The war of the sexes

The World Economic Forum has released the 2008 Gender Gap Index which combines economic, educational, political and health indices. The UK is in pretty good shape (21st globally), but still needs to do a lot on equal pay (81st). Greece is abysmally low and it is the political index that is so very disappointing (93rd out of 130). Actually, the United Arab Emirates score higher than Greece on this one! If anyone is quick to use the familiar "South European exceptionalism" excuses, just have a look at Spain (ranking higher than Britain on the table).

My post-election blues

Rebecca, that was very kind of you:)

Class-based affirmative action is the answer

From the Atlantic:

On the other hand, as the first black president, Obama is uniquely positioned to help persuade civil rights leaders that it is time to resurrect King’s idea of affirmative action as a set of programs for low income Americans of all races. He could point to King’s political insight that only a class-based emphasis would forge a potent black- and working-class-white coalition for real social change. And in phasing out race-based preferences, Obama could simultaneously put real money into the enforcement of important anti-discrimination laws to protect against bias in education, housing, and employment, a part of the colorblind agenda that no president has fully funded.

Hints of a new approach towards Russia?

Headlines from today's news:
1. Obama throws US missile shield into doubt.
2. EU resumes Russia talks isolating Lithuania.

and my favorite one for the day, from the IHT:
3. Reckless Georgia.

It is way too early to tell, but it's getting very interesting.

That racist vote

NYT reporting from the South is rather chilling.

One white woman said she feared that blacks would now become more “aggressive,” while another volunteered that she was bothered by the idea of a black man “over me” in the White House.
Mr. McCain won 76 percent of the county’s vote, about five percentage points more than Mr. Bush did, because “a lot more people came out, hoping to keep Obama out,” Joey Franks, a construction worker, said in the parking lot of the Shop and Save.
Mr. Franks, who voted for Mr. McCain, said he believed that “over 50 percent voted against Obama for racial reasons,” adding that in his own case race mattered “a little bit. That’s in my mind.”

Soros on financial market fundamentalism

Credit—whether extended to consumers or speculators or banks—has been growing at a much faster rate than the GDP ever since the end of World War II. But the rate of growth accelerated and took on the characteristics of a bubble when it was reinforced by a misconception that became dominant in 1980 when Ronald Reagan became president and Margaret Thatcher was prime minister in the United Kingdom.

The misconception is derived from the prevailing theory of financial markets, which, as mentioned earlier, holds that financial markets tend toward equilibrium and that deviations are random and can be attributed to external causes. This theory has been used to justify the belief that the pursuit of self-interest should be given free rein and markets should be deregulated. I call that belief market fundamentalism and claim that it employs false logic. Just because regulations and all other forms of governmental interventions have proven to be faulty, it does not follow that markets are perfect.

The whole article covers briefly his theory of reflexivity in the financial markets and can be found here.

Why do Scandinavians have to top this list too??

I really hoped Greece would have nailed this one, but it's the Danes again, alas.

Squaring the Guantanamo circle

One of Obama's first priorities will be to shut down the detention centers at Guantanamo. What he will do with all those prisoners is a legal riddle:

"There would be concern about establishing a completely new system," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee and former federal prosecutor who is aware of the discussions in the Obama camp. "And in the sense that establishing a regimen of detention that includes American citizens and foreign nationals that takes place on U.S. soil and departs from the criminal justice system — trying to establish that would be very difficult."

In my mind there is no way a liberal empire can survive for too long, without sacrificing either its liberal or its imperial credentials.

Al Gore's action plan for the new economy

The high priest of environmental reform explains his plan for transforming the energy industry in the US. A more holistic approach to the problem is provided by two Stanford economists. I must admit I do not know much about the state of this debate and remain skeptical to both sides. However, I cannot but feel that there is a tradeoff between economic growth and changing our whole energy infrastructure to go environment-friendly. To me there are two conflicting imperatives at work: a moral and an economic one. I totally respect both, but in times of economic crisis and when millions of people rise above poverty in the developing world the latter (at least temporarily) is of higher importance.

However, it is true that if we manage to wed Keynesianism (all those grids and factories that Mr. Gore talks about) to environmentalism that would be a miracle of human ingenuity. But will it work? Please leave comments and send links to seminal books/articles on this.

Update: The Economist runs a tirade against Obama's Green New Deal. Skip the article and go to the comments section where an actual discussion takes place. Once more, the readers are much wiser than the editors.