Patiently Watching India’s Rise

I started off the morning at a breakfast forum titled “Are You Ready for Asia,” and the discussion was promising and highly optimistic about global business opportunities in the region. India is still growing at a 7.50-percent rate (with some individual states at 10 percent) and China is cooling off at 8 percent. One panelist pledged that India will spend $1 trillion on infrastructure in the next 6-8 years.

When the issue of the mulitbrand retail rollout and abrupt pull-back was raised to a prominent Indian business leader, he confidently predicted that this proposal (allowing retail companies like WalMart to enter into the market) would be re-visited and subsequently passed in six months. While this would be great news, it underscores the lessons of practicing patience, doing your political due diligence, and realizing the volatility in the environment for these major transactions.… Read more »

Posted on January 26, 2012 By Tim Roemer
Categories  Foreign Policy Trade | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The World’s “Big Economic Headache”

One of the keynote speakers, Dr. Angela Merkel, spoke to the attendees at Davos with a message sprinkled with stark realism regarding the difficult challenges facing Europeans yet encouraging them to reach for “new methods” to build for a more prosperous future. She asked Europe to learn lessons from the current crisis and help define what their role will be in shaping the future of the world. While Europe currently comprises about 7 percent of the world’s population and 20 percent of the GDP, it is probably perceived as the ” big economic headache” for the world economy right now, she lamented to the crowd.… Read more »

Posted on January 25, 2012 By Tim Roemer
Categories  EU Policy European Politics Finance Foreign Policy | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The State of the Union I’d Like to Hear

Here’s the State of the Union I’d like to hear:

My fellow Americans, I will be brief.

The State of the Union is not good. It can and should be far better. We have millions of Americans out of work, for too long. We have too many houses under water on their mortgages. We have children who go to bed hungry. We have a government in Washington that is more concerned about scoring political points than it is about making things better for our citizens.
I am part of that problem, yet I came here to lead us to… Read more »

Posted on January 24, 2012 By B. Jay Cooper
Categories  U.S. Elections U.S. Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Real State of the Union

In every State of the Union address you’re going to hear stories about people overcoming struggles, a small business that’s making it work, heroism of the troops and eventually that the state of the union is strong. But what do you want to hear from the president? What are the problems facing the United States and the world that you’d like him to address? Join the conversation on Twitter using #RealSOTU. We’ll compile... Read more »

Posted on January 24, 2012 By Virtual Vantage Points
Categories  U.S. Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

A Whole New Race

What a difference a week makes. Evangelicals meet to endorse a candidate, two candidates drop out and endorse rivals, a candidate’s ex-wife makes news, and two debates shape voter opinion as one candidate turns in stellar performances. By the end of the week, there was another open primary, another candidate surge, and a third winner in three outings. Newt Gingrich cruised to a 40 percent to 27 percent victory over Mitt Romney.

A review of the polls finds that most of the traditional telephone surveys ended their calls on Wednesday, January 18, three days before voters headed to the polls. While most of the traditional pollsters correctly had Gingrich in the lead, they all missed the Rick Santorum surge. The only survey to interview until the night before the election was also the only one to catch the Santorum surge and correctly call the order of finish, but Public Policy Polling (PPP) does not conduct traditional telephone research; they use an automated calling system that uses a pre-recorded voice and interactive technology to conduct their surveys. There are mixed opinions regarding their methods, but their results – whether because of timing or technology – were pretty much right on. Here are their results compared to the final tally posted on the South Carolina Board of Elections website:… Read more »

Posted on January 23, 2012 By Bill Dalbec
Categories  Research U.S. Elections | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Youth Vote in 2012: Sacrificing Substance for Straight Talk

Four years ago, I signed, sealed and delivered my first ballot for president of the United States. I was studying abroad in France that year, and even from 3,000 miles away, I felt the pull of change we can believe in. I was not alone, as millions of my generation’s first-time voters also marked ballots and pulled levers on behalf of a junior senator from Illinois whose message of hope resonated so strongly with us.

Fast forward to today, and the sentiment among my generation is completely different. Now, instead of a tall, handsome, young man with a unique name, humble beginnings and a resounding message of hope and change, many young people are looking to a scrawny, white-haired man with an agitated message of libertarian isolationism – and gave him almost 50 percent of their votes in both the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.… Read more »

Posted on January 23, 2012 By Virtual Vantage Points
Categories  U.S. Elections | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment