Editorial:
By the end of this year, God forbid, we could see 50 million jobs lost worldwide, according to the International Labour Organisation. Here, more than 10,000 Malaysians have already lost their job since the start of 2009. That's about 357 people losing their jobs everyday this month. Now times that by the number of family members each of them has to feed. Even the thought of it makes me thankful for every grain of rice I had for dinner. I know that the government have their plans to mitigate this, and hopefully it plays out well. If not an issue of governance, it's an issue of faith to maintain full employment.
Item 1: "Rewriting the Rule Book for 21st Century Capitalism" by Jeffrey Sachs
Wisdom:
- Two core truths of sustainable development: that technological overhaul lies at the core of the challenge, and that such an overhaul requires a public-private partnership for success
- Free-market ideology is an anachronism in an era of climate change, water stress, food scarcity and energy insecurity
Item 2: "Interview of the President" by Hisham Melhem
Wisdom:
- All too often the United States starts by dictating -- in the past on some of these issues -- and we don't always know all the factors that are involved
- Israel is a strong ally of the United States. They will not stop being a strong ally of the United States. And I will continue to believe that Israel's security is paramount
- I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries
- I do think that it is important for us to be willing to talk to Iran, to express very clearly where our differences are, but where there are potential avenues for progress.
Item 3: "Is this the End of Warren Buffett" by Doug Kass
Wisdom:
- (Buffett) seems to view Berkshire's intrinsic value as the sum of its investments per share plus approximately 12 times pretax profits, excluding all income from investments
- Derivatives (massive short put positions), Buffett's refusal to sell and his apparent lack of recognition that investment moats no longer exist in some of his largest investments (especially in banking), I now feel that Berkshire's valuation will steadily suffer
Item 4: "George Mitchell and the Middle East" by Gerry Adams
Wisdom:
- Mitchell Principles:
i. To democratic and exclusively peaceful means of resolving political issues
ii. To the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations
iii. To agree that such disarmament must be verifiable to the satisfaction of an independent commission
iv. To renounce for themselves, and to oppose any effort by others, to use force, or threaten to use force, to influence the course or the outcome of all-party negotiations
v. To agree to abide by the terms of any agreement reached in all-party negotiations and to resort to democratic and exclusively peaceful methods in trying to alter any aspect of that outcome with which they may disagree
vi. To urge that "punishment" killings and beatings stop and to take effective steps to prevent such actions.
- He patiently plotted a course through all of this. He brought to the process a legislative and judicial experience that saw the negotiations format changed from one of large cumbersome meetings to one of smaller groups of negotiators, usually involving the leader and deputy leader of the parties. This provided for a greater focus on the detail of the issues, and it facilitated a more workable and productive arrangement
- George spent a great deal of his time in side meetings with the parties
- In a peace process, the goal must be an inclusive agreement that is acceptable to all sides, is doable, deliverable and sustainable. That means enemies and opponents creating space for each other. It means engaging in real conversations and seeking real solutions. It means accepting that dialogue is crucial and that means recognising the right of the Palestinian people to choose their own leaders, their own representatives.
Item 5: "No Room for Israel Under America's Umbrella" by Max Boot
Wisdom:
- Obama team may consider extending the US nuclear umbrella to Israel in the event that Iran goes nuclear
- It is not clear what purpose a US nuclear threat would serve, since Israel has its own nuclear arsenal, estimated to contain 100-200 warheads
- During the cold war the two superpowers came perilously close to nuclear conflict on at least two occasions; not only during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis but also during Nato’s 1983 “Able Archer” exercise, which some in the Kremlin misread as preparations for an actual first strike
Item 6: "Partnering with Pakistan" by Asif Ali Zardari
Wisdom:
- Special envoy to Southwest Asia - Richard Holbrooke
- Pakistan has repeatedly been identified as the most critical external problem facing the new administration
- Abandonment of Afghanistan and Pakistan after the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s set the stage for the era of terrorism that we are enduring
- Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act - $1.5 billion annual commitment to social progress
- Water crisis in Pakistan is directly linked to relations with India
Item 7: "Democracy...Its Constraints" by Ignas Kleden
Wisdom:
- To assume that democratic principles and values are particular depending on where they are implemented, is highly risky
- 1959 - President Sukarno declared so-called "Guided Democracy" - supposed to be a better fit for the Indonesian character, which, it was claimed, was incompatible with liberal democracy
- President Soeharto, during the New Order administration, introduced the concept of Pancasila Democracy - Indonesia democracy should be in line with the five principles of Pancasila
- Of the 550 members of parliament, there are no more than 40 percent who are able to engage in substantial debates about the issues under discussion. The re-maining 60 percent can only be involved in the debates about their parties' position, but can offer no contribution whatsoever to the substance of the debate
Item 8: "The Stimulus is a Fiscal Straitjacket" by Jeffrey Sachs
Wisdom:
- US debate over the fiscal stimulus is remarkable in its neglect of the medium term
- 2008 stimulus package of $100bn in tax rebates was rushed into effect - had little stimulus effect - largely saved or used to pay down credit card debt, rather than spent
- US federal tax system collects about 18 per cent of gross national product, while the total of just five categories of public spending – Social Security (retirement and disability), health (Medicare, Medicaid), veterans’ benefits, defence and homeland security and interest payments – eat up about 18 per cent of GNP
Item 9: "A Measure Remodelled" by Joh Thornbill
Wisdom:
- Singapore – an open economy and a bellwether for global trade
- Commonly used indicator, gross domestic product, is an imperfect yardstick of economic activity
- A 24-member commission of prominent economists led by Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, both Nobel prize winners, is due to report in April on ways of improving our economic bookkeeping
- Income = household consumption + investment (business, household and government) + government consumption (of goods and services) + (net trade = exports – imports)
Item 10: "Give Us Bangs for our Bailout Bucks" by Joseph Stiglitz
Wisdom:
- finance is the lifeblood of any economy
- strong stimulus is one that delivers a big bang for the buck – and quickly
- first focus should be on preventing further spending cutbacks; with states and localities limited to spending what they receive in revenues, and with tax revenues falling precipitously, making up for this shortfall is the natural place to begin
- spending should have as positive a long-run impact as possible - it creates an asset
- There was a trickle-down strategy: throwing money at the banks would trickle down to the rest of the economy. A trickle-up strategy, to prevent foreclosures, would almost surely have been far more successful
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