The Economist, january 22nd–28th 2011

136 Pages·2011·20.97 MB·English

by  The Economist

Tunisia’s lesson for the Arabs
Could the yuan replace the dollar?
The science of sexual abstinence
Black gold and tar sands
january 22nD–28th 2011 Economist.com Chinese mums: not that good really
The rich
and the rest
A 14-page special report on the global elite
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Φιναλ Ασσεµβλψ Τεαµ, Χαµρψ Ηψβριδ
Γεοργετοων, Κεντυχκψ
♥ 2011
Το σεε τηε αττεντιον ουρ τεαµ βρινγσ το τηειρ ωορκ, ψου∏δ
τηινκ εαχη χαρ ον τηε λινε ωασ τηειρ οων.Ψου∏λλ ⇒ νδ τηισ
σαµε πριδε ιν ουρ 10 Υ.Σ. πλαντσ ανδ νεαρλψ 200,000
πεοπλε, ινχλυδινγ ασσοχιατεσ, δεαλερσ ανδ συππλιερσ αλλ
αχροσσ Αµεριχα. Μεετ τηε τεαµ ατ τοψοτα.χοµ/υσα
The Economist January 22nd 2011 7
Contents
47 Justice and Haiti
10 The world this week
Baby crawls back
47 Cuba and America
Leaders The worm that turned
13 Inequality
The rich and the rest
Asia
14 China’s currency
49 Rail in South-East Asia
The rise of the redback
China comes down the
15 Tunisia and the Arab world tracks
Let the scent of jasmine
50 Japan’s cabinet
spread
The pol who won’t give up Tunisia How wonderful if it
16 Asian medical innovation
50 Indian politics became a paragon of
Life should be cheap
More bite needed democracy for other Arab
16 Doing the deals in Russia
51 Reporting in North Korea states: leader, page 15. The
On the cover How bad is BP? Not the Pyongyang Times ight of a president leaves the
What to do (and not do) about 18 The costs of drug small country’s north African
51 Politics in Malaysia
inequality: leader, page 13. prohibition neighbours seriously worried,
Najib in overdrive
In the information age Let them chew coca pages 31-33 . France’s policy
brainy people are rewarded 52 Confucius Institutes of non-interference in
with wealth and inuence: China’s soft power Africa, page 62
Letters
see our special report after 54 Banyan
page 58. The scale of 20 On gun control, Italy, Tiger cubs v precious lambs
inequality, page 71. The link public-sector unions,
between income disparity London’s bike-hire
and the credit crunch: scheme, happiness Middle East and Africa
Economics focus, page 90 55 Israel’s rival parties
Can the doves take o?
Brieng
56 Syria’s economy
31 Tunisia
The Economist online Hard choices
Ali Baba gone, but what
Daily analysis and opinion from about the 40 thieves? 56 Nigeria’s president
our 19 blogs, plus audio and video Another term beckons
content, debates and a daily chart 58 South Africa’s languages
Economist.com/blogs United States Tongues under threat
Obama and business The
35 Regulation and the
E-mail: newsletters and regulatory state is expanding
Obama administration
Emcobniolme eisdti.tcioomn/email Red tape rising Special report: Global sharply. Barack Obama hints
leaders at moderation ahead, page 35.
36 Dening poverty
Print edition: available online by Britain is introducing
Measure by measure The few
7pm London time each Thursday competition quickly, page 67.
After page 58
Economist.com/print 38 Filibuster reform Our obituary of one of the
Audio edition:available online Talking cure great deregulators, page 101
to download each Friday 40 Haley Barbour Europe
Economist.com/audioedition Inside man 61 Spain and the euro crisis
40 Sargent Shriver’s passing Zapatero’s great burden
Altruism personied 62 France and Africa
42 The cotton industry Ties across the Med
Bloom times 63 Silvio Berlusconi
42 The states’ budgets A party animal
Volume 398 Number 8717
In search of an answer 64 Lithuania and Poland
First published in September 1843 43 Lexington Bad blood
to take part in "a severe contest between
intelligence, which presses forward, and China in the mind of 64 German history
an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing America The past is another
our progress."
country
Editorial oces in London and also: Chinese mothers The contest
A
Chtliacnatgao, B Heoinjign gK,o Bnegr,l Jino,h Barnunsesseblsu,r Cga,i Lro,s Angeles, The Americas 66 TChea rmleamrkaegtns eand the euro with the Middle Kingdom
Mexico City, Moscow, New Delhi, New York, Paris, 45 Organised crime in moves into the classroom and
San Francisco, São Paulo, Singapore, Tokyo, Central America crisis nursery: Banyan, page 54.
