John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — “Asia Pacific economic economies will see subdued growth in 2013 after last year’s sharp slowdown caused by external factors,” is the prognosis from a recent UN survey. “Economic growth in the developing countries of Asia and the Pacific slowed to 5.5 percent in 2012 as a result of the […]
John J. Metzler NEW YORK — “Trade is the cheapest way to produce growth,” exclaimed European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso before an executive audience adding, that a planned Transatlantic trade pact between the USA and Europe Union would produce a “win-win solution in trade” for both sides of the Atlantic. “Our partnership,” stated President […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Margaret Thatcher, the British Conservative Prime Minister, between 1979-1990, was a Revolutionary. As the first female Prime Minister she emerged as a truly transformational figure both on the domestic and foreign front and soon challenged the entrenched interests with a stance that promoted freedom and economic liberty. She stood […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The increasingly ballistic bluster pouring out from Pyongyang and threatening South Korea, Japan and the USA, with nuclear attacks has jolted East Asia into “paying attention.” Perhaps that’s the real intent of Kim Jong-Un, the new and untested Marxist monarch of the quaintly titled “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.” […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The winds of change continue to swirl throughout the Middle East as the region enters the third year of the socio/political phenomenon optimistically dubbed as the Arab Spring. While political scientists debate the ebb and flow of freedoms and anarchy in the region ranging from Egypt to Libya and […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — “The rise of the South is unprecedented in its speed and scale…when dozens of countries and billions of people move up the development ladder as they are doing today, it has a direct impact on wealth creation and broader human progress,” cites the glowing introduction to the UN Development […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — When the Security Council passed a package of uncharacteristically tough sanctions on North Korea over the communist regime’s nuclear weapons tests and missile proliferation, the Pyongyang leadership went rhetorically ballistic. Pyongyang’s pro forma rants and raves towards South Korea and the United States were notched up to include scrapping […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — All of Syria’s five neighboring countries sensed a quiet pleasure in seeing the rebellion against the Damascus dictatorship start two years ago. Many observers, knowing the authoritarian political pedigree of the Assad family rule, probably assumed Syria’s entrenched but moribund political system would be swept away by the winds […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — It’s long been an economic truism that the United States pays the lions share of the UN budget. Moreover the European Union (EU) countries contribute the largest bloc of dues of the 193 member organization. Well, there’s good and bad news. The USA’s budget assessment is no longer as […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — “Oops, they did it again,” to paraphrase the old Britney Spears song. Indeed North Korea’s baby-faced dictator Kim Jong-Un decided to test another nuclear weapon, and thrust his reclusive but reckless country back into the headlines. In terms of political disruption, Kim’s tantrum seemed to have worked, but in […]