jueves, 1 de octubre de 2009
CURRENT AFFAIRS-1
José Luis Zapatero: Europe’s Next President
NEWSWEEK
Sep 2009
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was once hailed as the new face of Europe's left. Then a crushing recession sparked by the collapse of the housing bubble sent his approval rating into a spiral. Yet Zapatero remains upbeat. Last week he spoke to NEWSWEEK's Mike Elkin about the upcoming G20 meeting, dealing with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, and what to expect when Spain assumes the EU presidency in January.
What will be the easiest topic at the G20, and what will be the most difficult?
There will be an agreement on banking regulations, and we'll just have to draw up a calendar. The most difficult thing will be climate change.
What will your priorities be when Spain assumes the EU presidency?
First, economic reactivation, which involves a greater push for innovation and competition. Second, the application of the Lisbon Treaty, if passed, which will provide a whole new governing system for the EU. And third, the European Union should close commercial pacts with Latin America, Russia, and the and the Mediterranean region
Your government wants a diplomatic solution to Cuba. What are the next steps?
We need a dialogue with terms: we have to be strict on issues like human rights and Cuba's position in Latin America.
Venezuela is also causing concern, especially its ties with Iran.
Iran is an issue for the international community, for the United Nations. Iran must comply with the international framework for nuclear development and provide guarantees about its nuclear objectives. On this the entire European Union agrees.
Chávez seems to be playing both sides. Is there a diplomatic effort to rein him in?
I think that must be dealt with among the Latin American countries.
You choose your words more carefully than Chávez does.
[Laughs] I tell him the same thing. But he spends a lot of time making speeches in front of the cameras.
On Afghanistan, the U.S. government is asking allies to shoulder more of the burden. will you increase Spain's role?
In the next few days, Parliament will decide whether to send another 220 soldiers to bring the total up to 1,000. We must also put on the table the steps that will return the task of providing security to the Afghans. In the meantime, Spain will be in Afghanistan.
Some say that if NATO fails in Afghanistan, its very existence will be questioned.
NATO is not going to fail, because there is an international pledge that under no circumstances will Afghanistan be in the hands of the Taliban.
Spain's economic statistics are awful: 18 percent unemployment, a recession, and a big budget deficit. Is spain collapsing?
No. You just need to go out on the streets to see that it's not. The recession will be less than in other European countries. Our banking sector has avoided the crisis, and that will aid the recovery. Of course, the main problem is unemployment. Recovery will only take place when we create jobs. Our strategy is social protection and to reform the growth model to focus less on housing and more on innovative sectors like renewable energies and biotechnology.
But will there be a serious divide in Europe as countries such as Germany begin to recover while Spain takes longer?
No, because Germany's recovery helps us recover. Germany is the largest importer of Spanish goods, and German tourism is critical for our GDP. We will all come out of the crisis as we went in.
NEWSWEEK
Sep 2009
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was once hailed as the new face of Europe's left. Then a crushing recession sparked by the collapse of the housing bubble sent his approval rating into a spiral. Yet Zapatero remains upbeat. Last week he spoke to NEWSWEEK's Mike Elkin about the upcoming G20 meeting, dealing with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, and what to expect when Spain assumes the EU presidency in January.
What will be the easiest topic at the G20, and what will be the most difficult?
There will be an agreement on banking regulations, and we'll just have to draw up a calendar. The most difficult thing will be climate change.
What will your priorities be when Spain assumes the EU presidency?
First, economic reactivation, which involves a greater push for innovation and competition. Second, the application of the Lisbon Treaty, if passed, which will provide a whole new governing system for the EU. And third, the European Union should close commercial pacts with Latin America, Russia, and the and the Mediterranean region
Your government wants a diplomatic solution to Cuba. What are the next steps?
We need a dialogue with terms: we have to be strict on issues like human rights and Cuba's position in Latin America.
Venezuela is also causing concern, especially its ties with Iran.
