Wednesday-Night

U.S. Presidential Campaign: Candidates & Issues
John McCain: Economic Stimulus Plan
Barack Obama: The Economy
August 21
Obama Shifts Message to Everyday Concerns
LYNCHBURG, Va. — Senator Barack Obama has sharpened his stump speech, delivering a more populist message that further highlights his differences with Senator John McCain, particularly on the economy.
August 20
How Obama Reconciles Dueling Views on […]

(The Economist) The state of the economy, though not yet as clear a challenge … is worrying China’s leaders too. They have long been trying to prevent it from growing too fast, but now they fear that growth is slowing and may slow further. National income grew by 10.1% in the year to the second […]

August 3
Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization
(NYT) Cheap oil, the lubricant of quick, inexpensive transportation links across the world, may not return anytime soon, upsetting the logic of diffuse global supply chains that treat geography as a footnote in the pursuit of lower wages. Rising concern about global warming, the reaction against lost jobs in […]

July 31, 2008
(FT) Russia plans to form a state grain trading company to control up to half of the country’s cereal exports, intensifying fears that Moscow wants to use food exports as a diplomatic weapon in the same way as Gazprom has manipulated natural gas sales.
The move by Moscow, the world’s fifth-biggest exporter of cereals, […]

Taxing the Poor
Edward Gresser (Foreign Affairs) … most imports arrive not under FTAs but through the permanent tariff system, which receives far less attention in Congress. Rather than raising money and protecting jobs, permanent tariffs tend to increase clothing and shoe prices at home while creating especially high trade barriers that deter goods from approximately […]

World Hunger and WTO News on Wednesday-night.com
July 31
Seeking a trade deal
(Globe & Mail) The Canadians who participated in the Doha process, including Trade Minister Michael Fortier, say they will now turn to negotiating bilateral agreements with individual countries. That is a smart decision, and a first priority should be to get an agreement in […]

July 30
Canada’s forestry industry is missing the boat on China
Jason (Guangyu) Wang, Canadian International Council
(The Gazette) Today’s China has a ravenous appetite for imported wood that knows no bounds. But here, our wood associations and governments have, while spending considerable sums on creating a united market for Canadian wood there, missed the basics taught […]

July 22
China and Russia are anything but natural partners. While their economic interests may seem complementary, geography dictates that their actual connections will be sharply limited. Moreover, in their roles of resource provider versus producer, they actually have a commercial relationship analogous to that of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries versus the United […]

David T. Jones
The Metropolitain
July 10, 2008

Cynics are inclined to conclude that a government that makes the right decision is akin to the proverbial blind pig finding an acorn. But such pigs do find acorns and, in the instance of the decision by the Harper government to see Senator John McCain during his […]

Chil Heward is bringing Robin Griffiths as his guest.
Robin joined Phillips & Drew in 1966, having taken a degree in Economics at Nottingham University. He went on to be a partner at WI Carr, the first British stock broker to have offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo. Part of this firm […]