« January 22, 2012 - January 28, 2012 | Main | February 05, 2012 - February 11, 2012 »
February 04, 2012
"Frozen Fury": Mom-and-Pop Motherland Go After Putin Again.
Today in Russia, in a number of cities, the presumably-rigged presidential elections next month (March 4) brought out more middle-class crowds to protest the Putin regime. Despite Arctic temperatures, the number of protesters are said by observers to exceed the crowds of December 2011. See at NYT "Protesters Throng Frozen Moscow in Anti-Putin Protest".
AP Photo
Posted by JD Hull at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)
February 03, 2012
Once again, The Question: Can Non-Lawyers Own Shares in U.S. Law Firms?
And can you think of a more controversial yet important question for the legal profession? The New York Bar, with an assist from the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog, raised it again this week: "New York State Bar Revisits Nonlawyer Ownership".
Posted by JD Hull at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)
February 02, 2012
The Economist: How are you at reading Tribes?
"Reading a contract is useful, but you also need to be able to read people." The Economist, which has emerged as the weekly magazine for the 21st century world, has consistently underscored that doing business internationally requires an instinct for the multicultural. Business smarts and merit, of course, count, too. But the Multicultural is Now Everywhere, as nations and tribes down through history continue see their own move to locations all over the world. To encounter different tribes and folkways, you need not even travel. Tribes will come to you. To succeed at most things, you must be cognizant that increasingly tribes are all around you, and you need to start "getting" them. At The Economist, see columnist Schumpeter's excellent The Power of Tribes, and these examples:
Cultural ties matter in business because they lower transaction costs. Tribal loyalty fosters trust. Cultural affinity supercharges communication. Reading a contract is useful, but you also need to be able to read people.
Even as free trade and electronic communications bring the world closer together, kinship still counts. Indians in Silicon Valley team up with other Indians; Chinese-Americans do business with Taiwan and Shanghai.
One of the most vibrant cultural networks is also one of the oldest: the Sinosphere. China’s growing might is reinforced by its links with the overseas Chinese. Some 70m ethnic Chinese live outside mainland China. Some are descended from those who moved abroad during China’s imperial expansion from the 12th to the 15th centuries, settling in what are now Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Myanmar. More recently, many fled to escape the horrors of Maoism, or to seek a better life in America or another rich country. Together they connect China to every corner of the world.
Graphic: Brett Ryder/The Economist
Posted by JD Hull at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2012
South Africa's bid to control African Union goes to Plan B.
Unfortunately, South Africa's plan to take effective control of the African Union (consisting of 54 nations), and then to make the AU a more dynamic global player, is on hold for a few months. See at Bloomberg "South Africa Fails in AU Bid, Setting Back Africa Plan". It begins:
South Africa failed in its bid to secure control of the African Union’s top decision-making body, setting back its plan for the continental organization to play a more forceful role in global politics.
South African Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma didn’t win enough support in [Monday's] election in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for head of the AU Commission. The incumbent, Jean Ping, who failed to secure two-thirds of the vote to win a second term, will remain in the position until the next AU summit in June, his spokesman, Noureddine Mezni, said.
It’s “embarrassing for South Africa that it has not been able to carry a majority,” Daniel Silke, an independent political analyst who has advised Telkom South Africa Ltd. (TKG) and Sanlam Ltd. (SLM), said in a phone interview from Cape Town. “It clearly shows South Africa will have to do some targeted lobbying in the run-up to any future elections.”
Posted by JD Hull at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)
January 29, 2012
Pantheon: Vanessa Anne Hudgens. Charisma, legs and talents beyond her years.
Born December 14, 1988. American actress, singer. We were very, very wrong about her. She's not too young for The Pantheon. She got legs, legs, charisma and talent. She can act. We salute her--and stand corrected.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Energy Security: China is hungry for Canadian oil. And Canada plans to diversify.
In a widely-circulated AP article today, Rob Gillies reported that "with pipeline to US on hold, Canada eyes China". This development is also likely to become a political issue in the ongoing American presidential campaign. Historically, virtually all of Canada's oil production has gone to the United States. Excerpts:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada's national interest makes the $5.5 billion pipeline [a non-American one now seriously being discussed in Canada] essential. He was "profoundly disappointed" that U.S. President Barack Obama rejected the Texas Keystone XL option but also spoke of the need to diversify Canada's oil industry. Ninety-seven percent of Canadian oil exports now go to the U.S.
"I think what's happened around the Keystone is a wake-up call, the degree to which we are dependent or possibly held hostage to decisions in the United States, and especially decisions that may be made for very bad political reasons," he told Canadian TV.
Alberta has the world's third-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela: more than 170 billion barrels. Daily production of 1.5 million barrels from the oil sands is expected to increase to 3.7 million in 2025, which the oil industry sees as a pressing reason to build the pipelines.
Meanwhile, China's growing economy is hungry for Canadian oil. Chinese state-owned companies have invested more than $16 billion in Canadian energy in the past two years, state-controlled Sinopec has a stake in the pipeline, and if it is built, Chinese investment in Alberta oil sands is sure to boom.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)