Iran is an issue for the international community, for the United Nations. Iran must comply with the international framework for nuclear development and provide guarantees about its nuclear objectives. On this the entire European Union agrees.
Chávez seems to be playing both sides. Is there a diplomatic effort to rein him in?
I think that must be dealt with among the Latin American countries.
You choose your words more carefully than Chávez does.
[Laughs] I tell him the same thing. But he spends a lot of time making speeches in front of the cameras.
On Afghanistan, the U.S. government is asking allies to shoulder more of the burden. will you increase Spain's role?
In the next few days, Parliament will decide whether to send another 220 soldiers to bring the total up to 1,000. We must also put on the table the steps that will return the task of providing security to the Afghans. In the meantime, Spain will be in Afghanistan.
Some say that if NATO fails in Afghanistan, its very existence will be questioned.
NATO is not going to fail, because there is an international pledge that under no circumstances will Afghanistan be in the hands of the Taliban.
Spain's economic statistics are awful: 18 percent unemployment, a recession, and a big budget deficit. Is spain collapsing?
No. You just need to go out on the streets to see that it's not. The recession will be less than in other European countries. Our banking sector has avoided the crisis, and that will aid the recovery. Of course, the main problem is unemployment. Recovery will only take place when we create jobs. Our strategy is social protection and to reform the growth model to focus less on housing and more on innovative sectors like renewable energies and biotechnology.
But will there be a serious divide in Europe as countries such as Germany begin to recover while Spain takes longer?
No, because Germany's recovery helps us recover. Germany is the largest importer of Spanish goods, and German tourism is critical for our GDP. We will all come out of the crisis as we went in.
CURRENT AFFAIRS-2
Spain crowned kings of EuroBasket
BBC Sport
Spain became European basketball champions for the first time after beating Serbia 85-63 in the EuroBasket final in Katowice, Poland.
Pau Gasol hit 18 points and Rudy Fernandez added 13 for Spain, who led by 23 points at half-time and coasted to victory in the second half.
Spain now hold both the world and European titles.
All three qualifiers from Warsaw's 'Group of Death', from which GB were eliminated, made the semi-finals.
If Spain were nervous at the start of the final - they had previously played six without winning, three of them in the last 10 years - then three-pointers from Juan Carlos Navarro, Ricky Rubio, Jorge Garbajosa and Fernandez gave them a rhythm as well as an 18-7 lead.
By half-time, that lead was 52-29 and Gasol already had 14 points, eight rebounds and a couple of blocked shots in just 16 and a half minutes on court.
Serbia, who were led by 15 points each from Uros Tripkovic and Novica Velickovic, came back to within 14 points in the third quarter, only for Fernandez to lead a 9-0 run that effectively settled the game for Spain.
Pau Gasol hit 18 points for Spain as they claimed victory
Spain had lost to Serbia on the opening night in Group C in Warsaw and came close to elimination in their thrilling match with Great Britain 24 hours later and the blow to their confidence was still affecting them in the second phase in Lodz.
But coach Sergio Scariolo's side demolished hosts Poland with some trademark Champagne basketball to book a place in the quarter-finals and then started to look their old selves.
In the last eight they faced Group E winners France, a team unbeaten to that point but which looked from the opening tip to be about to get nothing but a beating.
France's Tony Parker was kept taken out of the game by the dedicated defensive efforts of Ricky Rubio and Sergio Llull, who ensured he had no chance to work his magic.
Having established their shooting game in the first quarter, Spain went inside to LA Lakers star Gasol, who finished with 28 points in an 86-66 win.
And Greece fared little better against the Spaniards in the semi-final, which became a showcase for the talents of another Spanish NBA star, Fernandez of Portland Trailbalzers, who poured in 14 points in an 82-64 win.
