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Temple Grandin: Autism Drives Academic Excellence
The lady thinks like a cow. In the case Temple Grandin (66), that is a compliment. Dr Grandin has singlehandedly changed and much improved the way livestock is handled in the US and across the globe. Her redesigned feedlots, stockyards
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Overall Tax Cost and Compliance Burden Lower for Businesses around the World
Paying taxes has become easier over the past year for medium-sized companies around the world, the latest report from the World Bank Group and PwC finds. The time it takes an average company to meet its tax obligations dropped by
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PJ O’Rourke: One of the Last of the Gonzo Journalists
A gonzo-style journalist par excellence, PJ O’Rourke will seldom fail to tackle serious societal issues with sarcastic humour and some well-placed digs at authority. Formerly managing-editor of National Lampoon, an avant-garde US satire magazine published from 1970 to 1998, Mr
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University of Chicago Booth School of Business: Questioning the Economic Effects of a Booming Real Estate Market
Strong house price growth fuels economic activity during expansions, and the ensuing slowdown in housing often precipitates severe crashes. Almost every severe economic downturn in advanced economies over the past 85 years was preceded by a real estate boom: Among
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World Investment Forum: Seeking Ways to Unlock the Idle Trillions
As the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, business and government leaders from across the world gathered this week in Geneva for the biennial World Investment Forum (WIF). The UNCTAD-sponsored four-day event brought together
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Sustainable Stock Exchanges: Urgent Need for Simple Metrics
The 4th biennial Global Dialogue on the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative, concluded yesterday (10/14) at the United Nations Geneva headquarters, unveiled the urgent need for all stakeholders – stock exchanges, regulators, investors, and businesses – to adopt simple, yet
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Sustainable Stock Exchanges: The Relevance of Green Indices
At the fourth Global Dialogue of Sustainable Stock Exchange (SSE) Initiative, last Tuesday in Geneva, Nasdaq OMX vice-chairman Meyer “Sandy” Frucher livened up discussions by spelling out a few hard-hitting truths. Though delivered in way that elicited chuckles from the
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World Bank Group: Can Resource-Financed Infrastructure Fix the Natural Resource Curse?
By Håvard Halland, John Beardsworth, Bryan Land, and James Schmidt How can resource-rich countries ensure that a sufficiently large share of oil, gas, and mining revenues are used for productive investment rather than excessive or wasteful consumption? “Resource-financed infrastructure” (RFI)
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The Underrated Modesty of Executive Pay at the World Bank
There are moments in time when the proverbial storm in a teacup serves to underscore a point. The World Bank Group is living one such moment. The bank is in the midst of a possibly painful restructuring process that is
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Noam Chomsky: Unravelling Established Truths
It is hard, if not downright impossible, to gain the upper hand in a debate with a logician who is a walking, and talking, encyclopaedia to boot. Noam Chomsky, a self-styled anarcho-syndicalist and a linguist of great distinction, is not
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