At the Cayman Business Outlook 2012 Conference the panel is asked to discuss “Politics, Good Governance and Transparency – What Does the Cayman Islands Report Card Say?”
“Politics”: a name for activities that some find unappealing, even disgraceful. But they go on in all real democracies. They are necessary for democracy, they are part of democracy.

(Slate): The political drama has long since moved on to Italy, but the details still haven't been worked out over the question of Greek debt and hedge funds are a big part of the reason. The issue, as you may recall, went like this. Greece was genuinely honest-to-God insolvent and couldn't cover its debts. It needed to default. But European governments didn't want Greece to default since a default would trigger a wave of credit default swap contracts.

(Jamaica Observer): The Internet and related technologies play an increasingly significant role in the development of the Caribbean. Yet, as countries in the region make necessary investments in information and communications technologies (ICTs), there is a real risk that we may be unwittingly ceding control of critical elements of our technological and intellectual security. In so doing, we may be missing out on a significant opportunity to take a leading role in the digital economy and surrendering our place in the emerging knowledge-based society.

I thought I would set myself a goal to try and write a commentary on the markets and not use “Europe”, “periphery” or “debt”. As you can see I just failed, which is a good thing as this commentary would be decidedly short if I hadn’t.  The past couple of weeks haven’t been a good time to be a prime minister. Having seen two go, Greece’s Papandreou and Italy’s Berlusconi, there must surely be a bit of unease being at the top.