Living as we do in the age of Facebook, we shouldn't be surprised that some countries are starting to imagine themselves more as social networks than as a physical place.
— Chrystia Freeland
A general charge of crony capitalism is easy to make. But dividing the 'bad' crony capitalists from the 'good' innovative entrepreneurs is much harder to do. And sorting them out without creating a new group of crony capitalists may be the hardest thing of all.
Slavery is America's original sin and was the great global injustice of that age.
Reagan's legacy is so powerful because he identified the state as the central issue in American politics.
Our battle over the size of the state overlooks a problem that is just as important and that may be easier to muster the collective will to resolve: how effective government is, regardless of its scale.
In a globalized economy, jobs no longer need a passport, but workers do.
Sometimes, the aftermath is more devastating than the storm. That is the story of the 2008 financial crisis. It was disastrous at the time, but what has been worse is how long it has lingered.
Sprawling, earnest, and ambitious - its modest title is 'The Future' - Al Gore's new book embodies both the virtues and the flaws of its author. But those hardy souls who slog past the weaknesses will be rewarded by a book that is brave, original and often fun.
I really believe in hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.
The chief job of foreign policy today is helping to figure out the rules for the global economy and defending each nation's interests within it.
We recognize that NAFTA is a three-country agreement, and we need a three-country negotiation.
My respect for politicians has increased. It's hard work - even hard physical work.
I cut my teeth as a journalist writing about societies that didn't have democracy.
I lived in Moscow for four years and really, really enjoyed it, and I have a really deep love for the Russian language and Russian culture.
Income inequality is one thing, but a permanent division into the haves and have-nots is an entirely different thing - and much less acceptable.
Companies and capital operate internationally, often beyond the economic reach of any particular nation-state. People are pretty global, too, living lives that freely cross national borders.
As income inequality increases, the social and political sway of those at the very, very top grows, too. They are nearly all men, and men whose lived experience tells them that women, for whatever reason, just don't have what it takes.
The triumph of economic liberalization has coincided with a sharp increase in income inequality.
The irony of the political rise of the plutocrats is that, like Venice's oligarchs, they threaten the system that created them.
The economic reality is that, thanks to smart machines and global trade, the well-paying, middle-class jobs that were the backbone of Western democracies are vanishing.
All of us can agree that we want government to work as well as possible, and we should all applaud efforts to improve it. But there is no escaping the divisive and essential questions: What is the purpose of the state, and whom does it serve?
The hollowing out of the middle class is a problem common to all Western industrialized economies. Maybe we should work together to solve it.
Corporations are not employment agencies, and judging them by that metric is a mistake.
Shipping middle-class jobs to China, or hollowing them out with machines, is a win for smart managers and their shareholders. We call the result higher productivity. But, looked at through the lens of middle-class jobs, it is a loss.
It was surprising to me to hear a member question whether another member of the House was an adult. We're all adults in the House of Commons, and I think it diminishes us all to suggest otherwise.
The age of economic relations as the primary arena for interactions between states is already upon us.
Assad is not the greatest ally to have.
We are very proud, wherever we are in the world, to tell you about Canadian values and what we think is the right thing for Canada to do. And when it comes to refugees, we very much believe in welcoming refugees to our country, and that includes Syrian refugees, and that includes Muslim refugees.
TED is certainly a gathering of an incredibly eclectic, incredibly interesting community, but it's also an elite community - at least an important portion comes from that global 1%.
Especially among journalists, politics is not a pursuit that's held in high esteem. We tend to be cynical about it - but I actually believe in democracy.
I know Russia well.
Plutocrats worldwide have readily understood the advantages of evading the burdens of the nation-state.
Most of the conversation about how geopolitics is changing in the 21st century focuses on the shift from west to east and on how we're moving from the bipolar power equation of the Cold War to a new bipolar relationship, that of the U.S. and China, that determines the mood music for everyone else.
Motherhood may be a 'killer' when it comes to becoming a Master of the Universe, but among middle-class mothers, even after that touch of baby's lips to bosom, a big and growing number find themselves able - and often required - to bring home the family bacon.
We are all living in a world shaped by Reagan and his ideology of small 'l' liberalism.
I see social mobility and equality of opportunity as really successful Canadian values.
Thanks to globalization and the technology revolution, the nature of work, the distribution of the rewards from that work, and maybe even the economic cycle itself are being transformed.
This is the 21st-century paradox: Even as political democracy has become the intellectual default mode for much of the world, the private sector usually trumps the public one when it comes to accommodating consumer choice.
Creating jobs for your country's workers is about much more than ensuring that the balance sheets of your country's companies are strong, or stimulating domestic demand. It is about figuring out how your country's workers fit into the global economy.
Worrying about the poor is one thing. To contend that equality is necessary for growth is an altogether different and more radical idea.
The main point of democracy is to deliver positive results for the majority.
There are no bad seats at the cabinet table.
Defending human rights should be an important objective of foreign policy, and that, too, will sometimes be hard to reconcile with an economic agenda, especially when it comes to dealing with rich but repressive players like China and Russia.
I see real opportunities for us to have stronger, closer collaboration between the three North American partners and seize on opportunities to achieve objectives of more jobs and growth.
I have always liked hanging out with people and talking to people.
If you believe in democracy, than you can't trash it by being cynical about the people who do democracy: the politicians.
I am a very strong supporter of our government's view that it is important to engage with all countries around the world - very much including Russia.
Plutocrats were the chief beneficiaries of so-called neoliberalism and the suite of political changes it brought beginning in the late 1970s - deregulation, weaker protection for unions, the shareholder value movement, and the subsequent inflation of executive compensation.
One of the most important political and economic facts of this young century is that capital has been slipping the traces of the nation-state. Business is global; government is national.
If you doubt that we live in a winner-take-all economy and that education is the trump card, consider the vast amounts the affluent spend to teach their offspring.
