We have Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Belgium that have more voting power than Brazil, China and India. This is completely absurd. So the BRICs have to start their pressure from the inside and that is – try to alter and ameliorate at least the Bretton Woods institutions and start to actually act as new emerging economic powers in the world.”
Dan Senor, the author of Startup Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle discusses key factors on why Israel is one of the fastest growing and most innovative economies on the planet despite being in a constant state of war.
Many countries could gain alot by studying Israel’s example and utilizing some of it’s policies- especially developing countries.
I found this channel on youtube-a little too late- and it’s been the best help with Calculus that I’ve seen on the net. The speaker uses MS Paint to break down many abstract topics that many math teachers go over too quickly. Since its a video, I can pause and rewind instead of asking a question in class and feeling like a dumbass.
China is steadily and rapidly becoming a key player in the Global marketplace, especially in Africa.
Key Facts:
Africa’s combined GDP is worth approximately $1.2trn, equal to about one quarter of China’s $4.4trn economy.
Trade between China and Africa has risen by more than 33 per cent annually this decade.
Volume of two-way trade almost hit $107bn in 2008.
Africa has a market potential of 800 million people.
In the first nine months of 2009, Beijing invested more than $7.8bn in Africa.
China’s imports from Africa are dominated by oil and minerals to fuel its booming economy. Most come from Angola, Sudan, Nigeria, Zambia, the DR Congo and the Republic of the Congo.
Many western companies and organizations have been criticizing the Chinese for doing business with some African countries but as one Chinese representative put it, “Just because [US and European] companies are doing business here, does that mean they are supporting the military government?…So why, when Chinese companies do business here, is China accused of supporting the government?”. Some see the criticism as fear that the West’s strong role in Africa is steadily diminishing.
The West has had a monopoly on the buying of African resources for the past 20 years and the next decade should be interesting in how the relationships and economic strength of all three regions change with this new trade relationship. I doubt it will be bad for the Chinese or Africans.
While in college future economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin watched the famine in her home country Ethiopia, where about a million people died of starvation. The most messed up part about it was that in the northern part of the country there was a surplus of food which was thrown away.
In the video we get to watch her as she goes back to Ethiopia to set up a commodity exchange so that Ethiopian farmers get access to the market all across Ethiopia- and with enough time, the world. This is an amazing documentary (and the only one I know of) showing a person developing a national commodities exchange from scratch.
If you want to see the whole video in full screen, go here: