Articles marked with this icon are printed only in the UK edition of The Economist. Despite initially describing the alleged conspiracy as "very, very large", police did not find enough evidence to lay charges.
A glimmer of hope?
Luminous indicators
The second slump is in the emerging world, where many economies have been hit by the sudden drop in private cross-border capital flows. Governments struggled to prop up their banks and committed trillions of dollars in the process.
Searching for new demand
The IMF's latest global economic outlook expects global output to contract by 1.3% this year, the first decline in 60 years. The latest IMF forecast that the Chinese economy will grow by 6.5% this year may turn out to be conservative.
Not much to glow about
As the output slump sends Germany's unemployment rate into double digits, it's hard to see consumers going on a spending spree. Germany's fiscal stimulus, while large by European standards, falls far short of what it can afford.
Start preparing for the next decade
New figures from the IMF suggest that European banks face around $1.1 trillion in losses, almost none of which have yet been recognized (see article). This weekend many of the world's finance ministers and central bankers will meet in Washington, DC, for the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.
Desperate measures
The eye-watering figures
Instead came two overly political scams: a string of overly optimistic economic assumptions and the misleading message that soaking the rich can relieve the other 98% of the population of personal sacrifice. It would be strange to expect a government to be explicit about it on the eve of an election.
Don’t quit the centre
The theoretical commitment to reduce current spending growth to 0.7% per year from 2011-12 will only be implemented after the election; it also relies heavily on well-known "efficiency savings." The second fiction is that squeezing the rich can lift people out of poverty (except for more expensive fuel, tobacco and booze).
A new start in the Americas
Engaging Cuba
Mr. Obama appears to agree with Mr. Bush that public criticism of Mr. Chávez is counterproductive. Obama made a promising start in his effort to convince Latin Americans that the United States is a "force for good" in the region.
To the bitter end
Those fleeing the Tigers face internment in appalling conditions and often a desperate search for relatives. Fearing that the Tigers will regroup among the displaced civilians and continue their terrorism, perhaps it makes sense for the government to keep a close eye on them.
Battle is joined
The official in charge of the review talked about establishing a cybersecurity office within the White House to coordinate the efforts of different agencies. So don't be surprised if cyber security looks set to improve once Mr Obama decides how to divide the money and the power.
On Mexico's drug wars, Conrad Black, religious defamation, unloved oligarchs, our new Asian column
Ammunition in the debate
Conrad Black responds
Religious nonsense
The UN has firmly established itself as a body that is not at all prepared to defend the basic principles enshrined in the Declaration of Human Rights. SIR – The right to inspect and disagree with any institution, especially church or state, benefits the object of inspection.
Scapegoats
The UN Human Rights Council's decision to ban "defamation" of religion fails to recognize the benefits of inquiry in evaluating the integrity of a religion. If the countries that advocated for the UN vote believed this, the resolution would not have passed.
A tree of Asian life
Western countries will also be happy to note that the council feels that the human right to free speech is not violated when they implement their own, less draconian, blasphemy laws. SIR – It is refreshing to see a return to the image of the banyan tree as a place where people gather and learn.
Hubris and nemesis
Instead, Britons are facing a poorer future in which they pick up the tab for rising public debt. Britain's painful experience is a prime showcase of what is to come as economies find themselves saddled with additional public debt.
From economic denial to confession
The economy itself may not turn out to be the worst performer in the G7, but public finances appear to be ready. Britain's budget deficit in 2010 will be the highest as a share of national output in the G7, according to IMF figures this week.
A red river of debt
Official figures on April 21 showed that retail prices fell 0.4% in the 12 months through March, the first drop since 1960. Certainly, states will take a much greater interest in what's going on in banking and finance in the coming years. the financial sector happens.
The monetary-policy maze
Before the crisis, almost all leading central banks operated through the short-term (usually overnight) money market rate. Central banks responded by expanding their lending operations through a mix of more types of credit and collateral, longer maturities and more counterparties (see Figure 1).
In need of new targets
Start with the most direct question: what tools will central banks use to manage the economy in the near future. It is fair to say that many central banks are more optimistic, noting that inflation expectations are, in the jargon, well anchored.
New combatants in the political arena
With interest rates at zero, the Fed and the Bank of England are buying government debt to increase lending and the money supply. Public disapproval has grown markedly for Mr Bernanke, the Bank of England and the ECB.
Baptism of fire
But Mr. Geithner won't ask for it until he's sure he needs it. But markets, like voters, don't have to be right to influence the outcome of Mr. Geithner's policies.
A green figleaf
If US lawmakers are threatening to send state representatives naked to the conference room, the EPA's decision, which means at least tailpipe emissions are likely to be regulated, has provided them with a fig.
Pruning a jungle
Slow building
Desperemus igitur
Of Ossis and Wessis
The Hooverville that wasn't
How not to get stuck in jail
After the dark side
Mr. Obama has also continued the Bush administration's practice of asking civilian courts to exclude cases involving allegations of rendition and torture. Mr. Obama's taste for trying to balance both sides of an argument is evident in his handling of the torture memos.
Own goal
In February, Mr. Obama's Justice Department persuaded the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that a lawsuit on behalf of Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed, who also underwent an extraordinary rendition, should be dismissed because it would reveal state secrets. Mr. Obama inherited some very difficult problems from the previous regime, not least what to do with people, some of them very dangerous, who had been in legal limbo at Guantanamo for years.
Revolution! Please give generously
The government now faces a fiscal gap of perhaps $2 billion, calculates Margarita Andrade of Analytica Securities, a Quito brokerage. Judging by the brisk demand for bank vaults, savers are worried that the government may attack their deposits as well.
The Ignatieff revival
In terms of foreign policy, Canada needs to look beyond North America now that the United States' "noon hour" and global dominance is over, he argues. His frequent use of "we" when addressing audiences in the United States may turn against him.
The charming neighbour
How many hostages?
Dark victory
The main reason is that the government's apparent victory has come at a terrible cost. Most appear to have been victims of shell fire inside the Tigers' last refuge, although the government designated it a "no-fire zone" and claims to have shelled it only when civilians would not be harmed.
The American example
However, the government's initial plan, to keep this population under wraps for a year or more, was scandalous. Echoing LTTE propagandists, a retired Tamil judge, an otherwise sensitive pundit, accuses the government of genocide.
Winning the peace
Since many of these people grew up under the LTTE, the government should naturally investigate them. But for members of a proud minority, almost without exception, such blunders confirm the government as just the kind of hardline Sinhalese overlord that drove the LTTE to take up arms in the first place.
Distant horizons
He calls the contrast between the display of such a weapon and China's rhetoric about harmony "a little schizophrenic." China's self-image as a responsible great power also emerged, however, with a large new hospital ship useful for humanitarian missions.
Not as easy as it looks
Petrodollars v smallholders
So the question is not whether investment by Kuwait or anyone else is in Cambodia's long-term interest. Alas, in this case it is far from clear whether Cambodia's rulers were influenced by economic development - or by the prospect of another quick payday.
Bauxite bashers
The burning deck
Calling Kim Jong Il's bluff
China had as much reason as anyone, if not more, to fall under international condemnation of the missile launch, as it did after North Korea's nuclear test. Worse, an unrestrained North Korea could push Japan toward nuclear development, as Japan hawks once again suggest.
Five can party, too
North Korea therefore remains a rogue state with a worrying nuclear program rather than being a nuclear power in its own right. This will reassure South Korea and Japan, which were discouraged that Mr. Bush's negotiations have sometimes allowed North Korea to drive a wedge between America and its allies.
A grand bargain?
But he assured Mr. We will not allow Holocaust deniers to commit another holocaust against the Jewish people," Mr. Netanyahu said.
Bucking the trend
Falling oil prices have cast gloom over the Gulf, and may eventually hamper the inflow of its money.
The great rift
Zuma cum laude?
During the campaign he tried to be all things to all men, so South Africans will have to wait a little longer to be able to judge that.
The Viktor and Yulia show, continued
He blames Ms Tymoshenko for sacrificing the ideology of the 2004 Orange Revolution to political expediency and populism. In fact, none of Ukraine's politicians lived up to the promise of the orange revolution.
Not like the neighbours
The underdogs bark
Once bombed, twice shy
A hawkish problem
Bolognese sauce
Fishy tales
Instead, the country being overfished must aim for an increase in catches for the whole of the EU, endangering fish stocks. Because their area is not normally a cod area, they have low cod quotas: the local cod bonanza will be over in about a year.
A time to trade
This challenges the principle of "relative stability" that governs the CFP, according to which the share of fish stocks distributed to each country is intended to remain stable in relative terms. France is betrayed, they roared patriotically: look at huge cod quotas given to Norway.
Out the window
Last summer, the company hired to score the SATs screwed up and got fired. On April 22, the head of the exams regulator, who had resigned after the fiasco, told MPs that ministers had made him the boy of the fall.
Parent power
They had made statements, he said, that were "flawed", "spurious", "fiction" and "completely false". If many express the same preference, some will be disappointed – and every year, about a fifth of parents are disappointed.
Payback time?
Speed merchants
The fairly new sports car expected now, codenamed P11, will practically be a mass-market offering, in supercar terms. Forget what you know, we will be different and we will do things differently," promises Mr. Dennis.
