About the Schirach Report
The Schirach Report provides up to date, focused analysis on key US and international political, economic and security issues.
By Paolo von Schirach
May 19, 2012
WASHINGTON – On May 16 former US President George W. Bush made a speech in Washington, DC at the “Celebration of Freedom”, an event aimed at presenting the Freedom Collection, interviews with freedom activists. Here is an excerpt from his remarks. Read the rest of George W. Bush Talks Poetically About Freedom As A Universal Aspiration – But Democracy Is An Acquired Taste – Assuming That It Is Possible To Introduce It Everywhere Leads To Blunders, Such As Afghanistan »
By Paolo von Schirach
May 18, 2012
WASHINGTON – After the Fukushima disaster that highlighted the vulnerability of its nuclear power plants, Japan decided to shut them all down. Whatever the merit of this shift, the loss of this electric power generation capacity will be made up by increased reliance on natural gas as fuel for electricity. This has led to much larger Japanese natural gas imports (mostly from Qatar and Indonesia) and a consequent price rise for Liquefied Natural Gas, (LNG). Asian spot prices, driven up by Japanese demand, are now at $ 18 per million British Thermal Unit, mBTU, and this is 35% higher than last year. Read the rest of US Natural Gas Is Extremely Cheap, While Japan Needs To Import It – Plans To Build LNG Facilities To Ship US Gas To Asia – A Better Idea: Use US Gas To Power American Vehicles »
By Paolo von Schirach
May 17, 2012
WASHINGTON – I am quite uneasy with the hype surrounding the Facebook IPO. I thought I was in a minority of one when I saw an equally skeptical The Wall Street Journal op-ed piece by Rich Karlgaard, Forbes publisher. (The Future Is More Than Facebook, May 17, 2012). Well, at least some seasoned observers are also not so enthused. Read the rest of Too Much Hype For Facebook, A Company That Does Not Make Anything – America Used To Produce and Reward Real Innovators – Social Media Not As Valuable »
By Paolo von Schirach
May 16, 2012
WASHINGTON – Africa’s economies are growing, but lack of basic infrastructure is still a huge impediment. To start with, most of Africa still lacks electricity, something that the rest of the world takes for granted. Most enterprises need to rely on back up generators, something that adds substantially to fixed costs, making African products far less competitive. Read the rest of Africa’s Growth Hindered By Lack Of Infrastructure -Yet Broadband Internet Is Finally Getting To The Continent – This Will Multiply Business And Education Opportunities »
By Paolo von Schirach
May 15, 2012
WASHINGTON – If you leave out Germany and the northern countries, Europe does not grow and belonging to the Eurozone right now does not help growth for those southern members (Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal) that are doing so poorly. Being in the Euro they cannot devalue, while they are now committed to austerity policies that are strangling them, as they are unable to restart the growth engine. But what I find bizarre is that instead of rethinking their failed economic growth models, the leaders of the laggard states keep saying that “Europe” should lead in promoting pro-growth policies. This is amazing. Since when the fundamentals of domestic economic growth are delivered from abroad? Read the rest of Southern Europe Has No Economic Growth Strategy – Italy Is In A Recession, Market Liberalization Reforms Are Not Popular – Monti Does Not Do Miracles »
By Paolo von Schirach
May 14, 2012
WASHINGTON – An item in the May 14 News Hour on PBS caught my attention, for two reasons. The first one was the issue itself: long term unemployment in America, something that is becoming a real tragedy, with millions of people out of a job for so long that it will become practically impossible for them to get back into the labor market. But the second reason is even more important. The issue was discussed by two scholars from opposite end of the political spectrum who worked together in order to propose a bipartisan policy solution to this awful economic and social problem. Read the rest of A Pragmatic Solution To Prevent Unemployment – Two Scholars From Opposite Camps Offered It Jointly – A Rare Washington Example Of Co-operation To Solve A Public Policy Issue »
By Paolo von Schirach
May 13, 2012
WASHINGTON – On balance The Economist editorials (they call them “Leaders”) are insightful, balanced and realistic. But when it comes to “Europe”, even though the writers mean well, there are a lot of unrealistic expectations regarding what the EU is capable of. And I suspect that the foundation of these fantasies rests in the biggest fantasy of all: namely that there is such a thing as “Europe”. Read the rest of Europe’s “Achilles Heel” Is That There Is No Real Union And No Shared Vision – The Debt Crisis Exposed Europe’s Economic Weakness And Outdated Social Policies, But Mostly Lack of Unity »
By Paolo von Schirach
May 12, 2012
WASHINGTON - A Fox TV interview by John Stossel with Luis Fortuno, the Governor of Puerto Rico, made me curious to learn more. This boysh (just 51 years old, and looking more like 31) Republican has had the courage to meet head on the challenge of a gigantic state debt he inherited, bloated government pay roll and awfully inefficient services. As Deroy Murdock wrote in Human Events, (Puerto Rico’s Gov. Fortuno Show Washington the Way, November 18, 2011), after his 2009 inauguration, Fortuno did what the US Federal Government is politically incapable of even trying, when it comes to re-establishing some degree of fiscal sanity. (And it is not just Washington. We know what is going on in Europe. Everybody knows that super expensive and inefficient government is unsustainable and should be reformed. But resistance to change is extremely powerful. Civil servants want to keep their cushy jobs. And people in general prefer the status quo). Read the rest of Gov. Luis Fortuno of Puerto Rico Managed To Cut Gigantic Debt While Vastly Improving Island Business Climate – A Case Study Of What Is Possible, Given Drive And Leadership »
By Paolo von Schirach
May 11, 2012
WASHINGTON – American enthusiasm for renewable energy, not too deep to begin with, has gone away. In part this has to do with loss of interest in “climate change” and its dire consequences. Unfortunately, climate change has been and is mostly an issue of political belief, rather than upholding science. And as the intensity of the political fervor somehow waned, in large part replaced by more immediate economic fears, so did political support for all the renewable energy technologies that were supposed to create, relatively quickly it was thought, workable alternatives to carbon based energy. Read the rest of Grim Prospects For Renewable Energy In The US – Subsidies Politically Unpopular – Natural Gas A Much Cheaper Alternative – USG Should Focus On R&D »
By Paolo von Schirach
May 10, 2012
WASHINGTON – Dream for a moment. Imagine a world in which any student can have access via the internet to the best teachers, providing the best instruction on any given subject. And the instruction is delivered in many different formats, allowing for the different starting skills of the students and individual pace of learning. Imagine that all this is available and provided for free or for nominal charges by dedicated NGOs that want to make education a public good accessible to all who wish to have it. Imagine the tremendous leap forward for many societies that would greatly benefit from having additional millions of educated people. More creativity, more innovation. A better world no doubt. Read the rest of High Quality On Line Education Is A Democratic Revolution – Soon Enough Millions Will Have Access To Knowledge Until Now Restricted To Very Few – Tremendous Impact On Society, Economy »