Every society should be subject to the rule of law. This is not the same as rule by lawyers. In its worship of law, the United States is both an example and a warning. In Russia, the rule of law has come to mean protection of property rights. This is understandable, since private property was … Continue reading The American business model part 3: the role of lawyers

Once upon a time, business depended on trust. You trusted your partner or supplier not to cheat you. Why? Because you knew each other. Deals were verbal understandings: a man’s word was his bond. It was care for his reputation that kept the businessman honest: if he was known to cheat, he was finished. It … Continue reading The American business model part 2: Transparency

Russian business has emerged from its semi-criminal, post-Communist origins: already films like Oligarch and Brigada look like elegies for a vanished past. Robber barons, grown rich on stolen state assets, talk the language of corporate responsibility; their children study ethics at American business schools. America is the model, because it is the most successful economy … Continue reading The American business model part 1: Corporate Governance

Put together a government with too little money and a private sector with too much money and you have the making of Public/ Private Partnership. In Russia today, government revenue comes to 19.3% of official GDP, or $85bn. If the black economy (estimated at about 40 per cent) is added on, government revenue comes to … Continue reading Russia should use PFIs to rebuild its public services

Every time the dollar slides in the international currency markets, people predict the death of the mighty dollar. No one, they say, will want to go on investing in a depreciating currency. The age of the dollar has come to an end. Its successor will be a multi-polar currency system, with the dollar, the euro, … Continue reading The death of the dollar?

One of the first Russian words I learnt was ‘probka’, or traffic jam. It must take longer to get round Moscow by car than any other city in the world. Not only do the big roads lead you in the opposite direction from where you want to go; there are far too many cars on … Continue reading Moscow needs its own congestion charge

‘It’s population, stupid’. According to an eighteenth century English clergyman, the Revd Thomas Malthus, this was the key to the great movements of history. As industrialisation spread, the fear of overpopulation declined. In the rich countries, productivity raced ahead of fertility. It was assumed that sooner or later the population of the rest of the … Continue reading Population and ageing

The most important event of 2003 was the American-led war on Iraq. The legality of this action has been much disputed. At this season of the year, a moral accounting is appropriate. The Western Christian tradition accepts that war may be justified under certain circumstances. To what extent does the attack on Iraq satisfy the … Continue reading The War in Iraq: a Just War?

‘It is unsatisfactory that 450 million Europeans rely so much on 250 million Americans to defend them’. So wrote the British diplomat Robert Cooper in a recently-published book. On 12-13 December the heads of government of EU members and candidate members -25 in all - will be meeting in Brussels to agree a new European … Continue reading European Defence: A Crazy Situation

A spectre is haunting the world: that of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). This is the collective name for nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. The United States and Britain said they attacked Iraq to prevent Saddam Hussein from using or developing them. Even more terrifying is the thought that they may be acquired by terrorist … Continue reading Terrorism, WMD and Hypocrisy