Serbia reached the final by taking the battle of the Balkans with a 96-92 overtime win over Slovenia, whose ongoing injury problems finally caught up with them. They seemed to have survived the loss of their star player Erazem Lorbek, who fouled out with 25 points and 10 rebounds with four and a half minutes remaining when his brother Domen took up the slack to finish with 22 points but Serbia's playmaker Milos Teodosic had other ideas.
He hit 24 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, including five threes from six attempts, to prevent the Slovenia-Spain final many people might have wanted, especially the (2,000-plus) contingent of Slovene fans that were easily the most vocal in this tournament.
Slovenia, ironically the only team GB managed to beat this summer, also came up short for the bronze medal, losing 57-56 to Greece, for whom giant centre Sofoklis Schortsanitis hit 23 points.
Gasol was deservedly voted the most valuable player of the tournament but typically deflected most of the praise on to his team-mates.
"Obviously I'm extremely happy at the outcome of the game - we've played amazingly well for the last five games and a half," he said.
"I'm super-proud of my team-mates and coaching staff who got us where we are today."
He revealed it was towards the end of the second phase in Poland that his team rediscovered their ability to play together.
"After we lost against Turkey we started to get together - we were aware that we weren't playing collectively," said Gasol, who won the NBA title with the Lakers in June. "We just said we had to get back to playing the way we know how.
"Then against Lithuania we went 25-15 down I think it was, but then we went on a 23-0 run. We played excellently at the end of the championships and that's when the winning matters."
Serbia's veteran coach Dusan Ivkovic bemoaned his side's inability to cope with the pressure of the final.
"I think we were found out a little bit in a pressure situation - for the first time in the tournament we couldn't handle the pressure," said Ivkovic.
"To be sure, our target is to put together a team that will play well at the Olympic Games in London. We came here with the objective of qualifying for the World Championships in Turkey and we've achieved that."
BBC Sport
Spain became European basketball champions for the first time after beating Serbia 85-63 in the EuroBasket final in Katowice, Poland.
Pau Gasol hit 18 points and Rudy Fernandez added 13 for Spain, who led by 23 points at half-time and coasted to victory in the second half.
Spain now hold both the world and European titles.
All three qualifiers from Warsaw's 'Group of Death', from which GB were eliminated, made the semi-finals.
If Spain were nervous at the start of the final - they had previously played six without winning, three of them in the last 10 years - then three-pointers from Juan Carlos Navarro, Ricky Rubio, Jorge Garbajosa and Fernandez gave them a rhythm as well as an 18-7 lead.
By half-time, that lead was 52-29 and Gasol already had 14 points, eight rebounds and a couple of blocked shots in just 16 and a half minutes on court.
Serbia, who were led by 15 points each from Uros Tripkovic and Novica Velickovic, came back to within 14 points in the third quarter, only for Fernandez to lead a 9-0 run that effectively settled the game for Spain.
Pau Gasol hit 18 points for Spain as they claimed victory
Spain had lost to Serbia on the opening night in Group C in Warsaw and came close to elimination in their thrilling match with Great Britain 24 hours later and the blow to their confidence was still affecting them in the second phase in Lodz.
But coach Sergio Scariolo's side demolished hosts Poland with some trademark Champagne basketball to book a place in the quarter-finals and then started to look their old selves.
In the last eight they faced Group E winners France, a team unbeaten to that point but which looked from the opening tip to be about to get nothing but a beating.
France's Tony Parker was kept taken out of the game by the dedicated defensive efforts of Ricky Rubio and Sergio Llull, who ensured he had no chance to work his magic.
Having established their shooting game in the first quarter, Spain went inside to LA Lakers star Gasol, who finished with 28 points in an 86-66 win.
And Greece fared little better against the Spaniards in the semi-final, which became a showcase for the talents of another Spanish NBA star, Fernandez of Portland Trailbalzers, who poured in 14 points in an 82-64 win.
Serbia reached the final by taking the battle of the Balkans with a 96-92 overtime win over Slovenia, whose ongoing injury problems finally caught up with them. They seemed to have survived the loss of their star player Erazem Lorbek, who fouled out with 25 points and 10 rebounds with four and a half minutes remaining when his brother Domen took up the slack to finish with 22 points but Serbia's playmaker Milos Teodosic had other ideas.
He hit 24 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, including five threes from six attempts, to prevent the Slovenia-Spain final many people might have wanted, especially the (2,000-plus) contingent of Slovene fans that were easily the most vocal in this tournament.
Slovenia, ironically the only team GB managed to beat this summer, also came up short for the bronze medal, losing 57-56 to Greece, for whom giant centre Sofoklis Schortsanitis hit 23 points.
Gasol was deservedly voted the most valuable player of the tournament but typically deflected most of the praise on to his team-mates.
"Obviously I'm extremely happy at the outcome of the game - we've played amazingly well for the last five games and a half," he said.
"I'm super-proud of my team-mates and coaching staff who got us where we are today."
He revealed it was towards the end of the second phase in Poland that his team rediscovered their ability to play together.
"After we lost against Turkey we started to get together - we were aware that we weren't playing collectively," said Gasol, who won the NBA title with the Lakers in June. "We just said we had to get back to playing the way we know how.
"Then against Lithuania we went 25-15 down I think it was, but then we went on a 23-0 run. We played excellently at the end of the championships and that's when the winning matters."
Serbia's veteran coach Dusan Ivkovic bemoaned his side's inability to cope with the pressure of the final.
"I think we were found out a little bit in a pressure situation - for the first time in the tournament we couldn't handle the pressure," said Ivkovic.
"To be sure, our target is to put together a team that will play well at the Olympic Games in London. We came here with the objective of qualifying for the World Championships in Turkey and we've achieved that."
FINANCE & ECONOMICS-1
Obama hails 'tough regulations'
The world's leading nations have agreed "tough new regulations" to prevent another global financial crisis, US President Barack Obama has said.
These relate to the amount of money banks have to hold in reserve and to excessive pay for bankers. Speaking at the end of a two-day G20 summit, Mr Obama also outlined plans to give emerging economies a greater say in the global economy.
The G20 will effectively replace the G8 group of developed economies.
Global leaders also announced a deal to shift the balance of voting in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) towards growing nations such as China at the summit the US city if Pittsburgh.
'Reckless few'
"We have taken bold and concerted action to forge a new framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth," said US President Barack Obama.
"We have agreed tough new financial regulations to ensure that the reckless few can no longer be allowed to put the global financial system at risk."
He said that leading nations would now be allowed to assess each others' economic policies. Mr Obama added that the leaders had agreed rules to ensure that executive pay would be linked to long term financial performance.
Many have criticised excessive bonuses as encouraging the kind of short term risk-taking that contributed to the financial crisis.
Despite Mr Obama's declaration, the G20 fell short of agreeing specific rules on the capital reserves that banks need to hold.
"We commit to developing by end-2010 internationally agreed rules to improve both the quantity and quality of bank capital and to discourage excessive [borrowing]," a statement from the G20 leaders said following the summit.
It added that the rules will be phased in once financial conditions improve and recovery is "assured".
The leaders also fell short of agreeing a cap on bonuses, agreeing instead that bonus payments should not be guaranteed for many years, should be deferred in part, and should not exceed a percentage of the bank's revenue.
'Fudging it'
"We designated the G20 to be the premier forum for our international economic co-operation," the statement said. It added that the global leaders would shift "at least 5%" of the quota of votes within the IMF from "over-represented countries to under-represented countries". It described under-represented countries as "dynamic emerging markets and developing countries".
Emerging economies will also get a greater say at the World Bank.
The leaders also pledged to continue pumping money into their economies until "a durable recovery is secured".
But there will be no formal announcement that the G20 will replace the G8 until 2011, said the BBC's economics editor Stephanie Flanders.
