FT podcast: World Weekly with Gideon Rachman

May 23, 2013 11:44 pm by Financial Times

Russia’s role in world politics
Under the second Putin presidency, the Russian government seems to have become even harder to deal with, be it in seeking to forge international agreement on Syria, spy scandals, energy diplomacy, or neighbourhood diplomacy. Charles Clover, Moscow bureau chief, and James Blitz, diplomatic editor, join Gideon Rachman to discuss the best ways to understand the Russian government. Read more

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Posted in Russia |

Smart Reads May 20, 2013

May 20, 2013 6:42 pm by Financial Times

By Aaron Hagstrom

♦ An isolated village in northeast China has adopted an “eldercare” model, in which the old look after the even older.
♦ Richard Beeston, the courageous Times correspondent who covered the 1991 Kurdish massacres in Halabja, has died of cancer at 50.
♦ Pakistan’s “crumbling” railways have become an emblem of a troubled past.
♦ Israeli finance minister Yair Lapid has returned to the limelight, in the wake of his unpopular austerity budget.
♦ French chefs are turning from fresh to frozen ingredients, in the face of rising costs.
♦ Researchers have shown the invention of the “humble” shipping container in 1956 explains a 790% rise in bilateral trade over 20 years.
♦ Greece shows rising fertility rates, despite rising unemployment.
♦ In the highest level of US-China military talks held for nearly two years, cybersecurity was the focus.

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Posted in Foreign affairs, Smart Reads |

FT podcast: World Weekly with Gideon Rachman

May 16, 2013 12:39 am by Financial Times

Britain’s future in the EU
Prime Minister David Cameron thought that his promise to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s membership of the EU, and to hold an in-out referendum on British membership in 2017 had bought him domestic political peace. Instead, many in his own Conservative party are agitating for an even harder-line position, and the anti-EU United Kingdom Independence Party is soaring in opinion polls. An eventual British exit from the EU is looking increasingly possible. So what’s going on, and what do other Europeans make of it. Quentin Peel in Berlin joins Janan Ganesh and Gideon Rachman in London. Read more

Posted in Britain, Europe |
From Money Supply May 15, 2013

You still need a strong constitution or a taste for gallows humour to read most eurozone economic statistics, as today’s release of the preliminary Q1 gross domestic product growth contraction data shows.

The bloc is now in its longest recession since the birth of the single currency, beating the post-Lehman Brothers slump in duration, though not in the depth of the downturn.

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Posted in Foreign affairs |

FT podcast: World Weekly with Gideon Rachman

May 9, 2013 12:06 am by Financial Times

A turning point for Pakistan?
As Pakistan prepares to go to the polls in the first transfer of power between one democratically elected government and another since the foundation of the state, optimists say the elections will mark an important turning point for the country. But pessimists point to the background of violence against which the elections are taking place and the continuing parlous state of the economy. To assess this, Gideon Rachman is joined by Victor Mallet, South Asia bureau chief, and Stefan Wagstyl, emerging markets editor Read more

Posted in Pakistan |

FT podcast: World Weekly with Gideon Rachman

May 1, 2013 11:40 pm by Financial Times

The debate over intervention in Syria
The death toll in Syria is now estimated at a horrifying 70,000, and the pressure on the United States to intervene is mounting, particularly with the suggestion that the Syrian government may have used chemical weapons. Geoff Dyer in Washington and Abigail Fielding-Smith in Beirut join Gideon Rachman to discuss where the debate over Western intervention in Syria stands. Read more

Posted in Middle East, Syria, US foreign policy |

Running low on ‘juice’: Obama to look beyond Congress

May 1, 2013 12:02 am by Financial Times

By Richard McGregor in Washington

It is remarkable that Barack Obama, only months after a convincing re-election, seems to keep falling back on his self-professed powerlessness when pressed about his second-term agenda.

Be it on closing down Guantanamo Bay, ending the across-the-board budget cuts (known as sequestration), restricting firearms sales or bringing Obamacare into life, Mr Obama talks more about what he can’t get done than the other way round.

The president suffered the indignity at a Tuesday press conference of being asked if his second-term administration still had any “juice” left, joking in response that maybe he should “just pack up and go home”. Read more

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Posted in US politics |

FT podcast: World Weekly with Gideon Rachman

April 24, 2013 11:58 pm by Financial Times

Prospects for a new Italian government
The political chaos in Rome seems to be about to come to an end as the bickering parties prepare to form a broad coalition government led by Enrico Letta of the centre-left Democrats. Will the coalition be able to rise to the challenges facing Italy, including an economy now entering its eighth consecutive quarter of contraction. Ferdinando Giugliano, FT leader writer, and Guy Dinmore, Rome correspondent, join Ben Hall to discuss. Read more

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Posted in Italy |

FT podcast: World Weekly with Gideon Rachman

April 17, 2013 11:43 pm by Financial Times

The Thatcher legacy
The past week in Britain has been a reminder of the bitterness of the politics of the 1980s as a vehement debate has broken out about the legacy of Margaret Thatcher since her death last week. For Conservatives, she remains a hero who rescued the British economy and helped to win the Cold War. But for the left, she was a villain who provoked social division and wrecked Britain’s relations with the European Union. Chris Giles, economics editor, and Philip Stephens, chief political commentator, join Gideon Rachman to attempt to arrive at a more nuanced verdict on the Iron Lady’s legacy — for Britain and the world. Read more

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Posted in Britain, World affairs |

FT podcast: World Weekly with Gideon Rachman

April 11, 2013 11:49 pm by Financial Times

Portugal’s painful austerity programme runs into trouble
Pedro Passos Coelho, Portugal’s prime minister, is one of Europe’s staunchest backers of austerity. But his government’s painful two-year programme of structural adjustment has yet to deliver the results promised. And late last week, the country’s constitutional court issued a ruling that could fatally undermine his efforts to get the economy back on track. Read more

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Posted in Europe, Financial crisis |
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