While governments talk about smart cities, it's citizens who create them

Jun 03, 2016 01:10 am UTC| Insights & Views Technology

The Australian government recently released an ambitious Smart Cities Plan, which suggests that cities should be first and foremost for people: If our cities are to continue to meet their residents needs, it is...

Improving economic background should see RBA on hold at June 7th meet

Jun 02, 2016 11:50 am UTC| Insights & Views

RBA surprised the markets at its May 5th meeting by lowering its main interest rate to 1.75% from 2% and cut its Dec-16 inflation forecasts by a full percentage point in its quarterly Statement of Monetary Policy (SoMP)....

FxWirePro: Short EUR/USD shrinking vols using 'Short Condor Spreads' ahead of ECB and US unemployment claims

Jun 02, 2016 10:26 am UTC| Insights & Views

We expect no policy action from the ECB that is likely to announce shortly but a small, and rare, upward adjustment to the staff inflation projections. In Spain, we expect a large decline in unemployed (-71.2K after...

Emerging Market Crisis Series

Brazil: no longer the country of the future?

Jun 02, 2016 09:58 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy

When I first served in Brazil in the mid-1960s as a young American diplomat stationed at a small consulate in Belem on the mouth of the Amazon River, the country was in its second year of a 20-year military...

The will of government is key to energy access...

Jun 02, 2016 09:51 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

The Bropkas meet the grid In what must surely be a first for the Conversation, I am writing this post from the village of Sakteng in remote eastern Bhutan. That I can do so is a remarkable testimony to the will of the...

If we know so much about disease, where are all the cures?

Jun 02, 2016 09:48 am UTC| Insights & Views Health Science

We know so much about the genes that cause disease, so why are we not approaching an age of Star-Trek-like medicine in which a doctor can wave a handheld device over a patient, claim to have sequenced the genes of the...

In defence of zoos: how captivity helps conservation

Jun 02, 2016 09:45 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

The death of Harambe the gorilla at Cincinnati Zoo, shot to protect a child who had fallen into his cage, has caused outrage. Some of the anger has now turned from trigger-happy staff towards zoos in general. Why, some are...