Technology provides the means for retail banks to achieve greater efficiencies that will help both the industry and the economy, says Ana Patricia Botín Over the past decade the banking sector has benefited from a benign macroeconomic environment. Strong economic growth and historically-low interest rates have resulted in strong and growing demand for credit around…
There is, perhaps, a 50% chance that humankind will be annihilated this century, says Nick Bostrom Something like 99.9% of all species that ever lived are now extinct. When will our own species join the dinosaurs and the dodos? How could that happen? And what can we do to stave off the end? An existential…
We should appeal to altruism rather than self-interest to reach our aid targets, says Jagdish Bhagwati, and be much more imaginative about how we deliver it Why should we give aid? How much should we give? How should we give it? These questions have concerned the development world since the start of rich-country foreign aid…
The Chinese threat to American jobs has been exaggerated, says David Arkless. Companies should focus on what they can do to be better employers Economic growth is impossible without people. It is a fact. People fuel economies through work and spending. At a micro level, you and I make an important contribution to our national…
When the fund managers bale out, that’s the time to pile in, says Brett Arends Remember the cull of the “value managers” near the end of the dotcom bubble? In early 2000, prominent fund managers who refused to jump on the bandwagon finally paid the price. Among them were Tony Dye, the Phillips & Drew…
Post-Soviet Estonia has been run by the young. That is largely why it is now considered the most competitive economy in the European Union, according to Andrus Ansip When we are choosing among candidates for various posts, people often try to dissuade us on the grounds of the candidate’s youth: “He may be best for…
Developments in biotechnology have made possible species-changing and even species-endangering procedures, says George Annas. We urgently need a global governance structure to regulate them. Albert Einstein cogently observed that “imagination is more important than knowledge”. He could have gone further. Moral imagination is more important than scientific imagination. The unmet challenge for science at the…
The mobile phone is a great democratic technology: it will play a decisive role in providing universal access to telecommunications. New voice and data connections, made possible by affordable, accessible mobile phones, mean more opportunities for trade and wealth creation. Central and eastern Europe is a region with rapidly-rising mobile penetration: subscriptions rose 25% in…
Contrary to popular belief, Islam is well suited to economic, social and personal development, says Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, as long as we interpret it correctly There is a popular view, especially in the West, that Islam has not come to terms with the modern world. This view holds that whereas Christianity “secularized” itself and shed…
In the past year or so natural disasters of biblical proportions have been visited on the world. Maria Ahmed asks whether these are random events, or has mankind had a hand in them? Natural disasters have caused massive death and destruction over the past year or so. In December 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami killed…
