Word: evens
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...people would be surprised by Google co-founder Sergey Brin's bravado. After all, if you were a 36-year-old billionaire, you'd probably be forgiven a little audacity yourself. Even when it came to the implacable, muscle-flexing behemoth that is China. It was in February, just over a month into Google's extraordinary standoff with Beijing, that Brin appeared at a tech conference in southern California. "I'm always optimistic," he responded, when asked about the effectiveness of plans to stop censoring Chinese search results in retaliation for the hacking and e-mail pilfering that takes place...
...Shanghai on corruption charges. If he still believed (as many in the foreign business community did when the four were arrested in 2009) that the trial was retribution for a soured deal with Chinalco, China's huge state-owned aluminum producer, he wasn't showing it. He wasn't even in Shanghai but in Beijing, making an extremely conciliatory speech at the China Development Forum - a Davos-like conference for dozens of corporate chieftains. Premier Wen Jiabao attended, and global CEOs lined up obligingly for the handshake. (Read "Searching Questions: Internet Searches in China...
...same time, Wen has also said that "no one wants a trade or currency war." Even as the China Development Forum was taking place, Wen noted that a Chinese envoy was en route to Washington to discuss trade issues, and pointed with hope to a May session of the biannual Strategic and Economic Dialogue, at which high-ranking delegations from both sides will sit down in Washington. "You got a sense," says an American participant, "that he wants calmer heads to prevail...
...when they fail to deliver. Taxes may be slightly higher in Europe, but medical fees are heavily subsidized by governments and are drastically cheaper than they are in the U.S. The French, for example, pay a fixed $30 for a doctor's visit - and proposals to raise that fee even a few cents can ignite national protests. And in most of Europe, insurance companies are barred from rejecting applicants because of pre-existing conditions. (See pictures of immigration in Europe...
...continent, Schmitz wrote in Der Spiegel. While American politicians have battled over health care, "every other issue has become a sideshow," he says. "The Afghanistan mission: of marginal interest. Protecting the environment: postponed. Peace in the Middle East: off in the distance. Sanctions against Iran: delayed. Europe: not even worth a trip." Ouch...