"The leaders would have liked formally to announce the handover today in Pittsburgh, but the Canadians - who are chairing the G8 next year - kicked up such a fuss that they had to fudge it," she said.
There will now be a G20 meeting on the sidelines of Canada's G8 Summit next June, where most of the economic business of the day will be discussed.
But, formally at least, the economic side of the G8 will live on another year.
'Distrust'
The IMF has 186 member-states. It lends money to countries that are facing problems, but in return economic changes have to be made by those countries.
Currently, China wields 3.7% of IMF votes compared with France's 4.9%, although the Chinese economy is now 50% larger than that of France.
The IMF has been criticised in the past as being a group of developed countries trying to lay down the law to struggling countries, which is why the decision to give growing nations more votes is important.
"If you talk to the Chinese or talk to anyone from emerging markets they say the IMF doesn't have legitimacy and... we don't trust the IMF to come and rescue us in a crisis," Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the IMF, told the BBC.
"They don't trust it because it's US and West Europe-dominated. That's not fair... and the IMF doesn't function properly as a result."
Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen welcomed the change in voting rights, but said that, "on their own, they won't be able to achieve much... It's not just a question of voting rights, but also a question of broadening the dialogue".
The world's leading nations have agreed "tough new regulations" to prevent another global financial crisis, US President Barack Obama has said.
These relate to the amount of money banks have to hold in reserve and to excessive pay for bankers. Speaking at the end of a two-day G20 summit, Mr Obama also outlined plans to give emerging economies a greater say in the global economy.
The G20 will effectively replace the G8 group of developed economies.
Global leaders also announced a deal to shift the balance of voting in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) towards growing nations such as China at the summit the US city if Pittsburgh.
'Reckless few'
"We have taken bold and concerted action to forge a new framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth," said US President Barack Obama.
"We have agreed tough new financial regulations to ensure that the reckless few can no longer be allowed to put the global financial system at risk."
He said that leading nations would now be allowed to assess each others' economic policies. Mr Obama added that the leaders had agreed rules to ensure that executive pay would be linked to long term financial performance.
Many have criticised excessive bonuses as encouraging the kind of short term risk-taking that contributed to the financial crisis.
Despite Mr Obama's declaration, the G20 fell short of agreeing specific rules on the capital reserves that banks need to hold.
"We commit to developing by end-2010 internationally agreed rules to improve both the quantity and quality of bank capital and to discourage excessive [borrowing]," a statement from the G20 leaders said following the summit.
It added that the rules will be phased in once financial conditions improve and recovery is "assured".
The leaders also fell short of agreeing a cap on bonuses, agreeing instead that bonus payments should not be guaranteed for many years, should be deferred in part, and should not exceed a percentage of the bank's revenue.
'Fudging it'
"We designated the G20 to be the premier forum for our international economic co-operation," the statement said. It added that the global leaders would shift "at least 5%" of the quota of votes within the IMF from "over-represented countries to under-represented countries". It described under-represented countries as "dynamic emerging markets and developing countries".
Emerging economies will also get a greater say at the World Bank.
The leaders also pledged to continue pumping money into their economies until "a durable recovery is secured".
But there will be no formal announcement that the G20 will replace the G8 until 2011, said the BBC's economics editor Stephanie Flanders.
"The leaders would have liked formally to announce the handover today in Pittsburgh, but the Canadians - who are chairing the G8 next year - kicked up such a fuss that they had to fudge it," she said.
There will now be a G20 meeting on the sidelines of Canada's G8 Summit next June, where most of the economic business of the day will be discussed.
But, formally at least, the economic side of the G8 will live on another year.
'Distrust'
The IMF has 186 member-states. It lends money to countries that are facing problems, but in return economic changes have to be made by those countries.
Currently, China wields 3.7% of IMF votes compared with France's 4.9%, although the Chinese economy is now 50% larger than that of France.
