Showing 1 - 10 of 13
Missing the point
Oped, Postbag, Published on 09/07/2024
» Re: "No doubles for expats", (PostBag, July 8). Is it possible that Songdej Praditsmanont is completely missing the essential point that most recent contributions to PostBag have so far highlighted very loudly on this topic? Over his many attempts at justifying the current proposal by the Head of the Revenue Department to tax foreigners on their worldwide income, he has systematically ignored the elephant in the room, being the blatant unfairness associated with such a policy.
Are electric cars driving into a dead end?
Oped, Todd G Buchholz, Published on 02/02/2024
» In the early 1990s, every self-respecting American yuppie and retired suburban couple bought an electric bread maker, with sales hitting four million units. But the fad soon faded as these amateur bakers discovered that stuffing a precise quantity and ratio of flour, eggs, butter, yeast, and salt into a metal box takes time and costs much more than strolling to the corner bakery. Are plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) the breadmakers of our day?
A life seeks nuance in free-market gospel
Oped, Jennifer Szalai, Published on 25/11/2023
» In writing her new biography of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, known throughout his long life for his cheerful endorsement of deregulation and free markets, Jennifer Burns certainly had her work cut out for her. Reflecting on how controversial her subject was, she says that one of her goals was “to restore the fullness of Friedman’s thought to his public image”. She depicts Friedman, who died in 2006 at 94, as a victim of a “bipartisan assault”, besieged by radicals on the left and populists on the right who decry the “neoliberalism” that he so ardently promoted. “As he increasingly came to symbolise a political movement,” she writes, “the nuance and complexity of his ideas was lost”.
When do we die? Disputing the definition of death
Oped, Peter Singer & Charles Camosy, Published on 14/11/2023
» 'What is it you don't understand? She's dead, dead, dead." That is how David Durand, Chief Medical Officer of Oakland's Children's Hospital, attempted to convince the family of Jahi McMath that the standard medical tests for brain death had shown that their teenage daughter was no longer alive.
A medley of moonlight, stars and pines
Roger Crutchley, Published on 24/09/2023
» The answer to a crossword clue I recently tackled was "Vermont" which immediately triggered memories of the beautiful 1950's song Moonlight in Vermont. When I first heard the tune as a kid it created such an alluring image of moon rays amid sycamore trees I dug out the atlas to find out where Vermont was actually located. It even looked nice on the map, tucked up in the right-hand corner of the US.
Climate change is killing our summer
News, Niall Ferguson, Published on 31/07/2023
» Most of us have an idea of summer in our heads. It generally involves beaches. Americans head to their coasts -- avoiding only fog-shrouded San Francisco -- and Europeans to the Mediterranean or Aegean. We all strip down to near nakedness and sit around in the sun, occasionally frolicking in the ocean waves. We aim to return home tanned and toned. If you come from another planet and don't know what I am talking about, watch the Barbie trailer.
Global ammunition race may decide Ukraine war
News, Peter Apps, Published on 08/05/2023
» At the US Army Ammunition Plant in President Joe Biden's hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, production lines are running day and night through the working week to deliver artillery shells.
Closing tax havens will test West's resolve
Oped, Daron Acemoglu, Published on 11/03/2022
» Russia's war in Ukraine may not be going as it had planned, but the worst is still to come. And while Western financial sanctions against Russian institutions and oligarchs have exceeded what some were expecting, they have not targeted the Western-based roots of Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime.
Open financial data's promise
Oped, Olivia White and Anu Madgavkar, Published on 15/09/2021
» From Australia and Brazil to Nigeria and the United States, countries are putting in place new guidelines and regulations governing the digital sharing of financial data. The aim is to spur the creation of digital-data ecosystems that smooth and speed interactions between financial institutions and their individual and corporate customers. But successful adoption of open financial data could also provide a broader boost to global GDP.
Push for a republic a pipe dream
Oped, Veera Prateepchaikul, Published on 07/12/2020
» Last Friday, the Free Youth group, which is an integral part of the anti-establishment Ratsadon group, posted a message on the subject of the republic on its Facebook page.