robin wright. also, math, science, reading, the global rankings on those subjects are just out and the u.s. s report card is not impressive. what are singapore, canada, hong kong and finland doing right? lessons on education. and italy s centrist reformer minister renzi resigned on wednesday, another win for the populist in europe. i talk to another centrist reformer, france s presidential candidate emmanuel macron about populism in the west. finally on gps today, first saddam and now this. what is going on in this video? i will explain. but first, here s my take. a joke among journalists is that we are taught to count this way, one, two, trend.
differently. one final thought. the highest performing country consistently is a very rich country. singapore. if you had could wave a magic wand and have the united states adopt one singapore strategy, what would it be? coherence in policy. strong link. it s basically a system that is very carefully crafted and designed that has a close link between policy and practice. teachers are designers of instructional processes. they re really part of the professional system. they re not the last wheel in a big bureaucracy. i think there s a lot we can learn from the success of singapore. remember, in 1965 singapore became independent. 2% of the adult population could read and write. this is a fairly recent success story. singapore has become rich because it invested in education. fascinating report. fascinating conversation. thank you both very much. next on gps, david cameron was toppled by the brexit referendum. renzi was toppled. will the wave of populism
outcome of the renzi decision to resign is a member of his party could be chosen by the party to push through the latest set of reforms and budget and end of the constitutional reform so they can call elections to try to get things ready for 2018. in the meantime, one party getting a lot of notoriety is the anti-establishment populous five-star moment. that party wants another referendum to take the country outside of the single currency area. it is that fear riding across europe that has the euro down to a 20-month low against the u.s. dollar today. lots of economic and political uncertainty for italy. nina, thank you. the world s biggest oil producers reaching a deal to cut production. that in an effort to push prices higher, but will that trickle down to u.s. drivers? you will get an early start on your money next. generosity is its own form of power.
though, was no mainstream politici politician. alexander bellum is a green party candidate. he is pro-eu. but this is the first time either of austria s political parties have not won the presidency. france s hard right nationalist, marine la pen, who is running for president next year, was quick to add gains from our own campaign. she tweeted, the italians have moved away from renzi and the eu. we must listen to his thirst for freedom and protection of nations. at euhq in brussels, finance ministers dismiss worries of a hit on the euro.
since then, just take a look around. especially after over the weekend. angela merkel s really the last one standing. obama s on his way out. hollande is not seeking re-election. and renzi and cameron have resigned or announced resignations. what does that say about the world right now? it says when you have a sustained period of slow growth and living standards you get a lot of political turbulence no matter what country you are in. what we have seen is this global backlash in countries across europe and certainly in the u.s. election among a big portion of the electorate recoiling against trade and immigration as kind of a target, as an explanation for those slowly growing living standards. but as we saw in austria yesterday, that tide is not necessarily irreversible. i think it is an enormous choice coming up as richard knows better than i, with germany and france this year, when britain has already pulled back and donald trump signaled support for the insular populist movements,