Around this world

The UK is to sign a deal with France to strengthen co-operation in the development of civil nuclear energy.

The government says it reiterates the UK's commitment to nuclear energy "as part of a diversified energy mix".

The coalition says the agreement will create a number of commercial deals in the nuclear energy field, worth more than £500m and creating 1,500 UK jobs.

Defence will also be on the agenda as PM David Cameron and President Nicolas Sarkozy hold a summit in Paris.

An announcement about joint development of a future unmanned aircraft is also expected.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visits China for talks focussing on oil sales, energy and other economic ties.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in China for talks that will focus on oil sales and other economic ties.

The four-day visit emphasises efforts by Canada to diversify energy sales as nearly all of its oil exports currently go to the US.

Mr Harper arrived in Beijing on Tuesday night, accompanied by his wife, officials and 40 business leaders.

He will meet President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and other top officials.

Correspondents say Canada will find a willing buyer in China.

The visit comes soon after a US move to block a major oil pipeline project running across the US from Canada.

Speaking before he set off for Beijing, Mr Harper said the US decision highlighted the need for Canada to expand its exports to new markets.

Washington blocked the Keystone XL project - which would have seen a pipeline running from western Canada, down the length of the US to Texas - on environmental grounds.

Radical new school designs cater to students' varied learning styles.

Standing by the circular central staircase that is the architectural signature of the super-modern Ørestad high school in Copenhagen, principal Allan Kjær makes a sweeping gesture. He indicates the strikingly open layout of the school, Denmark's most iconic example of a modern teaching space.

This year, "Next year," he says, referring to 2012, "there will be no books. It will be the first year that students will not see a single book."

In Denmark, education laws introduced in the past two decades have dictated that schools innovate teaching methods in order to address a wider variety of learning styles. Instead of traditional classroom learning, in which a teacher stands at a blackboard and lectures the students, new curriculums emphasize teamwork and choice—so the student who likes to draw alone can retreat to a quiet corner, while more rambunctious youngsters can choose to, say, learn the alphabet by jumping up and down as they recite it. While no studies have yet been conducted to prove or refute the theory, educationalists believe more choices will make it easier for students with diverse strengths and weaknesses to learn. Working together is seen as increasingly important preparation for the modern world.

With these progressive ideas in mind, a new generation of schools are being built, or renovated. And, in order to shape a different kind of learning, they are leaving traditional spaces—like classrooms—behind. "What they do, when they build, is try to materialize ideas about learning," says Malou Juelskjær, an associate professor with the Danish School of Education at the University of Aarhus. "The question is, how to shape the future pupil, and the future citizen?"

U.S. energy companies are pumping so much natural gas out of the ground that prices are plummeting, and the cheap gas isn't likely to evaporate anytime soon.

Natural-gas prices fell 5.7% Wednesday to their lowest level in over two years—good news for people who use gas to heat homes and for companies that use it to power factories.

For U.S. energy companies, however, the domestic natural-gas market is looking increasingly out of whack. Despite a 32% drop in prices last year, onshore production rose 10%, and it is expected to rise another 4% this year, according to Barclays Capital. As a result, prices are expected to remain low for at least the next couple years.

Many energy companies have shifted their focus away from natural gas to more profitable oil. Still, natural gas is often a byproduct of oil drilling, and some companies are opting to burn off the gas they find because they don't have a way to transport it.

Italy unveils a 5.5bn euro investment package in a bid to stimulate the country's economy and stave off recession.

It will pay for railway lines in the poorer south, public housing and new schools.

The money is in addition to 4.8bn euros approved in December for road-building projects and high-speed railways.

A meeting of the Italian Cabinet is also expected to discuss controversial measures to boost the Italian economy.

The government's aim is to end restrictive practices and increase competition, but critics say small businesses will be harmed.

The Bank of Italy forecasts the economy will contract by up to 1.5% this year. A report due to be published by the IMF next week will predict an even bigger contraction of 2.2%, unconfirmed media reports suggest.

Republicans and the conservative press have panned Barack Obama's decision on Wednesday to deny Canada tar sands company Transcanada the right to build a pipeline connecting the two countries, labelling it a hit to job creation and energy security.

