Cartographies of Conflict
Via MESH, two fascinating maps of geopolitical hot zones. The first is from Heartland: Eurasian Review of Geopolitics, and is a map of the troubled borderland between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which shows jihadist flows, sites of conflict and contested tribal areas.
The second is from Lebanon-Support, and indentifies vulnerable areas and “flash-points” within Lebanon. The map itself is a kind of palimsest, where a series of layers (political, confessional, security and economic) are drawn over the terrain of Lebanon.
Click on the thumbnails to view the images.
Recommended Reading: Dysfunctional Global Economy Edition
VoxEU launches a free book compiling all of its columns on the subprime crisis. Extensive in scope and filled with contributions from economists like Stephen G. Cecchetti, Willem Buiter, Charles Wyplosz and Marco Onado. A must read: The First Global Financial Crisis of the 21st Century.
Essential macro forecasting from Nouriel Roubini’s Global Economonitor. Referencing a recent paper, Roubini predicts, and lists ten reasons for, the downfall of the Bretton Woods 2 system. Will the Bretton Woods 2 (BW2) Regime Collapse Like the Original Bretton Woods Regime Did? The Coming End Game of BW2.
From The Guardian, news of a secret World Bank report, according to which biofuels have pushed up global food prices by some 75%. The WSJ Environmental Capital blog puts this hard to believe figure in some kind of context, then demolishes it. Turns out that the “secret report” was nothing more than an unpublished exploratory working paper, which, due to the interest generated from The Guardian “leak”, will be published by the World Bank at the end of the week with a much more reasonable figure for biofuel influence.
Doug Noland of Prudent Bear — after his invaluable weekly “credit bubble bulletin” round up — explains in Starbucks, the “Core,” and Conventional Mortgages why the closures of 600 Starbucks coffee shops in the US is emblematic of the troubles facing corporations after the credit boom has bust and the era of easy money has come to an end.
