EIU Country Analysis

FROM THE ECONOMIST A Brazilian livestock firm has grown to prize-winning size UNLESS you work with quadrupeds, it may have escaped your notice that a Brazilian company, JBS, is about to become the world#;s largest processor of meat

FROM THE ECONOMIST A new treaty promises much, but will not help those who need help most urgently AFRICA contains half of the world#;s Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)--those who have fled their homes but continue to live in

FROM THE ECONOMIST What India can learn from Brazil about controlling capital flows IN INDIA, drought sometimes turns to deluge. This summer the country suffered its worst monsoon since ####, which left half its rural districts parched, followed swiftly by

FROM THE ECONOMIST India is caught in two minds about financial globalisation THE world is divided into two, according to Shachindra Nath, chief operating officer of Religare Enterprises, an Indian financial firm. On one side of the divide is a

FROM THE ECONOMIST ...and debates how to promote growth, reform taxes, contain health costs and also balance the budget AFTER weeks of tension, tantrums and trial balloons, Germans now know which ministers will govern them for the next four years

FROM THE ECONOMIST Shoppers return, but their habits are changing FOR over a year retailers have been cowering in their high-street redoubts as recession replaced the longest consumer-spending spree in recent times. Good news appeared this week, and

FROM THE ECONOMIST The world#;s biggest food company is betting on an emerging class of health and nutrition products to spur its growth. But risks abound IT IS a curious blend of kitchen and laboratory. From one room wafts

FROM THE ECONOMIST Asia#;s two giants still cannot agree where one stops and the other begins IF THIS is to be Asia#;s century, a small prerequisite is that its two rising powers rub along together. Yet recent bonding

FROM THE ECONOMIST A royal visit as republicanism rises WHEN Michaelle Jean, the governor-general of Canada, was described as "head of state" on her website earlier this month, the government issued a quick and very public correction. "All Canadians

FROM THE ECONOMIST The buy-out barons say the worst is over. They would IN THE half-century since private equity first appeared, the industry has produced stretches of great profitability, culminating in a spectacular run from ####-##. During

FROM THE ECONOMIST Troubling questions for the opposition party, and for Spanish politics HE OILED his hair, told employees to call him Don Vito (the Mafia boss played by Marlon Brando in "The Godfather" films) and, according to Spanish investigators

FROM THE ECONOMIST The Italian opposition gets a new leader--and a new scandal SILVIO BERLUSCONI, who can claim to have out-punched more than half a dozen left-wing opponents, has a new sparring partner. On October ##th Pierluigi

FROM THE ECONOMIST The European Union is giving itself better means to conduct foreign policy, but does it have the will? SOME time ago, just before the European Union enlarged to take in new members from Estonia to Cyprus, two

FROM THE ECONOMIST The unfinished job of cleaning up the country#;s financial reputation UNDER Manuel Noriega#;s dictatorship in the ####s the world saw Panamanian banks as synonymous with suitcases stuffed with drugs money. So there was little surprise

FROM THE ECONOMIST Unions are winning again in Washington, but the big fights are still ahead THREE years ago, when negotiations with the union representing air-traffic controllers reached an impasse, the administration of George Bush simply imposed a deal

FROM THE ECONOMIST Another "spectacular" raises doubts about American troop withdrawals TWO car bombs that exploded on October ##th in the centre of Baghdad claimed the lives of at least ### people and injured more than ###. The main targets

FROM THE ECONOMIST Unfortunately, a government-run insurance policy is on the table again THOUGH you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise, around half of all Americans get their health care courtesy of the government. There is Medicare, which provides

FROM THE ECONOMIST On the use and abuse of national stories ALEX SALMOND, the nationalist first minister of Scotland, firmly believes that the #### movie "Braveheart" played a big role in persuading Scots to vote for a devolved Parliament in

FROM THE ECONOMIST Splitting Northern Rock is just the beginning NORTHERN ROCK was rescued in September ####, more than a year before the much-bigger Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds TSB and HBOS. The mortgage bank may also be