But the market has barely noticed - with Transcanada's stock declining by just one per cent today - possibly because Obama has left open the possibility of reapplication for permission by the company. More broadly, it's unlikely that the death of the Keystone project will leave the US dependent on oil imports from further afield, as BP's Energy Outlook 2030 report, released today, suggests.

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But BP's report exposes the extent to which such political rhetoric on the issue has become divorced from energy market reality. It highlights that the US has plenty of its own unconventional fossil fuel sources in the shape of shale gas and oil - so much so that according to the analysis, the country is on track to becoming a net energy exporter by 2030.

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The BP report doesn't address a key fear often expressed by environmentalists and scientific bodies like the Tyndall Centre when unconventional energy is mentioned - that reliance on the prospect of new home-grown fossil fuel sources might displace investment in renewables.

Talks between Greece and its private creditors that could affect the country's future in the eurozone are expected to resume later.

The two parties are trying to agree loan write-offs of about 50% to help Greece slash its high debt levels.

The talks stalled last Friday as the two failed to reach agreement.

A deal is necessary if Greece is to receive the next tranche of the bailout cash it needs to pay its debts.

Officials from the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Union are also due in Athens this week to assess whether or not to release these funds.

The recent opposition rallies in Moscow, ike their counterparts in the Arab world last year, grew suddenly from chatter over social networks. But they also showed the power of the Internet to raise money for anti-Kremlin causes.

Four days after an appeal went out on Facebook and other networks, organizers had raised four million rubles, about $129,000, through a Russian online-payment system. Not much by Western standards, it was a princely sum for Russia, more than enough to finance what on Dec. 24 became the country's largest antigovernment demonstration in two decades.

The money paid for a stage, a sound system, video screens and portable toilets, leaving a one-million-ruble surplus to spend on the next challenge to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin—a planned march in Moscow on Feb. 4, a month before he runs in presidential elections.

WASHINGTON, DC – It is now clear that the eurozone crisis will continue well into 2012, despite early February’s recovery in stock markets. Negotiations between Greece and the banks over Greek sovereign debt may yet be concluded, but sufficiently wide participation by banks in the deal remains very much in doubt. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund has raised the issue of official-sector debt reduction, possibly even by the European Central Bank, sending the message that a “haircut” for private bondholders will not be enough to return Greece to financial sustainability.

The IMF’s concerns are valid, but the Fund’s idea is being resisted fiercely, owing to fears of political contagion: other debt-distressed eurozone countries might press for equal treatment. Moreover, the promised increase in IMF resources that would allow it to build a stronger firewall against financial contagion has still not arrived. And all of the changes agreed upon for the European Stabilization Fund (ESF) and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) have yet to be implemented.

I do not like violence. I do not think that very much is gained by burning banks and smashing windows. And yet I feel a surge of pleasure when I see the reaction in Athens and the other cities in Greece to the acceptance by the Greek parliament of the measures imposed by the European Union. More: if there had not been an explosion of anger, I would have felt adrift in a sea of depression.

The joy is the joy of seeing the much-trodden worm turn and roar. The joy of seeing those whose cheeks have been slapped a thousand times slapping back. How can we ask of people that they accept meekly the ferocious cuts in living standards that the austerity measures imply? Do we want them to just agree that the massive creative potential of so many young people should be just eliminated, their talents trapped in a life of long-term unemployment? All that just so that the banks can be repaid, the rich made richer? All that, just to maintain a capitalist system that has long since passed its sell-by date, that now offers the world nothing but destruction. For the Greeks to accept the measures meekly would be to multiply depression by depression, the depression of a failed system compounded by the depression of lost dignity.

The violence of the reaction in Greece is a cry that goes out to the world. How long will we sit still and see the world torn apart by these barbarians, the rich, the banks? How long will we stand by and watch the injustices increase, see the health service dismantled, education reduced to uncritical nonsense, the water resources of the world privatised, communities wiped out and the earth torn up for the profits of mining companies?

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the construction of two new reactors at Georgia's Vogtle plant. It's the first new construction license for a reactor granted in over 30 years.

The reactors are being built in Georgia by a consortium of utilities led by Southern Co. (SO, Fortune 500) They will be sited at the Vogtle nuclear power plant complex, about 170 miles east of Atlanta. The plant already houses two older reactors.

The 5-member NRC voted in favor of the licenses four to one, with Chairman Gregory Jaczko dissenting.

Jaczko said the new licenses don't go far enough in requiring the builders to incorporate lessons learned from the Japanese nuclear disaster last year.

Although new nuclear reactors have come online in the United States within the last couple of decades -- the last one started operation in 1996 -- the NRC hasn't issued a license to build a new reactor since 1978, a year before the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania. Reactors that have opened in the last decades received their initial licenses before 1978.

The combination of the Three Mile Island incident and the high costs of nuclear power turned many utilities away from the technology.

The utilities building the new Vogtle reactors submitted their application seven years ago. Prep-work at the site has been under way for some time, but construction on actual reactors couldn't begin until the final license was issued.

Time is running out for the Greek government, which needs to reach a deal on unpopular austerity measures if it is to secure a second EU/IMF bailout.

On Wednesday, leaders of the parties that make up Greece's coalition government were finally studying a 50-page document laying out a draft deal on tough austerity measures, which had been drawn up by the so-called troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos was due to meet leaders from the three parties in his coalition to discuss the deal later in the day.The government has to agree to the cutbacks if it wants to secure a €130 billion ($170 billion) bailout from the European Union and IMF, or it will be forced to default in March. The troika wants Athens to make new cuts in private-sector wages and pensions, lay off public-sector workers and cut health, pension and defense spending.

An agreement was originally supposed to have been reached on Sunday, but the talks between party leaders have been repeatedly delayed over the past three days. A meeting on Tuesday was postponed, supposedly because of missing paperwork. Once the coalition agrees on the deal in principle, it will be put to the Greek parliament.

If reached, the deal is likely to prove unpopular with the Greek population, and some observers in Athens believe that the parties are deliberately stalling the talks to make it look as if they are driving a hard bargain with the troika.

Όσο και αν μερικοί ονειρεύονται «άλλες πολιτικές» και «διαφορετικά μείγματα», η απώλεια ανταγωνιστικότητας της ελληνικής οικονομίας είναι η βαθύτερη αιτία της ύφεσης.

Όπως θα θυμούνται οι αναγνώστες του protagon, η δημοσιοποίηση το φθινόπωρο του 2009 της ετήσιας έκθεσης του Παγκόσμιου Oικονομικού Φόρουμ – σύμφωνα με την οποία η Ελλάδα είχε υποχωρήσει στη διεθνή κατάταξη ανταγωνιστικότητας πίσω από την συμπαθή Μποτσουάνα – αντιμετωπίστηκε με το συνηθισμένο τρόπο με τον οποίο συζητώνται όλα τα σοβαρά προβλήματα στη χώρα μας: η είδηση σχολιάστηκε για λίγες μέρες, με απαξιωτικά (και δικαίως) σχόλια για τις επιδόσεις της κυβέρνησης Καραμανλή που παρέδιδε τότε την εξουσία, και μετά ξεχάστηκε.

«Ξεχάστηκε» τρόπος του λέγειν βέβαια. Από τότε μεσολάβησε η κρίση δανεισμού, η υπογραφή του Μνημονίου, η ύφεση της οικονομίας. Χιλιάδες ιδιωτικές επιχειρήσεις έκλεισαν, πολλές άλλες μετέφεραν τις παραγωγικές τους δραστηριότητες εκτός συνόρων. Εκατοντάδες χιλιάδες εργαζόμενοι έχασαν τη δουλειά τους, πολλοί (ίσως οι περισσότεροι) από τους υπόλοιπους είδαν τα εισοδήματά τους να μειώνονται.

