By Paolo von Schirach February 22, 2012 WASHINGTON – Whatever happens with the Republican nomination process, the winner is unlikely to truly inspire America. For different reasons, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are all very weak candidates. (I shall not even try to assess Ron Paul, who lives all by himself in a [...]
By Paolo von Schirach Related story: http://schirachreport.com/index.php/2012/02/19/america-hit-by-2009-recession-as-wages-were-stagnant-due-to-global-competition-citigroup-peter-orszag-argues-that-us-should-invest-smartly-in-education-as-a-way-to-regain-strength/ February 21, 2012 WASHINGTON – Just a few days I reported (see link above) that Peter Orszag, formerly Obama’s Budget Director and now with Citigroup in a recent Chicago speech strongly advocated more organic links between corporations, especially manufacturers, and Community Colleges, so that these vital education institutions will be able [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 20, 2012 WASHINGTON – According to a piece in Caixin, a Chinese publication, by Mark Clifford, Executive Director of the Hong Kong-based Asia Business Council, Shi Zhengrong, CEO of China’s Suntech Power and the world largest producer of solar panels stated during the latest Davos gathering that soon enough (by 2015) solar power [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 19, 2012 WASHINGTON – America is short of breath because we have to deal with the impact of two major issues. The first one is stagnant or declining wages, a global “tectonic shift“ affecting most developed economies that started several years ago. The second one is the gigantic financial crisis that we are very slowly trying [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 18, 2012 WASHINGTON – A recent WSJ op-ed piece, Europe’s Supply-Side Revolution, by Donald L. Luskin and Lorcan Roche Kelly of Trend Macrolytics, (February 17, 2012), makes predictions about the future of Europe so bright and so positive that they frankly border on absurdity. As the writers put it, following Germany’s example, [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 17, 2012 WASHINGTON – China’s economy powers on. But the country is running out of water. This is not just an inconvenience. Unless the Chinese can find a powerful remedy, this is potentially a catastrophe. No water, or insufficient clean water supply, means much less economic growth, if any. Agriculture cannot [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 15, 2012 WASHINGTON – Thanks to C-SPAN TV I have watched many times Congressman Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland give several “special orders” speeches, (speeches on whatever topic delivered at the end of the day for a duration of up to 60 minutes), on “peak oil”. Bartlett is a pleasant old gentleman who speaks [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 15, 2012 WASHINGTON – The President of Greece, Karolos Papoulias, made headlines by criticizing the German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schauble, because he has said unkind things about Greece being a bottomless pit, or something to that effect. So, the old patriotic President got irritated and reacted against the arrogance of [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 14, 2012 WASHINGTON – General Electric is hosting a major event in Washington, DC, titled American Competitiveness: What Works. Given GE’s convening power, lots of interesting people from industry, government, the media and think tanks are attending and speaking. And mostly the panelists and speakers talk about the right things. [...]
By Paolo von Schirach February 11, 2012 WASHINGTON – You can promote innovation in America via complex government financial aid programs that may be poorly designed, or you can push it forward by fostering good education for budding scientists, while creating incentives for them through competitions and prizes awarded to real, marketable applications.