It’s hard not to be downcast when reading much of the news from Africa, ravaged as it is by wars, hunger, poverty, famine and rapacious Western companies intent on exploiting the governments’ desperation for foreign revenue. But, just occasionally, an uplifting story breaks through the gloom and pessimism.One such tale comes from Mozambique, where the country’s Ministry for Coordination of Environmental Affairs (MICOA), has canceled 146 investment projects in various economic activities because they failed to meet the requirements…

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In the 32 years of his benighted rule, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Gabriel Mugabe has done more damage to the country than its white-led minority government ever did. With the exception of the smuggling of “blood diamonds” the country’s economy, once the “breadbasket of Africa,” resembles nothing so much as a slow motion train wreck. One of the foundations of modern nations’ economic prosperity are reliable sources of power and here too, Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union cronies have managed…

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Nigeria’s main rebel group announced recently that it killed four police officers and was considering taking on more hostages in a renewed offensive. With the U.S. State Department issuing a travel warning for Nigeria, and the country’s president still coping with Islamic militancy, the oil-rich nation has remained a lingering national security concern. Chevron, meanwhile, just announced that a fire burning at a natural gas rig off the Nigerian coast finally went out, some 45 days after the blaze erupted. Considering the myriad of problems the…

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The world is presently sharing a limited supply of oil. When oil prices rise, oil production doesn’t rise very much, if at all. Figure 1. Brent oil spot price and world oil supply (broadly defined), based on EIA data. The issues then become: Which buyers get the oil? What uses get priced out of the market?  Which countries are disproportionately affected? It seems to me that this time around, Europe, and in particular the Eurozone, is the area of the world getting hit the hardest by high oil prices. Part of this has to do with the relative…

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The Greek sovereign debt crisis has captured the attention of the world, both for what it says about the viability of the Euro and the EU integration project, but also for the warning signs it sends to governments around the world about governance and public finances. In the U.S., politicians both on the right and the left are using Greece as an example of how bad management of public finances can lead to economic catastrophe. In particular, for the right, Greece is at the edge of the abyss because of the bloated government bureaucracy, unreasonably…

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US rules on ethanol usage will favour Brazilian cane sugar producers and could lead to a surge in imports in the coming years, according to a research note from Rabobank International. However, if Brazilian imports do surge, US legislators will likely act to change the rules, the analysts warned. The 2010 update of the US Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) mandates that a steadily rising quantity of renewable fuels be used in transportation, with particular emphasis on expanding ‘advanced’ biofuels, such as cellulosic ethanol and other…

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While they are cleaner and safer than fossil fuels, bioethanol production’s ever-increasing need of valuable farmland for crops – like corn and sugarcane – could result to possible food shortages and price increases. To answer this dilemma, a group of scientists from various universities in Israel have been looking at marine macroalgae, or seaweed. They have found that it can be grown more quickly than land-based crops and harvested as fuel without sacrificing usable land. Avigdor Abelson, a professor of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Zoology…

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