Self-Reliance: Economics

Guess who is Progressive on Women? Vatican or Al-Azhar?

From the archive (2013): Al-Azhar versus the Vatican on women’s rights — checking institutions against their reputations, empirically.

Robert Fisk: Bankers are the dictators of the West

Robert Fisk, Saturday, 10 December 2011 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-bankers-are-the-dictators-of-the-west-6275084.html# Writing from the very region that produces more clichés per square foot than any other “story” – the Middle East – I should perhaps pause before I say I have never read so much garbage, so

Institutions: Governance

Lying Culture Disgraces US Empire

From the archive (2011): credibility and solvency decay together — and the remedy is boring: accounts, audits, accountability.

Self-Reliance: Economics

Lessons from Greek Financial Woes

From the archive (2011): Greece’s lessons — debt is sovereignty on a schedule; institutions that can’t collect can’t protect. True for communities too.

Self-Reliance: Economics

Conspiracy Theory vs Academic Naiveté

From the archive (2010): between conspiracy theory and academic naivety — follow the money, with evidence; structured scepticism as a teachable skill.

Self-Reliance: Economics

Business Risk: Risk Hedging, De-regulation and Segmentation

From the archive (2009): the crisis and healthcare read through one mechanism — who carries risk. Risk allocation is institutional design.

Self-Reliance: Economics

US Stimulus Bill - a clear shift

From the archive (2009): the stimulus read as experiment, not allegiance — hypothesis, scale, result; the habit of mind is the asset.

Theology: Comparative Religion

Pope's Visit to Turkey

From the archive (2006): Benedict XVI in Turkey after Regensburg — institutions repairing what individuals damage; machinery, not sentiment.

Institutions: Governance

George Galloway vs. US Senate - transcript

From the archive (2005): the Galloway Senate transcript — a confrontation on the institution’s own floor, on the record, preserved since the week it happened.

Archive: Pakistan

Foreign investment rises in Pakistan - Daily Times PK

From the archive (2005): an FDI snapshot from Pakistan — raising the permanent question of when investment builds capability and when it builds dependence.

Self-Reliance: Economics

A tale of two countries: Senegal and Botswana

courtesy: Reuters Two relatively prosperous African countries: one with an HIV infection rate of 1.4% and the other with 37%. Read on: **DAKAR (AlertNet) **- Senegal is a poor country, yet its HIV rate is one of the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, as a result of early, bold and

Self-Reliance: Economics

Report on on Pakistan's Economy

4.2pc reduction in poverty, claims Economic Survey Per capita income $652; GDP growth 6.4pc; defence spending Rs 180bn; base year changed from 1980-81 to 1999-2000 By Nadeem Malik ISLAMABAD: The Economic Survey 2003-04, declaring all is well, claims 4.2 per cent reduction in poverty, 652 dollars per

Institutions: International Order

OIC Intra-trade Vital (courtesy theStar.com.my)

PUTRAJAYA: There is a vital need for meaningful and reliable information directories for intra-trade to flourish among the 57 member countries of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad said. The Prime Minister said information directories like the OIC trade directory, released in conjunction with

Self-Reliance: Economics

Foreign Investors Turning Cautious on Spending in U.S.

From the archive (2002): foreign capital cooling on the US — capital flows as sentiment with a settlement date, and the case for foundations that don’t depend on them.

Self-Reliance: Economics

Picket Outside The Waldorf , Barbara Garson

The WEF (World Economic Forum is meeting at the Waldorf in New York from Jan 31 to Feb 5. Barbara Garson adds some perspective on why some decisions made there will force other people to drink unhealthy water. I own shares in a few companies that are members of the

Theology: Comparative Religion

american frustration

From the archive (2002): the raw anger of the Guantanamo moment — kept as a record, alongside the lesson that patient institutional work outperformed it.

Self-Reliance: Economics

Friends and Foes? new relationship between US and China

From the archive (2001): an original QeRN essay on US–China relations, written as 9/11 redirected the world’s attention — the trajectory read before it was obvious.

Self-Reliance: Economics

The new U.S. - a Nation of Simpletons and Criminals?

A far cry from the bravery of the “terrorists” of the Boston Tea Party, Americans are increasingly casting doubts on their inability to raise the mental level of their population. However, experts say that the recent financial strength of the country was most recently due to the GREAT DOTCOM SCAM

Archive: War on Terror

NYC Mayor refuses cheque from Saudi prince

From the archive (2001): the returned Saudi cheque after 9/11 — a case study in why money without institutional and narrative power buys no standing.