[在美国行政机构内部，财长和经济顾问之间孰强孰弱？强势国务卿是否会影响内政处理？New Republic杂志的一篇文章给出了生动的描述。]
Border War by Noam Scheiber
Geithner-Summers psychodrama, Round 1.
Larry Summers has a cutting sense of humor. For example, when he thinks a proposal calls for government heavy-handedness, he will dismiss it as “Putinesque,” a reference to the statist Russian leader. So maybe it’s fitting that some of Summers’s administration colleagues view the intellectually fierce former Harvard president, now head of the National Economic Council, in similar terms. As a handful of administration insiders have told me, more in playfulness than bitterness, Summers has the strongman’s appetite for expanding his turf, plucking far-flung policy portfolios–health care, energy–and claiming them as his own. (more…)
考虑当前经济形势，讲究执法方式，要求慎对企业资金实施查封、冻结等
【《财经网》综合报道】在当前经济形势下，公安经侦部门对负责企业正常经营的高管人员要慎用拘留、逮捕措施；对涉嫌犯罪企业的正常经营账户、资金，要慎用查封、扣押、冻结措施。
据人民网消息，12月23日，公安部党委委员、部长助理郑少东在全国公安机关经侦系统执法工作电视电话会议上做上述讲话。
郑少东认为，在国际金融危机中，面对日益繁重的经济犯罪侦查工作，公安经侦部门自身还存在着一些不适应，个别地方甚至存在执法不作为、乱作为、滥用强制措施等现象。
“各级公安经侦部门在依法打击经济犯罪的同时，要严格把握法律政策界限，讲究执法方式方法。”郑少东提出，要从办案的法律效果与社会效果出发，根据必要与可行的原则，正确适用强制措施。
郑少东同时指出，不能因为执法不当给企业生产经营活动造成影响，更不能从地方和部门利益出发，使企业的生产经营活动雪上加霜，甚至引发群体性事件。
与此同时，近日，浙江省高级法院、省检察院、省公安厅亦联合发布《关于当前办理集资类刑事案件适用法律若干问题的会议纪要》（下称《纪要》），要求慎重 办理因资金链断裂引发的集资类刑事案件，严格区分企业集资类案件中罪与非罪的界限，正确处理刑、民交叉的问题，实现刑事司法法律效果和社会效果的统一。
据《人民法院报》12月24日报道，该《纪要》要求突出重点，打击少数，维护稳定，对于为生产经营所需而向不特定人员筹集部分资金的行为，不轻易动用刑罚，防止因机械执法扩大打击面，影响企业经营和社会稳定。■
（《财经》记者 罗洁琪）
According to South Metropolis Daily, several Chinese websites including taobao.com
(the ebay counterpart in China) have started boycotting baidu.com, the leading search engine in China. Baidu.com’s ranking bid (pay for higher ranking) has harmed these websites’ business interests, and they decide to protest.
反百度:吁求网络公正的最强音
2008-11-18 08:30:42 星期二 南方都市报网络版
15、 16日，央视《新闻30分》节目播发连续报道，揭露百度公司运作竞价排名的黑幕。百度被指大规模人为干涉网络搜索的结果，引发垃圾信息，更涉及恶意屏蔽，此一模式被总结为“勒索营销”，从而导致公众对其信息公正性与商业道德的强烈不满。这是继“三鹿门”事件中涉嫌删除负面新闻、辅助三鹿公司危机公关之后，第一大中文搜索引擎再次被置于广泛的质疑中。 (more…)
Jan 29th 2009 | XINJI
From The Economist print edition
Global recession is hitting China’s workers hard
Getty Images
AS THE lunar new year holiday winds down in China, millions of workers are expected to stream back from the countryside to jobs in the cities. But in Xinji, a fur- and leather-processing city in northern China and a big producer of holiday fireworks, there will be little to go back to. The global economic crisis has dealt a hefty blow to this once booming city.
China’s leaders are struggling to cope with the biggest upsurge of unemployment the country has faced in years. Migrants from the countryside, the main source of labour for export-oriented industries and construction sites, have been the hardest hit so far. Millions have been thrown out of work. Urban white-collar workers, for years pampered by double-digit growth, speak of shrinking bonuses and frozen wages. Some are losing jobs, too. Students, whom the government always fears upsetting, face the most difficult employment prospects since the upheaval in Tiananmen Square 20 years ago. As the Communist Party prepares to celebrate 60 years in power on October 1st, it worries that citizens will be in a fractious mood.
