Germany is the economic powerhouse in the Eurozone. It has maintained low unemployment, low inflation, low debt to revenue ratio and it will have to provide the lion's share of any bailout or rescue...
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Germany is the economic powerhouse in the Eurozone. It has maintained low unemployment, low inflation, low debt to revenue ratio and it will have to provide the lion's share of any bailout or rescue...
On the contrary, if the state is going to pour a bunch of subsidies into a business they are usually doing it with the expectation that the business will return to profitability at some point in the...
Banking is a special case. Countries need at least a functional banking system to grow and an outright collapse of the banking system will be devastating to the economy. Part of the problem with...
This assumes A) that the state is better at picking winners than the private sector and B) that competitiveness can be raised simply by throwing money at the problem. I am not saying that the state...
This is a good summary of the weak points of state capitalism. State Owned Enterprises (SOE) and state champions get plenty of government support in the form of cheap money and favorable legislation...
There is a pretty good piece about this here in the Economist. The Chinese are still pretty good about the control of capital within the country but the rich and/or well connected are able to find...
This is why the Army does not sanction the use of potent amphetamines. I do know guys who are prescribed Adderal for ADHD which is an amphetamine but the thereputic dose for Adderal is much lower...
I cannot say that it never happens but it is most definitely not sanctioned. I have seen more than one guy get hammered over steroid use. Guys on steroids tend to be emotionally labile and they...
I have yet to see any form of amphetamine or other prescription stimulants being authorized for use by the Army. That said, ordinary stimulants like caffeine and energy drinks are everywhere. When...
Mostly a result of poorly thought out "three strikes" laws that are being removed from the books in many places
There is not a lot of conclusive evidence that legal gun ownership leads to more...
That is a great find, davidbfpo. I was looking at some photos from the Houla massacre earlier. When one sees children that have been murdered that way it provokes a visceral reaction (in me...
It is never out of the realm of possibility but Ken White has a great quote that I cannot find now that says something to the effect of "Never attribute to malice what can be easily attributed to...
The government can provide the drugs or the vaccines or the treated insect nets but it is up to the local providers to implement protocols, treat patients and distribute medical supplies. Dayuhan's...
This vignette also illustrates why the phrase "government-run" is often at the root of a problem, regardless of the government. Correct me if I am wrong Dayuhan, but I suspect that the reason that...
Dayuhan hit the point exactly. The most well thought out strategy in the world will still fail if it is not properly executed at the regional/local level. There are a lot of great ideas out there...
Probably not enough to survive on and even then it would require the Mauritanians to give those resources up. I would not bet on that.
The security apparatus may be stronger than the rebels but it does not exist in a vacuum. How long can they remain dominant with resources for the regime drying up and supplies starting to flow to...
Granted, the military is more loyal to Assad than it has been in other Arab states but that will likely delay the overthrow of the Assad regime but not prevent it. To begin with, Syria is not a...
I pulled my data off of the CIA world factbook. Perhaps I overstated that they have no mineral wealth but compared to places like Nigeria and Libya, they do not have a lot of mineral wealth. They...
It probably has less to do with religion than with authoritarian regimes wanting to buy their way into the good graces of the rebels in Syria. The writing is on the wall. Assad will fall at some...
I am not saying that anybody was lied to about what the Tuareg do or do not want. I am simply saying that, because they are such a sparse and widely spread group that none of them can be said to be...
Nigeria has a lot of oil. If the finance minister can do what she has set out to do, is a lot of potential for growth there. There is probably even enough to spread some prosperity to the North. ...
My point was simply that these groups do not necessarily want the same things. Statements about what the Tuareg want must be viewed with some suspicion since there is a very real possibility that...
Because they are not a single homogenous group, but rather a series of affiliated tribes spread across several states. Even if they were to get an independent homeland, the lands that they...
So true...
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