Davos Newbies

Nota bene

“Unless we take the regulatory and legislative steps required… American market capitalism will run increasing risks and be seen as defective here and abroad.” Those aren’t the words of some left-leaning columnist. Felix Rohatyn, long-time pillar of the financial establishment, provides a devastating indictment of contemporary financial mores in The New York Review of Books.

Lame

Following my complaint that the FT’s invented Martin Lukes isn’t available on the Web, John Kaye sent me the appropriate link. It’s an example of some of the lame aspects of the FT’s site. The text is completely unformatted and a search using some of the words in the text comes up blank.

Power of low tech

I’ve been to plenty of meetings where seers eulogise the power of new technology to transform the world. The old technology still has its power, as shown in Ghana, where humble old FM radio has revolutionised the political debate.

“Open discussion is helping to raise political consciousness, educate Ghanaians on the dangers of Aids, and open up a society held in line by the state for much of the past 4½ decades since independence from Britain,” reports the Financial Times.

The Soros-funded Media Development Loan Fund realised this years ago, and has done innovative work in many countries supporting all sorts of conventional media.