“We are not in denial. We didn’t spot scenarios coming up that have come up. Stress testing didn’t stress test adequately.”
Former chairman of HBOS Lord Stevenson of Coddenham giving evidence to the Treasury select committee as part of its inquiry into the banking crisis.
“We have to look at the global agenda in its totality and so we will focus on the economy as well as the other global challenges holistically and with a long-term perspective so we can come to solutions that can really help to improve the state of the world.”
Lee Howell, Senior Director, Head of Programming and Senior Adviser on Asia, Davos.
“It is always possible to set policy with the benefit of hindsight. There is no way in which the committee can have perfect foresight.”
Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England quoted in 12th November press conference. Detractors noted that David Blanchflower, a ‘dissident’ member of the MPC, predicted recession in the spring.
[The Arctic] … The opening of a new waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is akin in historic significance to the opening of the Suez Canal, in 1869, or its Panamanian cousin, in 1914.
With this sea change will come the rise and fall of international seaports, newfound access to nearly a quarter of the world’s remaining undiscovered oil and gas reserves, and a recalibration of geo-strategic power.
Quote from “Sea Change - Atlantic Monthly, November 2008“
I am reminded of a question posed by a Chinese businessman of Alvin Toffler, well-known American futurist: How do we stay Chinese in the future? Toffler replied: Nobody stays anything in the future, so the question is: How do you become the Chinese of the future?
Quoted from Gitte Larson’s editorial for the October newletter (FO/futureorientation #4/2008) of the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies.
[S]trings are being pulled by major multinational water companies with a very specific agenda: to make water an economic commodity that is bought and sold on global markets and is managed by transnational companies that claim to be more efficient, flexible and cheaper than public water agencies.
Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow, producers of the documentary Thirst
“In any crisis, uniformity is the worst way to respond; diversity is resilience.”