FROM THE ECONOMIST What the row about the Conservatives#; European allies reveals about their party THE lands between the Baltic and Black seas endured a ##th century of almost unimaginable horror: it brought war, genocide, famine, invasion, occupation, fascism, communism

FROM THE ECONOMIST Clinton flies into a war zone A VISIT to Pakistan this week by Hillary Clinton, America#;s secretary of state, was greeted in the grimmest possible fashion. A suicide-bomber exploded a car packed with explosives and

FROM THE ECONOMIST A management guru leads an overhaul of some iconic fast-food chains THE fast-food industry is not usually known for lavish investment in its employees, even if dismissive talk of "McJobs" is often undeserved. Yet at

FROM THE ECONOMIST Ford seems likely to sell its last luxury brand to a Chinese upstart DESPITE lingering misgivings, Ford Motor Company announced on October ##th that it had picked China#;s Geely as the preferred bidder for its Volvo

FROM THE ECONOMIST The growing fervour for handing power to local government and citizens "NOT English" is how Mr Podsnap deplores the idea of a mighty central state in Charles Dickens#;s "Our Mutual Friend". That was a century and

FROM THE ECONOMIST The Tories#; exaggerated loathing for their old adversary ONE well-known rule of politics is that early front-runners for big jobs often fail to land them. Tony Blair has accordingly been coy about whether he wants

America#;s GDP grew in the third quarter, the first time its economy has expanded in more than a year. Home resales jumped by #.#% in September from August, the biggest rise in ## years, as first- time buyers

Most national papers in America are faring better than metropolitan ones THE slope down which America#;s metropolitan newspapers are tumbling became steeper this week. On October ##th the Audit Bureau of Circulations revealed that the Los Angeles Times had

Policymakers are turning their minds to the tricky subject of promoting entrepreneurship UNEMPLOYMENT is creeping ever higher. In the United States it will soon exceed ##%. In parts of Europe it is closer to ##%. Around the world young people

Letter volumes are plummeting around the world, highlighting stark differences among national postal services ON OCTOBER ##th Japan#;s new government ousted the president and almost the entire board of the country#;s postal service. It now plans to reverse

Can a handful of peaceniks challenge the power of AIPAC? POLITICAL lore in Washington has long ascribed mighty powers to the Jewish lobby--and especially to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). In #### two academics, John Mearsheimer and

A battle for the soul of the Republican Party in upstate New York SILVAN JOHNSON has not been this fired up since Sarah Palin joined John McCain#;s presidential ticket. Ms Johnson, a mother of four, volunteered to campaign for

Unions are winning again in Washington, but the big fights are still ahead THREE years ago, when negotiations with the union representing air-traffic controllers reached an impasse, the administration of George Bush simply imposed a deal that froze salaries

The way health claims about food are regulated is changing BARELY a day seems to pass without a new study reporting the benefits of omega-# fatty acids. A high intake of omega-#s has been linked with reduced rates

A fresh way to take the salt out of seawater THERE is a lot of water on Earth, but more than ##% of it is salty and over half of the remainder is frozen at the poles or in glaciers

Another "spectacular" raises doubts about American troop withdrawals TWO car bombs that exploded on October ##th in the centre of Baghdad claimed the lives of at least ### people and injured more than ###. The main targets were the Ministry

See graphic below.

See graphic below.

India is caught in two minds about financial globalisation THE world is divided into two, according to Shachindra Nath, chief operating officer of Religare Enterprises, an Indian financial firm. On one side of the divide is a world with "cash

Lower fertility is changing the world for the better SOMETIME in the next few years (if it hasn#;t happened already) the world will reach a milestone: half of humanity will be having only enough children to replace itself. That

Jitters in eastern Europe over Russia#;s military manoeuvres SCAREMONGERING is where defence-planning and politics overlap. Big military exercises in western Russia and Belarus, which finished earlier this month, were based on the following improbable scenario: ethnic Poles in

An arms-smuggling trial casts a shadow over the French elite BIT by bit, the entrails of France#;s one-time ruling elite are spilling out. This week Charles Pasqua, interior minister under President Jacques Chirac, was sentenced to a

The growing fervour for handing power to local government and citizens "NOT English" is how Mr Podsnap deplores the idea of a mighty central state in Charles Dickens#;s "Our Mutual Friend". That was a century and a half ago

LAST year, as Lehman Brothers tottered, there was briefly hope that Barclays Bank would ride in with an ##th-hour bid. But the British government, fearful of contracting the American cancer, took fright and blocked it, helping to seal the

THIRTY years ago Jacques-Yves Cousteau (shown above) was reckoned to be one of the ten most recognised men in the world. This biography, uncritical but revealing, shows how that happened. Nominally a captain in the French navy, Cousteau spent

Clinton flies into a war zone A VISIT to Pakistan this week by Hillary Clinton, America#;s secretary of state, was greeted in the grimmest possible fashion. A suicide-bomber exploded a car packed with explosives and killed over ###

Vague hopes of integration and messy bilateral squabbles AS USUAL at such shindigs, lofty dreams of pan-Asian economic integration got a good airing at a regional leaders#; summit held in Thailand on October ##th. Buoyed by signs of recovery

The unfinished job of cleaning up the country#;s financial reputation UNDER Manuel Noriega#;s dictatorship in the ####s the world saw Panamanian banks as synonymous with suitcases stuffed with drugs money. So there was little surprise when in April

More than ### people were killed by a car bomb in a crowded market area in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan #;s North-West Frontier Province. The attack coincided with a visit to Pakistan by Hillary Clinton, the American secretary of

A management guru leads an overhaul of some iconic fast-food chains THE fast-food industry is not usually known for lavish investment in its employees, even if dismissive talk of "McJobs" is often undeserved. Yet at Yum! Brands, the

Ford seems likely to sell its last luxury brand to a Chinese upstart DESPITE lingering misgivings, Ford Motor Company announced on October ##th that it had picked China#;s Geely as the preferred bidder for its Volvo subsidiary. If Geely

A glimmer of hope for corporate democracy UNTIL recently HealthSouth, which runs a chain of hospitals and clinics, was known more for corporate scandals than for corporate governance. A series of criminal and civil trials have raked over a massive

An Arizonan model AND what was the Minotaur? The ten-year-olds scribble their answer onto tiny whiteboards and hold them up for the teacher to see. Once each has got a nod, they repeat together: "half-man, half-bull

An old rule of cuisine is explained by chemistry THAT red wine is not to be paired with seafood is nearly a religious dogma among connoisseurs. Their reason is that the combination usually results in a strong and unpleasant fishy

Richard Sonnenfeldt, chief interpreter at Nuremberg, died on October #th, aged ## HE HAS almost been cropped from the photograph, and his name is a blank in the key. An interpreter#;s lot, perhaps. But there on the extreme left

Frustrated by European equivocation, Turkey is reversing years of antagonism with its Arab neighbours IT IS a thousand years since the Turks arrived in the Middle East, migrating from Central Asia to Anatolia. For half of that millennium they ruled

Another meaningless election THERE were no surprises at the polls on October ##th. President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was re-elected for a fifth five-year term with ##% of the vote. Not bad--although surely something of a

Pension funds in the OECD had a torrid time last year, losing over ##% of their value between the end of #### and the end of ####. Funds heavily invested in equities, such as those in Ireland and Australia, proved

The volume of greenhouse gases emitted by ## industrialised countries that report under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change increased by #% in ####. Between #### and #### emissions fell by #% in these countries. Control of greenhouse

Britain#;s GDP fell by #.#% in the third quarter, the sixth consecutive quarterly decline. The news from America#;s housing market continued to be mixed. Sales of new homes unexpectedly fell by #.#% in September but sales

The buy-out barons say the worst is over. They would IN THE half-century since private equity first appeared, the industry has produced stretches of great profitability, culminating in a spectacular run from ####-##. During that golden age

Why are banks so averse to raising equity? THE usual laws of corporate finance do not seem to apply to banks. Almost all big industrial companies--and decent analysts of them--are subject to a tight mesh of proven rules

A chastened Dubai goes back to what it does best: borrowing money IT IS a story every banker in Dubai likes to tell: in the ####s the emirate borrowed money from Kuwait to dredge Dubai creek, the first of many

The impossible task of eliminating uncertainty LORD SKIDELSKY#;s excellent new book, "Keynes: The Return of the Master", makes one striking claim about the economist#;s work. "The centrepiece of Keynes#;s theory", he writes, "is the existence of inescapable

Rich nations are also reaching replacement fertility--by boosting their rates WHAT happens in poor countries when they reach replacement fertility? The lesson of rich countries is that they stay there for decades. German fertility dipped below replacement in ####

Swooning over sword-wielding samurais, not sober-suited salarymen FAT, raccoon-faced, and with the severed head of one of his enemies at his feet, Ieyasu Tokugawa, Japan#;s mightiest shogun, hardly looks like a heartthrob. Yet this is the

A hijack dilemma for China UNACCUSTOMED to operating far from its own shores, China#;s navy is even less used to actual fighting. So news on October ##th that Somali pirates had hijacked a Chinese commercial vessel in the Indian

Asia#;s two giants still cannot agree where one stops and the other begins IF THIS is to be Asia#;s century, a small prerequisite is that its two rising powers rub along together. Yet recent bonding between China and

The Taliban campaign with bullets. The candidates bicker. Western doubts deepen JUST ten days before November #th, when Afghans are due to go back to the polls to decide whether or not to re-elect Hamid Karzai for another five

New figures suggest that America has at last moved out of recession ON October ##th the government reported that gross domestic product rose at an annualised rate of #.#% in the third quarter compared to the second. This was

Some big-city incumbents are also up for re-election on November #rd POOR Bill Thompson. His heart must have broken a little when Robert Gibbs, Barack Obama#;s spokesman, said that the president would support the Democratic nominee in

While other cities are tightening their belts, Dallas is polishing its buckle ON ONE side of Flora Street is the Bill and Margot Winspear Opera House, an airy space designed by Norman Foster. Across the street is the Dee and

THE best ways to get enough "good" (ie, long-chain) omega-# oils are either to eat lots of oily fish or to take, every day, supplements that contain at least ###mg of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), or docosahexaenoic acid (DHA

NASA#;s new Ares I-X rocket was launched successfully from the Kennedy Space Centre, in Florida, on October ##th. It is part of the American space agency#;s programme to replace its ageing shuttles and create a vehicle that

A new treaty promises much, but will not help those who need help most urgently AFRICA contains half of the world#;s Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)--those who have fled their homes but continue to live in their own countries

If food companies want to claim that their products have health benefits, they must provide solid evidence THE shelves of every supermarket are packed with probiotic yogurts that can supposedly ease constipation and fend off infections, butter substitutes that claim

Unfortunately, a government-run insurance policy is on the table again THOUGH you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise, around half of all Americans get their health care courtesy of the government. There is Medicare, which provides for the elderly;

Astonishing falls in the fertility rate are bringing with them big benefits THOMAS MALTHUS first published his "Essay on the Principle of Population", in which he forecast that population growth would outstrip the world#;s food supply, in ####. His

See graphic below.

See graphic below.

The great carve-up of European banking continues EUROPEAN bank presentations used to be filled with graphs of assets that sloped pleasingly upward. For those at the mercy of the European Commission, they now all lurch sickeningly downward. On October

Troubling questions for the opposition party, and for Spanish politics HE OILED his hair, told employees to call him Don Vito (the Mafia boss played by Marlon Brando in "The Godfather" films) and, according to Spanish investigators, allegedly kept politicians

The Italian opposition gets a new leader--and a new scandal SILVIO BERLUSCONI, who can claim to have out-punched more than half a dozen left-wing opponents, has a new sparring partner. On October ##th Pierluigi Bersani was elected

...and debates how to promote growth, reform taxes, contain health costs and also balance the budget AFTER weeks of tension, tantrums and trial balloons, Germans now know which ministers will govern them for the next four years, and roughly how

The European Union is giving itself better means to conduct foreign policy, but does it have the will? SOME time ago, just before the European Union enlarged to take in new members from Estonia to Cyprus, two senior EU officials

Splitting Northern Rock is just the beginning NORTHERN ROCK was rescued in September ####, more than a year before the much-bigger Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds TSB and HBOS. The mortgage bank may also be the first to

The Tories#; exaggerated loathing for their old adversary ONE well-known rule of politics is that early front-runners for big jobs often fail to land them. Tony Blair has accordingly been coy about whether he wants to become the

An amazing self-portrait of Vincent van Gogh, in words and pictures THE story of Vincent van Gogh#;s life is more heartbreaking, and heart-lifting, than the romantic myth that has enshrouded him for decades. It is told, in

The world#;s biggest food company is betting on an emerging class of health and nutrition products to spur its growth. But risks abound IT IS a curious blend of kitchen and laboratory. From one room wafts the bittersweet smell

The "justice and peace" process the Colombian government offered to right-wing paramilitaries is at risk of falling apart ONE of the most horrifying testimonies to Colombia#;s gruesome internal conflict is a video sent to prosecutors that shows a

The government seeks a deal on its remaining defaulted bonds FOR more than a year Argentina has been mulling an offer put forward by three big foreign banks. It would let the government settle up with the holders of around

A Brazilian livestock firm has grown to prize-winning size UNLESS you work with quadrupeds, it may have escaped your notice that a Brazilian company, JBS, is about to become the world#;s largest processor of meat. Its recent acquisition

Why antitrust immunity granted in Washington may not wash in Europe AS MORE and more big companies are learning to their cost, satisfying America#;s supposedly tough competition authorities can be a good deal easier than winning over their increasingly

He has achieved more than his critics claim, but the meat is yet to come WHEN he was elected president, Barack Obama made it plain that this was an event of some importance. His supporters, he said, had "put their

The reasons for falling crime rates remain disputed WILLIAM BRATTON, Los Angeles#;s chief of police, has been doing victory laps around the city as he prepares to step down on October ##st. With his broad, scarred face and thick

Not quite. But the riots afflicting Jerusalem are worrying, all the same BLACK smoke again rose over the al-Aqsa mosque on October ##th, as Palestinian rioters and Israeli security forces clashed after two weeks of quiet. Just as they

Even society#;s worst offenders should not lose the vote when they lose their liberty MOST rich democracies spend a lot of time and money trying to convince more people to exercise their right to vote. So it might seem

Why privatisation is the best way to protect postal services as letters die out "THE post office is a wonderful establishment!" exclaims Jane Fairfax in Jane Austen#;s "Emma". "The regularity and dispatch of it! If one thinks of all

What India can learn from Brazil about controlling capital flows IN INDIA, drought sometimes turns to deluge. This summer the country suffered its worst monsoon since ####, which left half its rural districts parched, followed swiftly by floods that inundated

In many rich countries, grooming young bureaucrats for a changing world is a struggle for their would-be bosses AGED ## and armed with a master#;s degree in water management, Andrew Reeves has the very mix of youth and

Estonia gets a boost, but worries persist about its Baltic neighbours SMUGNESS is Estonians#; least attractive feature, at least in the eyes of their Baltic neighbours, Latvia and Lithuania. A surprise endorsement by the International Monetary Fund of Estonia#;s