News and Analysis: 9-13 Aug 10 | EmergingFrontierMarkets.com

Based in: Manila, Philippines

Posted on Thu, 12 Aug 10:

Verandah: Long hot summer of fire and floods fit predictions--Floods, fires, melting ice and feverish heat: From smoke-choked Moscow to water-soaked Pakistan and the High Arctic, the planet seems to be having a midsummer breakdown. It's not just a portent of things to come, scientists say, but a sign of troubling climate change already under way. The weather-related cataclysms of July and Aug fit patterns predicted by climate scientists, the Geneva-based World Meteorological Org says - although those scientists always shy from tying individual disasters directly to global warming, AP (courtesy Himalayan Times/ Nepal), 12 Aug 10

The world's record-breaking container ports: Modern container ports can stretch over vast areas of land and handle millions of tons of cargo each year. We take a look at ten of the world's largest and busiest, Ship Technology, Jan '10 (Amer Assn Port Authorities--Port industry stats | World port ranking--Latest year avail. '08 [pdf])

Posted on Wed, 11 Aug 10:

World Bank urges nations to avoid food export bans: The World Bank on Mon urged nations to refrain from imposing policies that could trigger a new global food price crisis as drought-hit Russia said it could extend a grain export ban into next yr. "Although you can understand how govts would want to implement certain polices they think are good domestically, those policies are not always the best, like export restrictions and bans have a strong impact on the market and cause hoarding," a WB managing dir said, Reuters (courtesy Daily News & Analysis/ India), 9 Aug 10

Tax dollars shouldn't fund Chinese biz - Sen. Webb: US Sen. Jim Webb called on the Millennium Challenge Corp.(MCC), a US govt development org funded by American tax dollars, to immediately cease action on multimillion-dollar devt projects awarded to non-US cos. in Africa, Augusta Free Press, 2 Aug 10 (Webb: Why spend millions in Amer tax dollars to help Chinese biz growth in Africa? | A Webb of misguided MCC ideas, Ctr Global Devt, 9 Aug | An open letter to Pres Obama on the US commitment to global development, 200+ organizations and individuals, 5 Aug)

Posted on Tue, 10 Aug 10:

UN's Ban requests generous intl help for flood-hit Pakistan: Secy-Gen Ban voiced extreme concern over the catastrophic floods that have killed hundreds of people in Pakistan and urged donors to contribute generously to the humanitarian response, saying the effects of the disaster rivaled the impact of the earthquake that struck the SAsian nation in '05 which claimed the lives of 80,000. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the north-west remains the most affected region, even as the floods, caused by torrential monsoon rains, have spread to other parts of the nation, incl Gilgit Baltistan, Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan, UN News, 9 Aug 10

Intl tourism - Recovery confirmed, but growth remains uneven: Intl tourist arrivals grew by 7% in the first 4 mths of '10, which confirms the recovery trend beginning in the last qtr of '09 and comes despite the challenging conditions of recent mths. For this yr, the forecast is for intl tourist arrivals to grow by 3-4%. In '09, France, US and Spain continued to be leaders in both intl tourist arrivals and receipts. France continued to lead the world rankings in terms of arrivals and ranked 3rd in receipts. USA ranked 1st in receipts and 2nd in arrivals. Spain held its position as 2nd biggest earner worldwide and 1st in Europe, and ranked 3rd in arrivals, World Tourism Org, 29 June 10 (First results of '10 confirm upward trend, 28 Apr)

Posted on Mon, 9 Aug 10:

China searches for survivors amid Asian flood wave: Rescuers dug through mud and wreckage Mon searching for 1,300 people missing after flash floods and landslides struck northwestern China, just one of a series of floods across Asia that have killed hundreds and spread misery to millions more. In Pakistan, frustrated victims railed vs the govt's anemic relief effort for the estimated 15 mil. displaced by the nation's worst-ever floods, while rescuers in Indian-controlled Kashmir raced to find 500 people still missing in flash floods that have killed 132, AP (courtesy Jakarta Post), 9 Aug 10

Kenneth Rogoff: Diminished expectations?--As the US and European economies continue to struggle, there is rising concern that they face a Japanese-style 'lost decade'. There is no doubt that Japan's massive '92 financial crisis was a hammer blow from which it has yet to recover, and the parallels w/ the US and Europe today are worrisome. Yet, in assessing the Japanese experience and its relevance today, it is important to recognize that its fall to earth was due not only to its financial crisis, says fmr IMF chief economist/ Harvard prof, Proj Syndicate (courtesy Korea Times), 5 Aug 10

G Hubbard and W Duggan: The Aid Trap - A reply: The reviewer makes one major objection that we have heard many times in the mths since our book came out. And we have not replied to this objection yet. The book proposes a ‘new Marshall Plan’ for the world's poorest nations, along the lines of the original Marshall Plan in Europe after WW2. But rebuilding Europe's biz infrastructure is very different from building a biz infrastructure from scratch in poor nations today. So, the argument goes, our proposal won't work, say fmr US Pres.'s Council Econ Advisers chair/ Columbia U Biz Sch dean and senior lecturer, NYU's AidWatch, 3 Aug 10 (Williamson: Could aid revive biz instead of stamping it out?, 30 July)

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