The IMF has been criticised in the past as being a group of developed countries trying to lay down the law to struggling countries, which is why the decision to give growing nations more votes is important.
"If you talk to the Chinese or talk to anyone from emerging markets they say the IMF doesn't have legitimacy and... we don't trust the IMF to come and rescue us in a crisis," Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the IMF, told the BBC.
"They don't trust it because it's US and West Europe-dominated. That's not fair... and the IMF doesn't function properly as a result."
Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen welcomed the change in voting rights, but said that, "on their own, they won't be able to achieve much... It's not just a question of voting rights, but also a question of broadening the dialogue".
FINANCE & ECONOMICS-2
Will tough new G20 measures work?
BBC News
The G20's leaders have moved on a little.
When they last met in London in April they were still on the brink, wondering whether the world might be facing an economic depression.
So they threw everything at the problem. In the Pittsburgh communique they concluded "it worked".
They are not denying that there is more work to do to make the current stirrings of recovery durable. But it does mean they can look a little further into the future.
One leading preoccupation now is preventing future financial crises. To do that, they plan an overhaul of financial regulation, with the aim of discouraging the high levels of lending to borrowers who were liable to default, that was a central feature of the crisis.
Bankers' bonuses are an important element in the reforms. With this issue there's a lot of politics.
Leaders know that many voters are appalled by the amount that some bankers receive, and some want to show they are responsive to those concerns. And if you think the kind of inequality that financial sector pay produces is unethical, you would want politicians to respond.
But there is another, more pragmatic reason for the G20 to take on bankers' pay. It can give them an incentive to take risks, to make a quick but unsustainable profit and then cash in a bonus.
So the G20 plan rules to make that harder to do. They want bonuses to be linked to long-term performance and to enable banks to claw them back in some cases.
There is no plan for general caps on the amount banks can pay out, something that some European governments wanted. The one exception is that the G20 proposals would limit a bank's bonus payments if paying out too much would endanger its financial soundness.
Financial cushion
Will it work? There are plenty of people in finance who are ingenious enough to find ways round many regulations. With bonus rules the motive for making the effort is obvious.
Another key area is the amount banks have to keep in reserve to absorb losses - their capital. The key element is money from shareholders or profits not paid out as dividends to shareholders.
The G20 want to increase the size of the financial cushion that banks have to maintain.
It might make a difference, but it will depend on how much extra capital they have to hold, and that has not been agreed.
Some elements of this plan are likely to be very complex. For example, making these capital requirements more onerous in boom times is a good idea in theory. Why not make banks put a lot more aside in the good times, so they can better weather the storms?
The problem is that it will be difficult to spell out in practical terms.
'Fiendishly difficult'
There's another theme in the communique that could help prevent crises - global economic imbalances. They were partly responsible for the crisis.
Chinese consumers saved and the government built up foreign currency reserves. Much of this money was lent to the US and it enabled American consumers to borrow easily. They did and many got into financial difficulty.
The G20 communique does have an outline plan for some countries to stimulate more spending and less saving. There are no names, but China is the obvious candidate.
There is, however, no real enforcement mechanism beyond an unfavourable assessment from the International Monetary Fund.
The G20's plans do address some real problems that contributed to the crisis.
But a very complex financial world is fiendishly difficult to regulate effectively.
If the G20 countries do all they say they will, it might reduce the risks to the banking system. But it is just not realistic to expect to banish crises for good.
BBC News
The G20's leaders have moved on a little.
When they last met in London in April they were still on the brink, wondering whether the world might be facing an economic depression.
So they threw everything at the problem. In the Pittsburgh communique they concluded "it worked".
They are not denying that there is more work to do to make the current stirrings of recovery durable. But it does mean they can look a little further into the future.
One leading preoccupation now is preventing future financial crises. To do that, they plan an overhaul of financial regulation, with the aim of discouraging the high levels of lending to borrowers who were liable to default, that was a central feature of the crisis.
Bankers' bonuses are an important element in the reforms. With this issue there's a lot of politics.