Πόσο άσχετα μεταξύ τους είναι αυτά τα δύο; Καθόλου. Όσο και αν μερικοί ονειρεύονται «άλλες πολιτικές» και «διαφορετικά μείγματα» (κάποιο κόλπο τέλος πάντων που θα μας επιτρέψει να πορευόμαστε όπως είχαμε μάθει τόσα χρόνια), η απώλεια ανταγωνιστικότητας της ελληνικής οικονομίας είναι η βαθύτερη αιτία της ύφεσης. Το έλλειμμα του κρατικού προϋπολογισμού και το έλλειμμα εξωτερικών συναλλαγών συνδέονται και τροφοδοτούν το ένα το άλλο. Τώρα που η εποχή της υπερκατανάλωσης με δανεικά έχει τελειώσει, το συνολικό εισόδημα αναγκαστικά θα διαμορφώνεται στο ύψος λίγο-πολύ της αξίας των αγαθών και υπηρεσιών που πουλάμε (ο ένας στον άλλον, και κυρίως σε αγοραστές από άλλες χώρες). Μπορούμε να το μοιράσουμε μεταξύ μας όσο δίκαια θέλουμε, και μπορούμε να το αυξήσουμε φτιάχνοντας ελκυστικά προϊόντα σε καλές τιμές. Και, φυσικά, «να φτιάξουμε ελκυστικά προϊόντα σε καλές τιμές» είναι αυτό που σκέφτεται ένας οικονομολόγος όταν λέει «να βελτιώσουμε την ανταγωνιστικότητα της οικονομίας».

At Davos this year, the world’s economic and political leaders stand warned: do globalization better, or it will be derailed by the growing legions of the discontented.

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So it is little wonder that doomsday scenarios about the “seeds of dystopia” and the risks of “rolling back the globalization process” are being dangled in Davos. The world’s economic and political leaders stand warned: do globalization better, or it will be derailed by the growing legions of the discontented.

Leaders would be unwise to ignore this warning. Discussions in Davos must go beyond how to rectify the imbalances in developed countries’ debt-to-GDP ratios. They must finally pay attention to the wider imbalances generated by unfettered globalization.

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The food bills of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) increased five- or six-fold between 1992 and 2008. Imports now account for around 25% of their current food consumption. The more they are told to rely on trade, the less they invest in domestic agriculture. And the less they support their own farmers, the more they have to rely on trade. Countries that fall into this vicious cycle leave their citizens vulnerable to historically volatile prices on international markets, which means increased hunger and insecurity.

Despite the persistent challenges of hunger and food inequality, people are told to embrace more open markets, more trade, and more globalized economic processes. Yet open markets do not function as perfectly as many at Davos would like to think. Food moves where purchasing power is highest, not where the need for it is most urgent.

This blind embrace of globalization from above means missing out on key opportunities that do not fit the dogma. If we were to support developing-world small landholders, who are often the poorest groups, we could enable them to move out of poverty and enable local food production to meet local needs. Trade would complement local production, rather than justifying its abandonment.

Capital flight from Russia more than doubled last year amid European sovereign debt worries and political instability at home, with an estimated $84.2 billion leaving the country, data from the central bank showed Thursday.

Capital flight totaled $84.2 billion in 2011 compared with $33.6 billion in 2010, according to central-bank data, far exceeding initial official forecasts and analysts' expectations. The exodus of capital has weighed on the ruble, which finished 2011 weaker by more than 5%, even as the average price for Russian oil set records.

While sovereign-debt problems in Europe have made foreign investors less willing to risk their capital in emerging markets such as Russia, government officials, lawmakers and the central bank have blamed a large part of the outflows on Russian corporations and businessmen eager to shield their money from the country's poor investment climate and perceived political risk. Russia saw its biggest antigovernment demonstrations in 20 years last month, as more than 100,000 people took to Moscow's streets to protest a Dec. 4 parliamentary vote that observers said was rigged in favor of the ruling United Russia party. Another protest is planned for Feb. 4.

How did Bill Gates become the richest man in America? His wealth has nothing to do with Microsoft producing good software at lower prices than its competitors, or ‘exploiting’ its workers more successfully (Microsoft pays its intellectual workers a relatively high salary). Millions of people still buy Microsoft software because Microsoft has imposed itself as an almost universal standard, practically monopolising the field, as one embodiment of what Marx called the ‘general intellect’, by which he meant collective knowledge in all its forms, from science to practical knowhow. Gates effectively privatised part of the general intellect and became rich by appropriating the rent that followed.

The possibility of the privatisation of the general intellect was something Marx never envisaged in his writings about capitalism (largely because he overlooked its social dimension). Yet this is at the core of today’s struggles over intellectual property: as the role of the general intellect – based on collective knowledge and social co-operation – increases in post-industrial capitalism, so wealth accumulates out of all proportion to the labour expended in its production. The result is not, as Marx seems to have expected, the self-dissolution of capitalism, but the gradual transformation of the profit generated by the exploitation of labour into rent appropriated through the privatisation of knowledge.