Land Rush in Africa – BusinessWeek

Posted by Matt in November 28th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Africa, Acreage, Agribusinesses, Agriculture, Arab Oil, Businessweek, Crops, Developing Countries, Farmland, Fascination, Fear, Goldman Sachs, Homelands, Investor, Land Rush, Latin-America, Morgan Stanley, Oil Countries, Sachs Gs, Tracts, Water Land

Farmland in developing countries has become an unlikely object of investor fascination. Goldman Sachs (GS), and Morgan Stanley (MS) are each raising hundreds of millions of dollars for agriculture funds aimed at Africa and Latin America. Agribusinesses in the U.S. are leasing vast tracts of African land from which they expect to export crops and [...]

China’s Global Ascendancy is at Hand

Posted by Matt in March 21st, 2009 | no comment

Published in China, Aircraft Carrier, Ascendancy, Asia, Barack Obama, Big Idea, Bipolar, China, China Economy, China S Economy, Coca Cola, Congress, Dalai Lama, Dirty Little Secret, Duopoly, Economic Crisis, Economist, Economy China, Europeans, Fascination, G20 Meeting, George Bush, Global Economic Crisis, Hu Jintao, Political Shift, Presidents, Rivals, Spar, summit, Unipolar Politics, Worries

Already a big idea has spread far beyond China: that geopolitics is now a bipolar affair, with America and China the only two that matter. Thus in London next month the real business will not be the G20 meeting but the “G2” summit between Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao. This not only worries the [...]

Why Iranians like America again

Posted by Matt in June 3rd, 2008 | no comment

Published in Iran, Affection, America The Great, Conclusion, Conversations, Fascination, Insatiable Demand, Iranian Politics, iranians, Presidential Campaign, Regard, Satan, tehran, Thoroughfare, Two Women, United States

On a recent afternoon, while riding a rickety bus down Tehran’s main thoroughfare, I overheard two women discussing the grim state of Iranian politics. One of them had reached a rather desperate conclusion. “Let the Americans come,” she said loudly. “Let them sort things out for us.”
Although their leaders still call America the “Great Satan,” [...]