Leaders know that many voters are appalled by the amount that some bankers receive, and some want to show they are responsive to those concerns. And if you think the kind of inequality that financial sector pay produces is unethical, you would want politicians to respond.
But there is another, more pragmatic reason for the G20 to take on bankers' pay. It can give them an incentive to take risks, to make a quick but unsustainable profit and then cash in a bonus.
So the G20 plan rules to make that harder to do. They want bonuses to be linked to long-term performance and to enable banks to claw them back in some cases.
There is no plan for general caps on the amount banks can pay out, something that some European governments wanted. The one exception is that the G20 proposals would limit a bank's bonus payments if paying out too much would endanger its financial soundness.
Financial cushion
Will it work? There are plenty of people in finance who are ingenious enough to find ways round many regulations. With bonus rules the motive for making the effort is obvious.
Another key area is the amount banks have to keep in reserve to absorb losses - their capital. The key element is money from shareholders or profits not paid out as dividends to shareholders.
The G20 want to increase the size of the financial cushion that banks have to maintain.
It might make a difference, but it will depend on how much extra capital they have to hold, and that has not been agreed.
Some elements of this plan are likely to be very complex. For example, making these capital requirements more onerous in boom times is a good idea in theory. Why not make banks put a lot more aside in the good times, so they can better weather the storms?
The problem is that it will be difficult to spell out in practical terms.
'Fiendishly difficult'
There's another theme in the communique that could help prevent crises - global economic imbalances. They were partly responsible for the crisis.
Chinese consumers saved and the government built up foreign currency reserves. Much of this money was lent to the US and it enabled American consumers to borrow easily. They did and many got into financial difficulty.
The G20 communique does have an outline plan for some countries to stimulate more spending and less saving. There are no names, but China is the obvious candidate.
There is, however, no real enforcement mechanism beyond an unfavourable assessment from the International Monetary Fund.
The G20's plans do address some real problems that contributed to the crisis.
But a very complex financial world is fiendishly difficult to regulate effectively.
If the G20 countries do all they say they will, it might reduce the risks to the banking system. But it is just not realistic to expect to banish crises for good.
GRAMMAR POINT
Borrow and Lend
Can I borrow your book?
¿Puedo pedir prestado tu libro?
Yes, you can borrow my book
Sí, puedes pedir prestado mi libro
Can you lend me your book?
¿Puedes prestarme tu libro?
Yes, I can lend you my book
Sí, puedo prestarte mi libro
Borrow something from somebody
Lend something to somebody
Lend somebody something
Borrow is like take …
• Can I borrow your bicycle? (not… Can I lend your bicycle?)
You borrow something from somebody
• I borrowed a pound from my brother (not … I borrowed my brother a pound)
Lend is like give. You lend something to somebody, or lend somebody something
• I lent my coat to Steve and I never saw it again.
• Lend me your comb for a minute (not … borrow me your …)
Can I borrow your book?
¿Puedo pedir prestado tu libro?
Yes, you can borrow my book
Sí, puedes pedir prestado mi libro
Can you lend me your book?
¿Puedes prestarme tu libro?
Yes, I can lend you my book
Sí, puedo prestarte mi libro
Borrow something from somebody
Lend something to somebody
Lend somebody something
Borrow is like take …
• Can I borrow your bicycle? (not… Can I lend your bicycle?)
You borrow something from somebody
• I borrowed a pound from my brother (not … I borrowed my brother a pound)
Lend is like give. You lend something to somebody, or lend somebody something
• I lent my coat to Steve and I never saw it again.
• Lend me your comb for a minute (not … borrow me your …)
FAMOUS QUOTATIONS
Getting old …
“For the first half of your life, people tell you what you should do; for the second half, they tell you what you should have done.”
Richard Needham
“For the first half of your life, people tell you what you should do; for the second half, they tell you what you should have done.”
Richard Needham