whether the time for a Tobin tax has come?” Larry Elliott explores one impact of the French G20 presidency. Is Honduras building the first charter city? Measuring country GDP from space Food price special: “The current spike in food prices has followed the chain of events of the crisis of 2007-08 in almost every aspect, a worrisome prospect. First the crop failures; second the export restrictions; and third the initial food riots followed by governments taking emergency measures to control rising food costs, including price caps and cuts to import tariffs. And now the fourth element of the 2007-08 food crisis is emerging: panic buying.” The FT’s commodities guru, Javier Blas explains. So is speculation a cause of food price spikes or not? Tim Wise thinks it is, and has good links to some of the main reports on it. Aid Thoughts disagrees. I think we’re gonna have to have an online poll on this one. Become a ‘Godmother’ to UN Women, and help ensure the infant agency grows up healthy and strong. Background piece from Madeleine Bunting. Dani Rodrik has a new book out, the Globalization Paradox. See here for a trailer – seven principles for global economic governance. And finally, the two minute hand puppet version of the Cancun climate talks. Thinks they just about get it right. [h/t Alex Evans] Right, I am now off on holiday for two weeks, but have scheduled a few posts to keep on clogging up your mailboxes. Someone will check and OK any comments, but apologies for not responding to them – I’ll be doing something much more enjoyable……]]>