Conscience be your guide
Rush job
Who's nasty now?
Perhaps the government's political bet - that the time and mood is right for rich-bashing - will pay off. Or perhaps the standards will be seen for what they are: calculated, unproductive despite masquerading as justice.
Nasty guys finish last
Avoiding the worst
Thus, "he recognizes the primacy of individuals, not the primacy of religions or ideologies," noted Agnes Callamard of the London-based free speech group Article 19. But some human rights groups agreed with Mr. Gooderham that the final statement "covers the ground pretty well".
Behind closed doors
Nor is it possible to stop “formalized gossip” or leaks to newsletters and the media by the parties, said Loukas Mistelis, a professor at the University of London who sits on arbitration panels. And the parameters of that discussion, the start of which has been postponed from this year to next year, have yet to be determined.
Mr Ellison helps himself
But there are other aspects of the takeover that Mr. Ellison prefers not to mention. Will it allow Mr. Ellison to help himself to a big piece of the industry pie.
Power to the people (at a price)
And the European Commission is achieving some success in forcing companies to "unbundle" using antitrust powers. But due to the high cost of renewable energy, even with more competition in the market, Germany's power prices are likely to continue to rise.
Nuclear conflict
Split decision
Battle of ideas
The revolution that wasn't
Making tracks
Pedal to the metal
Now, although its initial stake will be reduced to 20% and cannot rise above 49% until Chrysler has repaid all the money lent to it by the taxpayer, Fiat will be much more firmly in place. direction. If the deal is reached next week, Marchionne will be named chief executive and a new board in the main.
The need for speed
Mr. Marchionne's approach to Chrysler, if a deal can be reached, is likely to be similar to what he did when he arrived at Fiat in 2004. We broke it down into 60 days, removing a large number of executives who had have been there for a long time and who represented an operating style that stood outside any proper understanding of market dynamics.” In their place, Mr. Marchionne brought in a new generation of leaders who could respond to his demand for accountability, openness and swift communication.
A new world
Prices fell by about 25% in the last quarter of 2008, according to several of the private indices compiled in the absence of solid official data. When they leave, Dubai's ex-expats will spend nothing in the economy they leave behind.
Good-neighbour policy
He adds: "It's not like the people of Abu Dhabi are planning how to make Dubai suffer and the people of Dubai are planning how to wring money out of Abu Dhabi." The offer of help was extended in November, he says. Jebel Ali Port, for example, is one of the largest container docks in the world.
Commercial break
$100 million and $10 billion have commercial real estate loans worth more than three times the total risk-based capital. Great Basin Bank, the 25th U.S. bank to fail this year, was offset by large commercial real estate losses.
Down and out
US real estate prices have roughly tracked stock prices over the past 40 years; British prices are not far from their relative peak. It's a bit of a mystery why British house prices have so far outpaced those in America.
Test of nerves
The wages of sin
But while there was endorsement in the G20 communiqué for the bank's proposed "Vulnerability Framework", there was no hard cash. For example, many of the "dig-ready" projects in poor countries that the bank intended to support in future years could be brought forward to this year.
Full fear and credit
Not quite so SAFE
Follow the money
In the year to June 2008, China's holdings of US stocks more than tripled to $100 billion. By many standards, China's reserve portfolio has held up well during the crisis because most of its reserves are still in long-term bonds, which rose in price as interest rates fell; and the dollar has so far been strong.
The nature of Nature
Although Sir John was a proponent of peer review, he could see how it could sometimes stifle original thought. Fashion, and a nose for news, played an important role in Sir John's universe, regardless of the man's espousal of scientific rationalism.
Illuminating surgery
Polyphemus does the hoovering
Look, no wires
A sense of dread
Nor did the British think of themselves as being in any way isolated from the many violent intellectual currents of the time. If the catastrophe of the First World War had destroyed any belief in the immutability of a civilization based on liberal, progressive British values, the origins of the morbid age can also be found in developments in the natural and social sciences that took place long before 1914.
Argentine soldier, American hero
The old boys' network
Philipp Meyer's “American Rust”
A likeable rogue
Lord of the dance
The weaknesses of "Almost Ninety" are mostly the result of decisions made by other people, which has led to concerns about what will happen to the company when Mr Cunningham is no longer around to lead it. Mr. Carlson says that he and the company's board have been working with Mr. Cunningham on a plan that will respect his legacy and keep as much of his work intact and available to the public as possible.
Eddie George
He did this with great skill, advancing in the bank despite incidents that could have resulted in a smaller number. One was the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International in 1991, which led to accusations of lax regulation.
A rather too dignified striptease
