Whatever you think of Starbucks, Chinese TV anchorman Rui Chenggang gets things hilariously wrong when trying to stop them opening in the frobidden city.

"Rui said the coffee shop should be as unwelcome in the Forbidden City as it would be at the Taj Mahal in India, the pyramids in Egypt or the Louvre Museum in Paris."

There is in fact now a Starbucks in the Louvre, as I found out to my amusement a couple of weeks ago.

This makes it welcome in the Forbidden city by Rui's criteria.

Starbucks is on uncertain ground in Beijing

The French have a tradition of Bourgeois revolutions and this is no different.

Young, predominantly white students, who are by definition not part of France's growing underclass, are protesting to keep protections that benefit themselves. Trade unions have followed suit, since striking has become a national sport in France - you can't beat a good strike.

What is being proposed is an employment contract that means people don't get the same job protections for their first job. The empirical results of removing benefits at the bottom of the ladder is that employers can take risks, and in a culture with sectors of society with long term unemployment this creates more of a hiring meritocracy.

That is not to say that all benefits should be removed. It would be naive to think that, in a globalized economy, the bottom of the ladder is being filled according to the law. If you live in the US and have ever eaten in a restaurant, you are part of the economy that relies on people who have no job benefits at all. All the more reason to make the legal job environment a balance between incentivizing as many employers to join it as possible, while offering some benefits to employees.

With these actions French students and workers are squandering the crucial powers that legalized trade unions and social activism offer to combat injustice and create a more equal society.

If you are employed in France, you have far more protection than almost any other country - being laid off triggers large redundancy, you have a legally mandated shorter working week and far more paid vacation and benefits than people in the US could dream of.

Extremes produce extremes. Both rational and irrational unfair prejudices are the norm in the hiring process in France. Resumes have photos and marital status and people are regularly asked things like 'are you planning on having children' at job interviews. In the US this is rare.

As a result, if you are a fecund young woman a Muslim or a fifty year old looking for work, France is not the best place to be.

A first time job contract would improve the distribution of wealth in France. Is that not what socialism is about?

Comment is free: Strikes: French national therapy

Nick Aster, who is doing an MBA in sustainability has launched Triple Pundit which covers business from an eco-aware perspective.

Before 911, the most serious impact on day-to-day life in the West might arguably have been a result of globalization. But globalization and its effects are still an issue: "The recent gyration in the prices of oil and other primary products was related to concerns about the Iraq war and terrorism and masks the trend of falling prices."

The former vice minister for international affairs in Japan's Finance Ministry thinks that there is a general trend towards global deflation caused by the information and life sciences revolution and globalization.

Cheap goods from China and India may once again account for nearly half the world's production after almost 200 years. He argues, however, that if deflation hits the US it will be nothing like as destructive as during the 1930's.

"The world is shifting from an era of structural inflation to one of deflation, in which prices for most manufactured goods and tradable services fall rather than rise...

...But the new wave of price falls has more in common with the mild deflation of the 1880s - which was associated with big productivity gains - than with the Depression of the 1930s...

...First, a wave of rapid technological innovation centered on information, telecommunication and biotechnology is changing economic and social systems in a fundamental way. This can justifiably be called the Third Industrial Revolution, as it is comparable to the industrial revolution of the late 18th century and to the second surge of technological progress in communication and distribution in the mid-to-late 19th century...

...Second, globalization has been dramatically altering the patterns of production, distribution and transactions. The re-emergence of former economic powers, particularly China and India, is helping to drive this increase in productivity and output..."

IHT: A global shift to deflation

Here's one for Dan Gillmor's book:

Knight Ridder Newspapers military correspondent Joseph L. Galloway claims that two senior US officials claimed that Iraqwar.ru weblog featured genuine Russian Intelligence reports posted by the GRU (the KGB replacement).

"It's quite a notion: Russian spooks blogging concrete advice to Iraq. It's a notion that Strafor's Matthew Baker termed 'nonsense.' He said, 'A website is not the way to get information to the Iraqis; a phone or radio is better.'"

"Baker sees it, rather, as an expression of an internecine struggle among various Russian military and espionage interests wrestling over whether to align more closely with the U.S. or seek a counterweight axis with Germany and France. He said, 'They're not putting it up for amusement or profit, but for reasons to do with Russian politics.'"

DID RUSSIANS USE BLOG TO AID IRAQIS? by Daniel Forbes in Progressive Review

via Simon Perry:

Mecca-Cola

Bizarre:

An Islamic Cola, from France, which has proved hugely popular there as a boycott of the Atlanta version.