by Charley James
It wasn’t the kind of genteel discussion the world’s highest-level bankers probably expected when a large group of them gathered at a posh Surrey country house hotel in England this week for a conference under the cosy auspices of the very friendly Wall Street Journal and billed as the “Future of Finance Initiative.”
I’ve [...]

By Denis Campbell
Yesterday’s welcome to Wales 1st Minister Carwyn Jones to a plateful of problems and suggesting a course of action, rattled some. The normal e-mail/text-to-website comment ratio is 6:1 as most prefer to stay quiet or comment privately. Yesterday it was almost 30:1. It was illuminating as so many wondered why no one asks [...]

by Robert Reich
One out of four homeowners is now under water, owing more on their homes than the homes are worth. Why? The biggest single factor behind the housing crisis is rising unemployment. According to the latest ABC-Washington Post poll, one out of every three Americans has either lost their job or lives in a [...]

By Denis Campbell
With the formation Monday of the new Cardiff Business Partnership by several large, key employers based in and around the capital, they do seem to have strangely gone another “bridge too far.”
In a statement Tuesday on the Cardiff and Co website lauding Monday’s announcement, Chairman Bill Savage inexplicably wrote:
The Board of Cardiff & [...]

by Charley James
I just saw The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 remake at a cut rate, neighbourhood theatre so I could better understand the inevitable sequel, The Putting Back of Pelham 1-2-3 Right Where It Belongs, and to compare it with the 1974 original, which spelled out the numbers in the title because audiences had longer [...]

By Denis Campbell
3rd in my series on Economic Development and Politics in Wales made more critical by this week’s growing ‘silly season food fight’ over the Labour Leadership election.
It’s been anything but a quiet week in Lake Woebegone, (apologies to npr, Garrison Keillor, and most in Wales unfamiliar with the reference).
After my Sunday’s BBC The [...]

by Robert Reich
President Obama says he wants to “rebalance” the economic relationship between China and the U.S. as part of his plan to restart the American jobs machine. “We cannot go back,” he said in September, “to an era where the Chinese . . . just are selling everything to us, we’re taking out a [...]

by Robert Reich
Dear Senator,
I know you’re in a tough spot. It would be bad enough if you only had to get Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, Mary Landrieu, and Blanche Lincoln on board, but anyone who has to kiss Joe Lieberman’s derriere deserves a congressional medal of honor.
But Harry, you really need to take on future [...]

by Charley James
Six months ago, in a long-forgotten article, I quoted a Cleveland physician complaining that health care reform will cut his income so sharply he will be forced to curb his lush standard of living.
… a physician acquaintance in Ohio who is a highly regarded specialist with a seven figure income … complains to [...]

Rev. Irene Monroe
This Halloween many American children dressed up as witches. And we heard their laughter and saw their smiles as they joyfully went from door-to-door trick-or-treating.
But in some places across the globe  and here children would never pretend to be witches because the consequences are not only dire but they can also be deadly.
For example, Nine-year-old [...]