Obama proposes $10 per barrel oil tax — unlikely to happen

President Obama’s White House has proposed “bold” $10 per barrel tax on imports of oil. “The White House said that the tax would encourage a shift away from an oil-dependent transportation system and provide revenue that it would use to pay for much-needed infrastructure investment.” With a current price of $30-$40/bbl this represents a tax …

Brics create their own development bank

The five ’emerging’ BRICS economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa account for a quarter of the world economy (24.5%). Their voting power at the IMF is only 10.3 percent. They have decided to stop waiting for the US Congress to ratify reforms to that voting structure. At their sixth summit recently they announced …

The two sides of change for a sustainable future

A recent article in the New York Times puts the cost of environmental degradation in China at about $230 billion in 2010. This is 3.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, three times the level in 2004. “This cuts to the heart of China’s economic challenge: how to transform from the explosive growth of the …

George Soros foresees US class war

In a recent interview with Newsweek, George Soros has said that he foresees “riots on the streets [in the USA] that will lead to a brutal clampdown that will dramatically curtail civil liberties.” This is not good news for US citizens, or business. People who are rioting do not make good customers, or employees. And …

“Fixing Britain” — a clear view of a future for business

Lots of people talk about “thinking global, acting local”. This guy does a good job of putting it into practice. He paints a clear picture that runs from the strategic rise of China to the practical need for better education, less regulation, more environmental responsibility, and more socially-inclusive wealth creation.