WHAT THE WORLD IS READING

India’s suspicion of financial markets had prevented its financial system from becoming either stable or vigorous. The financial needs of the government prevent private borrowers and corporates from getting access to necessary capital. Thus India loses out on growth. Raghuram Rajan, who heads the committee on financial-sector reform, asks India to set aside the ideological debate on privatisation and try some experiments such as selling small under-performing state-owned banks.

Is Hugo Chavez Friends with FARC?

SpiegelOnline/ Der Spiegel

There may be evidence to prove that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his establishment have been funding and arming the leftist guerrilla outfit FARC in Colombia. The recovered laptop of Raul Reyes, a guerrilla leader killed by Colombian troops, revealed sensitive information about the group’s foreign relations. It might explain why Chavez was threatening Colombia with war for its cross-border raids against the outfit.

Disappointing the World,

Slate

There is nothing new in Americans recognising that the country needs an image change abroad, and yet, voting for a candidate the world doesn’t like. Barack Obama’s phenomenal popularity worldwide may do him a John Kerry, warns Shmuel Rosner of the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz. Popularity might make Obama suspect in the eyes of his electorate. But Obama may disappoint the world if elected, since he will never be able to do all the fancy things he has promised to.

Whispers in the Desert,

Prospect

Tom Chatfield stresses the importance of evolving a global strategy to weed out weapons proliferation attempted by suspect states or extremist groups. The flimsiness of pre-Iraq invasion intelligence has been laid bare, but cynicism and distrust shouldn’t undermine attempts to expose the intrinsic deception and subterfuge of proliferation regimes.

Somebody has to be in Control,

The New Yorker

Ian Parker travelled with George Clooney to his house in Hollywood valley in his attempt to fathom and uncover the “effort behind George Clooney’s effortless charm”. The fact that Clooney keeps doing downbeat roles as in Syriana and Michael Clayton seems to suggest a sudden, melancholic human being behind his automatic charm. However, one doesn’t get very close to Clooney.

BLOG: The Volokh Conspiracy

This blog carries posts on diverse issues by Jonathan Adler, Orin Kerr, Eugene Volokh and others. From water markets to bio-fuels harming birds, many of the posts offer interesting perspectives on climate change—suggesting remedies or debunking myths. Adler, in a recent post, makes a case for water markets citing MIT environmental economist Michael Greenstone’s argument for “tradeable water rights” which could help solve the problem of allocation and scarcity.