Wednesday-Night

Credit Crisis May Delay Biofuels Development
(Reuters/Planet Ark) LONDON - A global pull-back from bank lending may dent the commercialisation of biofuel technologies to replace conventional gasoline, said the chief executive of US cellulosic ethanol firm BlueFire Ethanol. 
A credit crisis which claimed more bank victims on Monday has raised project finance costs and made ambitious targets […]

A wonderful diatribe and distinctly ‘other’ view of Larry Summers
THISDAY, Lawrence Summers, and the Future of Africa
In essence, Obaigbena and his editors, in their infinite wisdom, have concluded that two representatives of American market fundamentalism are in the most auspicious position to perorate on “the challenges of Nigeria’s policy and market environment”. If we are […]

Guided as usual by the events of the week, our topics will likely be limited to the financial crisis and proposed bailout in the U.S., the elections in Canada and the U.S. and/or anything crucial that happens between now and Wednesday Night. Please see this page and/or www.wednesday-night.com for updates.
As promised previously, we again pose […]

The U.S. 2008 Presidential Election: An Evaluation
by Rodrigue Tremblay
In his quite exhaustive analysis (excerpts below), Dr. Tremblay concludes
The 2008 American presidential election is a most unusual and interesting election, and it will be studied intensively in the coming years. My preliminary assessment is that this is still a presidential election for the Democrats to […]

The Medvedev Doctrine and American Strategy
(Stratfor) The fifth point is the critical one: “As is the case of other countries, there are regions in which Russia has privileged interests.” In other words, the Russians have special interests in the former Soviet Union and in friendly relations with these states. Intrusions by others into these regions […]

With thanks to Foad Mardukhi, our inimitable source of great information.
Feeling No Pain
PAUL KRUGMAN
(NYT) My first reaction to Bill Clinton’s convention speech was sheer professional jealousy: nobody, but nobody, has his ability to translate economic wonkery into plain, forceful English. In effect, Mr. Clinton provided an executive summary of the […]

More on the 2008 campaign and issues
Although the early days of the campaign were regrettably short on serious exploration of issues and the candidates’ positions, their websites supplied considerable information. Now that the Democrats have united (sort of) behind Barack Obama, we are moving away from following the issues in one post. There are now […]

17 August
Russia’s Arctic ambitions challenged
With rich oil and gas reserves at stake as the Arctic ice thins, US and Canadian ships are teaming up to conduct a seismic survey of the Beaufort seabed north of the Yukon-Alaska border
16 August 2008
Russia leads scramble for Arctic
(The Telegraph) With the polar icecaps melting, and oil prices at […]

August 14
African firms start to take action on climate change
“The environment is not being taken very seriously in most of the emerging markets, because we haven’t started feeling the pressure yet. But it has got to be addressed and it is up to us corporates to lead that.” Barclays Bank […]

See also Global Treaty on Climate Change
August 13
Elephant seals join fight against climate change
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Elephant seals swimming under Antarctic ice and fitted with special sensors are providing scientists with crucial data on ice formation, ocean currents and climate change, a study released on Tuesday said.
The seals swimming under winter sea ice have overcome […]