Xinji sits about four hours’ drive south of Beijing, in the dusty plain of Hebei province. It is typical of China’s many fast-emerging cities, driven by the big ambitions of local governments. It is now just as typical of the many Chinese boomtowns that are hitting the buffers. Xinji has suffered badly from falling demand for its clothing exports. By November, most of its factories had closed two months earlier than normal for the spring festival break. Tens of thousands of workers went back to their nearby villages, expecting to return after the holiday. Many won’t do so. (more…)
中国诉讼分流的数据分析
朱景文
【内容提要】 改革开放以来，中国诉讼数量迅速增长，但1997年以后诉讼增长率明显降低。对于社会转型期诉讼增长率不升反降的原因，可以从非诉讼纠纷解决机制、司法政策和法院公信力三个方面来分析纠纷的走向。关于诉讼与非诉讼纠纷解决机制的年均增长率、相关系数和比重的数据分析表明，中国诉讼增长率的下降也伴随着人民调解和经济仲裁作用的下降，行政解决机制的增强、不受理的司法政策、诉讼费用改革以及针对司法腐败的一系列制度性建设，遏制了诉讼量的快速增长。
(more…)
新一轮司法体制改革指向
文/王其江
《关于深化司法体制和工作机制改革若干问题的意见》的下发以及一系列改革措施的实行，将进一步满足群众司法需求
中央政法委会同中央和国家机关的17个部门和有关地方，在进行深入调研论证，集中方方面面的意见和智慧的基础上，提出《关于深化司法体制和工作机制改革若干问题的意见》(以下简称改革意见)，已经党中央批准下发贯彻执行。目前，改革实施工作正在积极稳妥推进。这是2009年和今后一个时期政法机关的重要任务。 (more…)
No laughing matter: a hilarious investigation into the destruction of modern Chinese humor
by David Moser
Americans seeing it on Chinese TV for the first time usually have the same reaction: “Chinese stand-up comedy!” And indeed, the surface similarity is striking: two performers stand up on a stage in front of a live audience and engage in rapid-fire humorous repartee, with their interaction following the tried-and-true formula of a “straight-man” acting as an exasperated foil to the muddle-headedness of an illogical clowner. One is reminded of the classic American comedy duos like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, George Burns and Gracie Allen, or 60s TV acts like Rowan and Martin and the Smothers Brothers. The Chinese art is called xiangsheng (literally, “face and voice”), which is usually translated into English as “crosstalk”, and for most of the twentieth century this performance form was virtually synonymous with humor in China.
(more…)
“四万亿救市计划”？百姓开始向政府讨债
作者：朱健国，转载自“凤凰论坛”
谁也没想到，被中国政府定位为应对金融危机大幅度启动内需的“四万亿救市计划”，却引来了一场“百姓向政府讨债”的启蒙新潮。
王鲁湘重出主持世纪大讲堂
风起于王鲁湘主持的凤凰卫视《世纪大讲堂》。为从学术上解读“四万亿救市计划”如何影响中国，《世纪大讲堂》在二○○八年十一月十九日、十二月二十四日，十二月三十日先后三次开讲“中国经济如何闯关”。不料“正打歪着”，北京天则经济研究所所长盛洪、美国耶鲁大学管理学院金融学终身教授陈志武、天津财经大学财税专家李炜光三位著名经济学家一路讲来，虽然话题不同，路径不一，“君子和而不同”，却首尾呼应，由浅入深，“英雄所见略同”地论证了“中国政府非法剥夺了百姓许多财产利益”，以致国富民穷！下一步改革当从“百姓向政府讨债”运动开始。 (more…)
In this video Niall Ferguson discusses the rise of Chimerica in the context of financial globalization.
related posts:
弗格森: Chimerica时代即将终结
哈佛大学教授：华尔街危机并未终结“美国时代”
Over 10 million migrant workers have lost their jobs in China in the past 6 months, and it caused a sudden worsening of their living conditions.
Please read the original Caijing article: