After Latin America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa want to bury their dictatorships. But it is an arduous and often twisted process of political revolution.
Source: LES ECHOS
France’s top business daily, Les Echos covers domestic and international economic, financial and markets news. Founded in 1908, the newspaper has been the property of French luxury good conglomerate LVMH (Moet Hennessy – Louis Vuitton) since 2007.
Reducing the strain on the environment, and opting out of a “growth-at-all-costs” logic, may be the only path forward for the future. And it will require the smartest new ideas.
Too small and not productive enough, cocoa plantations can no longer meet global demand. Industrialists are intervening to help the farmers and save an indulgence beloved the world over.
-OpEd- PARIS — As Germany celebrates the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Sunday, we mark the passage of time. Historically speaking, time is a variable. Much can happen in a quarter century, or very little. Twenty-five years was how long military service used to last for peasants in Tsarist Russia. […]
Haiphong, the third largest Vietnamese city, could become a new Asian transport hub to compete with Hong Kong and Singapore.
Looking at the business fundamentals, there are both very good and very bad signs for Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella. Is there a (positive) lesson in IBM’s evolution?
-Analysis- PARIS — A decade after development began in earnest on the “continent of lions” — the result of vast riches in raw materials, and of Africa embracing globalization — the countries from the northern sub-Saharan Sahel region and large parts of central Africa are facing a double threat. Over the past few weeks, panic […]
PARIS — With all due respect to the Cassandras of national decline and lovers of French bashing — the cherished pastime of denigrating all things French at every turn — Patrick Modiano’s Nobel Prize for Literature win is excellent news. Lovers of French literature will be the first to rejoice, but the prize is also […]
Claire, who raised her daughter near Paris as an atheist, has seen the teen fall in love with a deeply conservative young man from Egypt. The dream is to escape to live under Sharia law.
Categories
Brita, Leading The Water Revolution
The German maker of water filters finds it crazy that we are still shipping bottled water all around the world. And both its message and its adaptation to different markets are paying off.
Follow the money, which travels beyond borders more than ever before. But a new paradigm should be about more than just cracking down on evaders.
PARIS — After changing the way we listen to music with the iPod and kickstarting the smartphone era with the iPhone, is Apple Pay going to revolutionize how we pay? The least we can say is that the Cupertino giant has done everything to maximize its chances of succeeding in its objective: to relegate wallets […]
Nobody wants to die for Donetsk, but much more is at stake for the West than just Ukraine’s borders. In the face of Vladimir Putin’s ambitions, it’s time to ask the hard questions.
A German series imagines the unlikely passion between the heads of state of Europe’s two continental powers. No, no: That’s not Merkel or Hollande … and certainly not Sarkozy.
After the latest preparatory races in mid-August on England’s Donington Park circuit, all eyes are now on the first world championship of electric cars, to be held Sept. 13 in Beijing. Get used to the name: it’s called Formula E. “Even if it will probably never overtake Formula One, Formula E should be considered the […]
A successful TV series is making Chinese people nostalgic for their rural roots, from which so many have fled. And the villages where the show has filmed are enjoying massive benefits.
-OpEd- PARIS — Here we are amid a global rise in military conflicts and political tensions — wars in the Middle East, Ukraine, the exclusion of Russia from the G8, conflicts in the South China Sea, Argentina’s debt default, among others. A century after the start of World War I, the planet seems to have […]
Presented as a peaceful power for the past decade, China is now seen as a potential military aggressor by many. Amid the tug of economic and political interests, China keeps rising.
In a gloomy new book, two French economists argue that the current state of global finance make conditions ripe not just for regional conflicts, but for a new world war.
Cyberpirates engage in extortion on individuals as well as companies, through data kidnapping and threats to reveal sensitive information. Red Alert for the accounting department.
One hundred years ago, the Archduke of Austria was assassinated by a Serbian ideologue. Today, the threats are different but, like in 1914, conflicts are multiplying and leaders failing.
Compared to ancient times, the world is a relatively peaceful place right now. Strangely, this has begun to push economists to study the historical costs and returns of war.
The ISIS assault in Iraq is spectacular proof that the U.S. has failed in the Middle East. It’s time for a return to power politics and a bloc of former enemies to take on the extremists.
France and the entire European continent, but also the U.S. and Russia, all look very different than they did at the last commemoration 10 years ago. Ghosts of the past indeed.
AUNAY-SUR-ODON — Will there ever be a place for the civilian victims in the commemoration of French liberation and of the air raids that helped hasten the end of Nazi occupation? On June 6, France, along with other European and North American countries, will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings, and will rightly […]
A reported multi-billion-dollar U.S. fine against BNP Paribas, the eurozone’s biggest bank, puts the very heart of transatlantic relations at risk, writes France’s leading business daily.
NEW YORK — The terrace offers one of New York City’s most exclusive views. Perched on the 57th floor of the new World Trade Center complex, it overlooks the Manhattan skyline to the north, and the Statue of Liberty and New York harbor to the south. Offices complete the rest of the panoramic view, their […]
Information technology was supposed to usher in a new borderless utopia, but instead new walls are reappearing.
In the often tough multi-ethnic neighborhoods on the periphery of French cities, the Catholic youth organizations offer a way out.
Lower visibility, a falling ruble and rising inflation: The Ukrainian crisis is taking its toll on the Russian economy.
-OpEd- PARIS — Before the end of 2014, China will have become the world’s largest economy. For the first time since 1872 — when China overtook Britain — the United States will not top the list. This news amid data published last week by the International Comparison Program, a respected institution hosted by the World […]
How does it twirl? Why does it loop? An American cowboy might take it all for granted. But a French team has explored how the laws of physics can explain this common thread.
What’s the price of improved working conditions? Will the global clothing brands just pack up and go to the next cheap source of labor? Hard questions on site in Dhaka.
Complicated…and crucial to resolving the current showdown between Russia and the West.
Driven by a nationalist vision and contempt of the West, the Russian president knows Europe’s fear of armed conflict is his ace in the hole in Crimea. But what does he lose by winning?
PARIS — Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, on the verge of collapse, has ruined the hopes carried by the policies of the far left. Vladimir Putin’s Russia will make a similar demonstration of inanity with those across the political spectrum — those of the far-right, or if you prefer, of extreme nationalism. The two elected dictators have […]
-Commentary- OSLO — In Oslo, where snow falls abundantly, visibility is virtually nil. But what this white desert suggests is not melancholy à la Ibsen or a metaphysical Munch Scream. On the contrary, deep satisfaction and hope dominate here. In other words, unlike the French, Norwegians are happy people. They claim to feel no remorse, […]
Demographically and economically, Africa is well poised for success. But it needs to find new forms of growth and governance – and an end to bloody conflict – to realize its potential.
The English chose to build their towns next to rivers. The French instead built on the ruins of Roman cities. A look at how these centuries-old decisions have impacted today’s economy.
French President Francois Hollande is as popular in official circles in Washington as he is unpopular with the citizens of the country that elected him. Story of a unique alliance.