Washington DC
The rot spreads America’s Sputnik moment
46 The coca leaf with China, page 43
Storm in an Andean teacup
46 Brazil
After the ood
1 Contents continues overleaf
8 Contents The Economist January 22nd 2011
88 Goldman Sachs and
Britain
Facebook
67 Reforming public services
A risk too far
Where Thatcher feared to
88 Commodity prices
tread
Back with a vengeance
68 The ination scare
89 Oil and wine
The long blip
Hard to separate
68 Burberry and globalisation
90 Economics focus
A checkered story
The beautiful and the
69 Cheap booze
damned
Getting (a wee bit) dearer
Tar sands Rising oil prices and
70 Bagehot Sexual abstinence Chastity
Science and technology
falling production costs
Politics in the Grualo before marriage may have its
favour the extraction of oil
years 93 Premarital sex uses after all, page 93
from Alberta’s tar sands. But The waiting game
environmental objections are
94 Planetary rovers
erce, pages 81-83 International Principal commercial oces:
Space hopping
25 St James’s Street, Londons w1a 1hg
71 Inequality
94 Cigarettes in lms Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
Unbottled Gini
Smoked out Boulevard des Tranchées 16
1206 Geneva, Switzerland
96 Water purication
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
Business
Any old iron?
750 3rd Avenue, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10017
73 Medical technology
96 Palaeontology Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
Frugal healing
Unscrambled eggs 60/F Central Plaza
74 Japan and rare earths 18 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
Responding to China
Books and arts
Other commercial oces:
74 BP in Russia
97 India, a portrait Chicago, Dubai, Frankfurt, Los Angeles,
Dancing with Mr Putin
Over a billion now Paris, San Francisco and Singapore
76 The food industry
98 Pakistan, a tinderbox
Coping with higher prices
The yuan China will have to Future unrosy
78 Face value: John Quelch
open its nancial market if it Subscription service
98 The rise and fall of the
wants its currency to rival A Western dean in China For our latest subscription offers, visit
dollar
Economist.com/offers
America’s: leader, page 14. The 79 Live music
Go with the ows For subscription service, please contact by
plot thickens in the rise of the Pricing the piper telephone, fax, web or mail at the details
99 Dambisa Moyo’s forecasts provided below:
redback, page 85. Investors
79 Apple Telephone: [phone] (from outside
Fifty years lost
selling China, page 86 the US and Canada, 1 314 447 8091)
Steve Jobs is unwell
100 The future of the global Facsimile: 1 866 856 8075 (from outside
80 Schumpeter the US and Canada, 1 314 447 8065)
economy
Web: Economistsubs.com
100 emerging-market
Outrageous fortunes
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10 The Economist January 22nd 2011
The world this week
As the polls closed in South tone down the rhetoric; some new parliament until February
Politics Sudan’s referendum on even urged their colleagues to 22nd, to give it more time to
whether to secede from the abandon the usual party seat- investigate allegations of fraud
north, preliminary results ing divisions at next week’s at last year’s election.
suggested that the yes vote state-of-the-union address.
would exceed 90%. The Communist Party in Viet-
Republicans in the House nam wrapped up an impor-
Oh, Silvio! voted to overturn last year’s tant congress with an apology
Italian prosecutors said they health-care-reform act. The by the outgoing party chief for
were investigating charges that measure was largely symbolic mishandling the economy. Yet
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s and has no chance of advanc- the prime minister kept his job.
prime minister, had paid for ing, but the party has vowed to
sex with an underage Moroc- introduce a steady drip of The Association of South-East
can-born dancer, among oth- further bills to dismantle the Asian Nations called on West-
ers, and had abused his oce reforms. ern countries to lift sanctions
As protests persisted across by securing her release from on Myanmar, now that Aung
Tunisia, its president for the police custody. Extracts from Reince Priebus won a ballot to San Suu Kyi was free and a
past 23 years, Zine el-Abidine the dancer’s wiretapped con- become the chairman of the parliament about to convene.
