RSS Feed

Calendar

July 2011
M T W T F S S
« Jun   Aug »
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Search

Tag Cloud

Archives

Financial Times (July 20)

2011/ 07/ 21 by jd in Global News

Dodd-Frank was supposed to be the biggest regulatory overhaul since the Great Depression. One year later, Dodd-Frank’s not living up to its billing. “Plenty of economists, officials and congressional aides think …the reforms have not shaken up Wall Street enough.” Of the 400 required rules, only 55 have been finalized and of 87 required studies, only 32 have been completed. Limited staff have been slowing the process, but so are concerns that the regulations are unneeded and risk slowing a still weak economy. Some are saying that it will take another major crisis to create momentum for real reform.

 

New York Times (July 19)

2011/ 07/ 20 by jd in Global News

“It’s time to face the fact that the weather isn’t what it used to be.” Things are getting hotter and moister. Welcome to the new normal. Every decade, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recalculates normal climate data for over 7,000 U.S. locations based on 30-year averages. The latest numbers “show that the climate of the last 10 years was about 1.5 degrees warmer than the climate of the 1970s.” The seemingly small difference is massive. This trend means that summers like the “European heat wave that killed more than 30,000 people during the summer of 2003…. will likely happen every other year by 2040.”

 

Time (July 18)

2011/ 07/ 19 by jd in Global News

We’ve been catching about 90 million tons of fish, the last great wild food, since the mid-90s and that’s simply “not enough to keep up with global seafood consumption, which has risen from 22 lb. per person per year in the 1960s to nearly 38 lb. today.” Worse yet, the U.N. reports that already “32% of global fish stocks are overexploited” so catches may decrease. Aquaculture and fish farms “might represent the last, best chance for fish to have a future.” Aquaculture is growing “faster than any other form of food production,” and now provides over 50 million tons of fish annually. Time believes, “if we’re all going to survive and thrive in a crowded world, we’ll need to cultivate the seas just as we do the land.”

We’ve been catching about 90 million tons of fish, the last great wild food, since the mid-90s and that’s simply “not enough to keep up with global seafood consumption, which has risen from 22 lb. per person per year in the 1960s to nearly 38 lb. today.” Worse yet, the U.N. reports that already “32% of global fish stocks are overexploited” so catches may decrease. Aquaculture and fish farms “might represent the last, best chance for fish to have a future.” Aquaculture is growing “faster than any other form of food production,” and now provides over 50 million tons annually. Time believes, “if we’re all going to survive and thrive in a crowded world, we’ll need to cultivate the seas just as we do the land.”

 

New York Times (July 15)

2011/ 07/ 16 by jd in Global News

The U.S. keeps “blundering toward recession” and haggling over the debt limit is only part of the problem. The deficit is a serious, but not immediate, problem. “It can be solved over time, with spending cuts and tax increases, as the economy recovers.” The immediate problem is job creation. “It is time for the government to step up. If it doesn’t, the weakening economy is bound to become even weaker.”

 

The Economist (July 14)

2011/ 07/ 15 by jd in Global News

“The fall of the Arab world’s worst two dictators would give a terrific boost to the region.” Half a year into the Arab spring, results are mixed. Perhaps we expected too much, too soon, but we should not forget the remaining potential. “The immediate fate of the Arab spring turns on Libya and Syria, both in the throes of revolution. If either got rid of its dictator, the overall Arab movement towards democracy would enjoy a huge step up.”

 

Boston Globe (July 13)

2011/ 07/ 14 by jd in Global News

Lucky for Massachusetts’ rivers that this summer’s wet. Many go dry in August because of unreasonable demands made on them by cities and residents. The Globe urges lawmakers to pass the Sustainable Water Resources Act which would restrict the amount of water that can be removed from rivers, keeping them at safe levels for the fish and other aquatic denizens, as well as humans.

Lucky for Massachusetts’ rivers that this summer’s wet. Many go dry in August because of unreasonable demands made on them by cities and residents. The Globe urges lawmakers to pass the Sustainable Water Resources Act which would restrict the amount of water that can be removed from rivers, keeping them at safe levels for the fish and other aquatic denizens, as well as humans.

 

The Independent (July 13)

2011/ 07/ 13 by jd in Global News

“The nightmare of full eurozone contagion appears to have moved a step closer.” Yet policymakers remain in denial. Until they leave this denial behind, attempts to tackle collapse will remain elusive. European leaders must realize the debt crisis essentially renders many European banks insolvent, it is nearly impossible for indebted countries on the periphery to grow themselves out of crisis while hedged in by the common currency and, lastly, that the eurozone could indeed crumble.

 

Bloomberg (July 12)

2011/ 07/ 12 by jd in Global News

In Europe, contagion is spreading from Greece. “Exploding bond yields in Italy and Spain brought the crisis closer to the heart of the euro area.” Europe’s leaders now look prepared to reconsider measures they had previously ruled out, such as buying back Greek debt at a discount. Whether they can avert disaster remains to be seen. Italy felt the brunt of the expanding crisis as 10-year bonds rose 326 basis points over Germany’s, “a euro-era high.”

 

Financial Times (July 10)

2011/ 07/ 11 by jd in Global News

Ratings agencies have come under considerable criticism since the Lehman crisis. Most recently, European leaders have heaped scorn on them after Moody’s downgraded Portugal to junk and S&P evaluated a proposal for a Greek debt rollover as a selective default. This time, the ratings agencies are addressing truths that are difficult to stomach. “We have to thank the rating agencies for giving the eurozone’s policymakers a clearer vision of which strategies are feasible, and which are not. It is now time to get serious.”

 

Wall Street Journal (July 9)

2011/ 07/ 10 by jd in Global News

Unemployment is a lagging indicator. That is perhaps “the best that can be said for yesterday’s June jobs report.”Just18,000 new jobs were created and the jobless rate increased to 9.2%. If employment is about to turn the corner, it will be none too soon. “In this recovery we are still seven million jobs below peak employment in 2008.”

 

« Older Entries

Newer Entries »

[archive]