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] The EU is working on developing free trade agreements with many countries of the world, from Canada possibly to China. QCEA (and others) have written about our concerns regarding special tribunals to protect investors whose profit expectations are undermined by legislation introduced by democratic governments. And we urge you to write …
[originally published in qceablog.wordpress.com] The Council of Europe (CoE) is a European institution focussed on promoting and facilitating human rights, democracy and the Rule of Law. It has many more member states -47- than its cousin the European Union (EU). The CoE in fact includes all the EU Member States. All these …
I wrote recently about corporate social responsibility and the need for this concept to be stretched and deepened to contribute more to changing our society. We need the equivalent to a mid-term review, to fundamentally question our economic system, to examine our assumption that economic growth is a good in …
The newspaper announced it today: trees affect their environment. I am amazed that this is news – are there people who still don’t know this simple fact. We don’t need the media to announce it to us – just walk into a forest in winter and feel how it is …
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 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 …
I have been traveling again, and noticing the individualism inherent in the US. It hits very hard after reading The Spirit Level by Wilkinson and Pickett, which shows over and over how societies (in different parts of the world) with greater inequality have greater public problems: from crime to obesity, poorer …
Watching an announcement on the news today of a lowering in interest rates, the relief is palpable. ‘Back to normal.’ We can forget the crisis, people think, the worst is over, now back to regular life. But it is not so. ‘Regular life’ involves chewing up and breaking down – …