Ben Ali, ed to Saudi Arabia, versations were published in Republican national party,
leaving his prime minister to the press, including a com- ending the gae-laden tenure What’s Doc up to?
try to cobble together a unity ment from one woman that of Michael Steele.
government including several the prime minister had even
former members of the oppo- become ugly. Mr Berlusconi Some old hands in the Senate
sition. It was unclear whether denied the allegations. decided not to seek re-election
this would help restore calm. in 2012: Joe Lieberman, who
Several nominees refused to Brian Cowen, Ireland’s belea- was Al Gore’s running mate in
join the new government guered prime minister, sur- 2000 but has since occasional-
unless Mr Ben Ali’s party was vived a condence vote in his ly antagonised Democrats, no-
completely swept from power. leadership of Fianna Fail, the tably over his staunch support
Ocials said 78 people had main governing party. He will for the Iraq war; Kent Conrad,
been killed in street violence in now lead his party into a a Democrat from North Da-
the past few weeks; the opposi- general election, probably in kota; and Kay Bailey Hutchi-
tion said the true gure was March, at which it is expected son, a Republican from Texas. Jean-Claude Baby Doc
several times higher. to take a pounding. Duvalier, a former dictator,
The eagle dances with the tiger returned unexpectedly to
A wave of self-immolations, At a meeting of euro-zone Haiti, where he was ques-
to copy the action of a young ministers in Brussels, Ger- tioned by prosecutors who
man who sparked Tunisia’s many’s nance minister, Wolf- charged him with embezzle-
upheaval in December, took gang Schäuble, squashed ment and corruption before
place in some Arab countries, hopes of an immediate relax- releasing him. A judge will
including Algeria and Egypt. ation in the rules governing now consider whether there is
the use of the 440 billion enough evidence to warrant a
Ehud Barak, a former prime ($593 billion) rescue fund trial. Mr Duvalier’s return
minister who is the defence created last May. The European coincides with a dispute over
minister in Binyamin Netanya- Commission had earlier called the result of a presidential
hu’s ruling coalition in Israel, for an increase in its lending election. Another exiled presi-
split from the Labour party, of capacity. dent, Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
which he had been the leader, Hu Jintao visited America. promptly said he too wants to
to form a new party called It emerged that British and After a fractious few months return.
Independence. He took four of Russian police were investigat- that have brought dierences
Labour’s parliamentarians ing the activities of four Rus- to the fore over arms build- Barack Obama’s administra-
with him, while the other eight sian government ocials ups, currency policy and other tion relaxed restrictions on
left the coalition in the hope of assigned to the European issues, the Chinese president travel to Cuba by academic,
rejuvenating the peace camp Bank for Reconstruction and and his American counterpart religious and cultural groups
opposed to the government. Development. The bank said were at pains to stress the and indicated that it would
it had lifted immunity from benets of the relationship permit more charter ights to
In the most lethal attack prosecution for the four. between the two countries. the island. Americans will
against the authorities in Iraq China agreed to $45 billion in now be allowed to send mon-
since November, a suicide- United we sit trade and investment contracts ey to Cubans to support priv-
bomber killed at least 60 peo- Doctors took congresswoman during the trip. Mr Hu said that ate economic activity.
ple outside a police-recruit- Gabrielle Giords o the China and America should
ment centre in Tikrit, Saddam critical list, though she remains respect each other’s choice of The death toll from the recent
Hussein’s home town, north in a serious condition. After development path. ooding and mud landslides
of Baghdad. The next day the Tucson shootings, and a in towns located near the
another suicide-bomber used well-received speech by Ba- Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s mountains behind Rio de
an ambulance to kill at least rack Obama calling for more president, agreed to a request Janeiro rose to at least 740.
ten people in Baquba, a city civility in American politics, by a special election court to Another 21,500 people have
north-east of the capital. congressmen made an eort to delay the inauguration of a been left homeless. 1