Word: centralizing
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...Scary stuff, indeed, but so far, that worst-case scenario doesn't appear to be materializing. The central bank of the United Arab Emirates promised on Sunday to stand behind the country's banks with fresh liquidity, causing stock markets in Asia to rebound on Monday. Nevertheless, the Dubai debacle is just the kind of dangerous unknown that can still arise out of the financial crisis, even while a general recovery is under way. Financial crises change the rules of the game, especially when it comes to determining how money flows, and where and to whom. Perceptions of risk among...
...problems, new ones are appearing as well. Fears continue to mount that the loose monetary policies put in place by central banks worldwide are creating potentially destabilizing increases in property and stock prices. "Asset bubbles could be the next fragility as the world recovers, threatening again to destroy livelihoods and trap millions more in poverty," World Bank President Robert Zoellick recently wrote in the Financial Times. Property-market analyst Nicole Wong at brokerage CLSA argues that Hong Kong may inevitably be heading for "another boom and bust" in its real estate sector, due to a combination of tight supply...
Entertainment is central to the political genius of a man who started off as a crooner on a cruise line, and who christened his party Forza Italia after a national football chant. He's anything but gray. "When [former Prime Minister Romano] Prodi was on TV, I had to turn the sound way up," snorts one middle-aged Berlusconi supporter. "Prodi speaks like a priest." Ask an Italian what they think of their current leader, and chances are they'll chuckle - but most go on to say they voted for him. For many of his countrymen, Berlusconi's appetites...
...would be great if a presidential election could magically transport the small, impoverished Central American nation beyond the political crisis that has gripped it since the June 28 coup. But unless Zelaya is restored to office before next week's balloting, which looks extremely unlikely, the international community is poised to brand the vote illegitimate. Instead, the election will confirm that Honduras has slipped back into the political chicanery and military meddling that typified the 1970s and '80s. "You can't use an election to clean the slate after a coup," says Christopher Sabatini, senior policy director at the Council...
Honduras, in fact, is the latest example of how little progress Central America has made since the coups, civil wars and corruption of the past. The institutional rot that spawned those Cold War conflicts remains, not just in Honduras but in nearby countries such as Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama. In Nicaragua, for example, leftist President Daniel Ortega last month had Supreme Court justices loyal to him summarily lift a constitutional ban on presidential re-election so he can run again in 2011, even though most Nicaraguans oppose the change. In Panama, members of the powerful Arias family have...