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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
By Paolo von Schirach Related story: http://schirachreport.com/index.php/2012/04/20/france-has-many-talented-entrepreneurs-the-trouble-is-that-they-emigrate-and-do-not-expect-them-flocking-back-if-socialist-hollande-gets-elected-president/ May 9, 2012 WASHINGTON – Francois Hollande won the French presidential elections by promising that he will promote economic growth as the best cure for France, as opposed to following the Germany inspired “austerity only” diet included in the Fiscal Compact recently agreed upon by most EU countries.
By Paolo von Schirach May 8, 2012 WASHINGTON – Just a few weeks ago Agustin Carstens, the Governor of the bank of Mexico, argued in a Washington public forum that the European debt crisis will not be over until the Europeans will be able to convince markets that all is well and that there is absolutely no [...]