http://blog.prospectblogs.com Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:27:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en   [caption id="attachment_6772" align="alignleft" width="210" caption="Futures markets in oil create more, not less, volatility"][/caption] Another piece of news in today’s Financial Times designed to restore our faith in the efficiency of financial markets.  It turns out that last Tuesday’s big spike in oil was caused by one man, Steve Perkins, a  “rogue ... http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2009/07/03/is-there-a-future-for-futures/   [caption id="attachment_6713" align="alignleft" width="210" caption="Obama and Medvedev's summit is an opportunity for bold action"][/caption] The first summit between President Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev is only days away and so far there has only been perfunctory mention of this in the media. Odd, not to say irresponsible. If played right this could ... http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2009/07/03/powers-world-obama-should-give-more-than-he-takes/ [caption id="attachment_6740" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Don Cabana: former warden at the Mississippi State Penitentiary"][/caption] According to Dostoyevsky, we can judge a society on how it treats its prisoners. If so, a new exhibition by the artist Claire Phillips, which opened at the Oxo Gallery on London’s Southbank last night, provides a bleak ... http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2009/07/02/a-human-face-to-the-death-penalty/ [caption id="attachment_6746" align="alignleft" width="229" caption="Nestor Kirchner's reluctance to go on reality TV meant he didn't get the thumbs-up from the Argentinian electorate"][/caption] As our television screens are swamped with this year's deluge of vacuous, talentless, fame-hungry nobodies (ie Big Brother contestants), take comfort in the thought that reality TV does not, ... http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2009/07/01/big-brother-2010-brown-v-cameron/ [caption id="attachment_6407" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Kraftwerk play the Manchester International Festival this month"][/caption] The programme at the second Manchester International Festival is so remarkable—Steve Reich, Kraftwerk, Zaha Hadid, and Marina Abramovic on just the first two days—that director Alex Poots has surely made a pact with the devil. The festival has gathered ... http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2009/07/01/prospect-recommends-the-manchester-international-festival/ [caption id="attachment_6689" align="alignleft" width="227" caption="Nick Griffin: part of the western philosophical tradition?"][/caption] In this month's Prospect podcast (downloadable, and available on the right of this page) Nigel Warburton considers the links between racism, philosophy and the history of prejudice that underlies much of the western philosophical tradition. As he points out, the ... http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2009/06/30/our-july-podcast-racism-the-bnp-and-western-philosophy/   [caption id="attachment_6703" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Steven Wells RIP"][/caption] As you may or may not have noticed, a Famous Person Has Died. Which leads, of course, to any number of questions for media-type folks. What priority should we give to the news of the Famous Person's death? How long should we carry on, ... http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2009/06/30/moderately-famous-person-dies/ [caption id="attachment_6682" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="A campaign slogan in Berkeley, California"][/caption] Writing in the Guardian today, Cath Elliot trumpets the unanimously warm reception for a new attempt to lock men up for buying sex, in the form of a campaign called Demand Change. She’s proud of her own contribution to the debate, ... http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2009/06/29/dont-keep-sex-workers-out-of-the-room/ [caption id="attachment_6678" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Greenspan: one of the rentier class"][/caption] According to Alan Greenspan in Friday's Financial Times, the biggest threat to the world economy is a resurgence of inflation. That's right. While the rest of us worry about ever-increasing unemployment, shrinking global GDP, declining trade, collapsing demand, Greenspan tells us ... http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2009/06/29/why-we-must-stop-fearing-inflation/ [caption id="attachment_6664" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Murray: yet to be tested"][/caption] I am writing this late on Saturday, after Andy Murray’s third-round match against Viktor Troiki of Serbia. (It was almost embarrassingly easy for Murray.) The first week of the tournament is over. Are things heading inexorably towards the Federer-Murray final that seems ... http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2009/06/28/wimbledon-week-one/