asia Foundation survey taken in June and July, 42 percent said the country is moving in the right direction, up from 38 percent last year, despite rampant corruption and Taliban advances. The margin for error was about 4 percent, so this doesn't represent a big spike, but it's still striking that Afghanistan's morale is not decaying as fast as the world's view of Afghanistan is. 
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  • Net Justice Targets Chinese Officials

    Newsweek | Nov 10, 2009 12:05 PM

    By Lauren Hilgers

    When migrant worker Sun Zhongjie recently faced the Shanghai court system, the 19-year-old from Henan, China, guessed his chances for justice were better online. Sun had been caught in a police trap: persuaded to pick up a plainclothes policeman and accused of operating an illegal taxi. In a gruesome play for attention, he chopped a finger off his left hand and went public. "In 24 hours everything you say will be on the Internet," Sun's lawyer threatened a local judge.

    For people like Sun, the Internet is changing the equation of justice in China. Netizens are bringing a new level of scrutiny to court cases and local government affairs. If you're the little guy, you want China's Netizens in your corner. If you're wealthy, well connected, or happen to be a corrupt official, you probably want to avoid them altogether. 

    As instances of Internet justice increase, people like Sun are learning to use the Net to their advantage and government officials--facing a population of more than 338 million online Chinese--are finding it harder to escape scrutiny. With so many people surfing the Web, the ranks of an online mob can swell in an instant. In one of the most famous examples this year--the case of a female pedicurist accused of murdering a local official while he was trying to rape her--Netizens flooded the Web with more than 4 million Internet posts protesting the charges against her.

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