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Washington Post (September 19)

2013/ 09/ 21 by jd in Global News

The massive economic power of the Federal Reserve again moved markets this week. “This much Fed power is not in the long-term interest of the U.S. economy, nor that of the world. We say this not because the Fed’s policies under Mr. Bernanke have been wrong. To the contrary, taking interest rates to zero was aggressive but appropriate in the face of an epic recession…. Yet the Fed’s huge role represents more responsibility for the economy than a single technocratic institution — or any one fallible, unelected official, even a dedicated, talented one such as Mr. Bernanke — should bear for too long.”

 

Financial Times (September 18)

2013/ 09/ 20 by jd in Global News

South Korea is increasingly turning to immigrants to fill 3D jobs considered dirty, difficult and dangerous. The “migrant worker population that has risen to around 540,000 from 49,500 in 1990” looks poised to continue growing. “With a looming demographic crunch driven by one of the world’s lowest birth rates, the reliance on foreign labour is likely to spread more broadly in this increasingly mature economy.”

 

The Times of London (September 17)

2013/ 09/ 19 by jd in Global News

“The West is right to seek a diplomatic solution with Tehran to defuse an emerging nuclear threat…. Iran’s nuclear programme is plainly not designed purely to generate electricity. It is also to make atomic bombs and is a threat to already shaky stability of the Middle East.”

 

Institutional Investor (September 17)

2013/ 09/ 18 by jd in Global News

“As the global recession and financial crisis recede in the rearview mirror, companies have been acting more proactively in using their balance sheets in ways that enhance shareholder value. But we think they can do more…. By mid-2013, U.S. companies were sitting on cash that was equivalent to about 11 percent of their total assets, a three-decade high and earning almost nothing.” Fortunately, there are signs of change. Companies “have become more receptive to using debt to buy back shares, increase dividends and make acquisitions.”

 

New York Times (September 17)

2013/ 09/ 18 by jd in Global News

A proposal to create a 875,000-square-mile reserve around Antarctica is being whittled down by 40%. It shouldn’t be. “The reserves would protect what is still the most pristine aquatic ecosystem in existence, and they would extend to the ocean some of the international protection that the continent enjoys: the recognition that the south polar region is a world treasure, off limits to the frenzy of resource extraction playing out across the rest of the planet.”

 

Washington Post (September 16)

2013/ 09/ 17 by jd in Global News

Acknowledging he was tainted, Lawrence Summers withdrew from consideration for appointment as Federal Reserve chairman. Global markets surged as the dovish Janet Yellen now looks better positioned to win the influential post. “Shed no tears” for Larry. “Though brilliant, the Harvard economist has nonetheless ticked off too many people in his long and brash career, not only on policy grounds but also because of his famously caustic personality. Note to future careerists: Niceness counts.”

 

The Economist (September 14)

2013/ 09/ 16 by jd in Global News

“More growth, not less, is the best hope for averting a sixth great extinction.” As individuals reach the middle class they start to think more seriously about protecting the environment. In rich countries, conditions “are, by and large, improving, and endangered creatures are moving away from the edge of the cliff.”

 

Time (September 14)

2013/ 09/ 15 by jd in Global News

“The generation that supposedly prizes meaningful work, flexibility and balance” is already showing signs of yearning for financial success and status. Will this reshape the generation’s priorities? Millennials “may well turn out to be different from the generation that spawned them, and live more balanced lives and find spiritual happiness in the difference between having what you want and wanting what you have. But we won’t know that for many more decades.”

 

USA Today (September 12)

2013/ 09/ 14 by jd in Global News

“Five years ago this weekend, the world economy was in uncharted waters and sinking rapidly. The bankruptcy of Lehman Bros. on Sept. 15, 2008, touched off a horrifying financial crisis…. Far too much hasn’t been done, or hasn’t changed, since those scary days when it seemed the world financial system was unraveling.” Though the consensus in favor of urgent reform has long since faded, reform is nevertheless urgently needed. Today, “the shoring up of the financial system is no better than a work in progress, and another severe crisis in the not-too-distant future is hardly out of the question.”

 

Forbes (September 12)

2013/ 09/ 13 by jd in Global News

About 11 billion miles from the Sun, Voyager 1 is the first man-made object to go beyond our Solar System. “Now that Voyager 1 is in the space between the stars, it will help improve our knowledge of what conditions are like in interstellar space. And we should get a lot of information about it until about the year 2020, when Voyager’s batteries will start to run out and shut down its systems.”

 

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