Here are a few thoughts about free trade (when I’ve had time to reflect and research a bit more, I plan to publish a more high-brow version on The Thinking Pot; this post reflects primarily my first responses and gut reaction). Free and famous There is a lot in the …
[originally published on qceablog.wordpress.com] They tell us that the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada has been finalised – but not what the text is. In fact, if you search on the European Commission website for CETA, you find only documents that are nine months …
[originally published on qceablog.wordpress.com] The current crisis in Ukraine, and the response of the European Union (EU), might prompt us to examine some of our long-held assumptions about well-being, the causes of conflict, and the overuse of the resources on which we base our economy and our prosperity. Peace due …
[originally published on qceablog.wordpress.com] Last Thursday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), an assembly of national parliamentarians which meets four times a year, debated and agreed two demanding resolutions: on climate change and on energy use. The statements made during the debate were wide-ranging. Refreshingly, many speakers mentioned the connections between climate …
I am suffering a bit from familiar foibles. You know what I mean: those foibles in other people and cultures – always easier to spot than one’s own. They make me grumpy – or, maybe I am already grumpy and therefore I notice how people in one country talk rather …
Just a few days ago, my first sight in the morning was a waterfall of droplets cascading down three stories of a wooden stairs, dripping through ceilings and walls, dropping along wooden stairs, and settling in the cellar. My schedule was dramatically re-arranged so I could clean up, although the …
There is an odd idea that corporations have responsibility only to themselves, and to their investors. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a term used to describe concern by companies for social and environmental impacts, and, ideally, action to improve these impacts. It is defined by the European Commission as “the …
One feature of the natural world is that it is incredibly complex. This interconnectedness plays havoc with our human desire to plan and stratify, to separate and control. The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000) gives us one example: the goal of 100% good ecological status of EU surface waters …
One of the most important recent ‘discoveries’ in economics is not about either growth or jobs. It is about people. We have discovered that we are not actually the logical, cool, and selfish people that economic models often assume we are. In fact, we are so full of feeling-affected judgements …
One’s method of transport determines what one sees. A walking tour of a new city gives opportunity for far more detail than a driving tour. A cycle through the countryside gives one the opportunity to hear birds and smell the hot strawberries in a July field. I’ve even heard the …