Any old spy novel in an airport shop can explain that the tradecraft of shady operators has evolved over time and the gathering of information must keep up with the modern age. Broadly, and to the extent that such a law is implemented correctly and -- more importantly -- data is properly gathered and analyzed, the cost-benefit ratio might merit a highly conditional approval. However, it is difficult to see how abuse and gross misinterpretation can be prevented when sifting through large amounts of digital information. And who will supervise and regulate it?

Continue »

The so-called subprime loan crisis has led to a crisis of confidence among financial institutions. Some investors have confessed to being unable to value their portfolios, which in turn has frozen trade of some securities. This has stopped lending operations by banks. As of Friday, August 10, the Federal Reserve and foreign central banks had injected $260 billion of additional liquidity into financial markets -- a massive sum equal to 2% of U.S. GDP -- in a single step and all prior to forthcoming aftershocks. As such, this concerted effort ranks among jumbo IMF rescues of emerging markets.

Continue »

The question leads to several thoughts. The first thought is that the Olympic selection committee was not concerned with environmental issues some eight years ago when Beijing was chosen as a host. They were too busy with issues such as airports and hotel rooms, stadiums, finance, and government support. Somehow, they did not look into the future and neglected to forecast the environmental issues. Global Warming was not the fashionable topic in those days!

Continue »