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The Economist (October 29)

2011/ 10/ 31 by jd in Global News

Technology is improving to the point where it may one day be able to read minds. While this could be a boon in many ways, especially to those who are physically impaired, this sort of complete honesty “would lead to disaster, for lying is at the heart of civilisation…. Call it diplomacy, public relations or simple good manners: lying is one of the things that makes the world go round.”

 

Washington Post (October 28)

2011/ 10/ 30 by jd in Global News

Congress could save $5.5 billion over the next three decades by eliminating the $1 bill and replacing it with a coin. “You might think that the dollar-coin proposal would be a no-brainer…. You would be wrong: Instead of an easy compromise, the dollar-coin proposal shapes up as yet another illustration of how politically difficult it is to reduce any federal expense, no matter how modest.”

 

Financial Times (October 27)

2011/ 10/ 28 by jd in Global News

The news from the European summit was encouraging, yet “comprehensive solutions” have been announced before only to fall flat. European leaders still have to get “the scaffolding needed to hold their crisis management strategy together.” They must completely vanquish the financial crisis if they hope to shape Europe’s future by binding “the eurozone’s economies and governance systems much tighter together.”

 

Boston Globe (October 25)

2011/ 10/ 27 by jd in Global News

The state’s Supreme Judicial Court sent shock waves through the real estate industry last week. In a ruling which could impact thousands of other home purchases, the Court ruled that a man who purchased a foreclosed property five years ago “doesn’t actually hold title to the property…because the bank had illegally seized the property from its former owner.” Big banks failed to follow “the most basic, common-sense aspects of the law.” Now a cloud hangs over other homeowners who could face the same situation.

 

LA Times (October 23)

2011/ 10/ 26 by jd in Global News

Lurid Downloader “has been systematically and silently stealing data from carefully targeted government computers in 61 countries.” Advanced persistent threats (APTs), such as Lurid Downloader, are “the latest trend in cyberattacks.” Because the Internet was designed to be open, it is now creating massive risk as so much vital infrastructure and communication depends on it. “As modern society leans ever more heavily on the Internet…, its fragility becomes an ever greater concern.” Unfortunately, the “only answer to the persistent problem of malware may be to rebuild the Internet from scratch.”

 

Wall Street Journal (October 21)

2011/ 10/ 25 by jd in Global News

Long considered a climate change skeptic, Richard Muller received funding to disprove the research. Muller’s two-year project analyzed 1.6 billion measurements from 39,000 global temperature monitoring stations. “When we began our study, we felt that skeptics had raised legitimate issues.” Instead, Muller’s research confirmed previous research. He writes, “Global warming is real. Perhaps our results will help cool this portion of the climate debate.”

 

The New York Times (October 22)

2011/ 10/ 24 by jd in Global News

President Obama announced that all U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2011. This “signals a welcome end to a war that was started under false pretenses and went on far too long — killing more than 4,400 Americans and many more thousands of Iraqis and costing $1 trillion over nearly nine years.”

President Obama announced that all U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2011. This “signals a welcome end to a war that was started under false pretenses and went on far too long — killing more than 4,400 Americans and many more thousands of Iraqis and costing $1 trillion over nearly nine years.”

 

The Economist (October 21)

2011/ 10/ 23 by jd in Global News

By the end of October, the world’s population will reach 7 billion, just 12 years after hitting 6 billion in 1999. Would policies supporting slower population growth help solve pressing environmental problems? Probably not. “The populations that are rising fastest contribute very little to climate change. The poorest half of the world produces 7% of carbon emissions. The richest 7% produces half the carbon. So the problem lies in countries like China, America and Europe, which all have stable populations. Moderating fertility in Africa might boost the economy or help stressed local environments. But it would not solve global problems.”

 

Boston Globe (October 17)

2011/ 10/ 19 by jd in Global News

Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam received the longest insider trading sentence ever meted out in the U.S. The Globe believes Rajaratnam fully deserves the 11-year jail sentence. “Markets are built around principles of fairness and disclosure. Insider trading perverts these principles and tilts the playing field against average investors…. Rajaratnam’s actions were a fraud on the market and an insult to every other investor who played by the rules. His was a crime with millions of victims, and his harsh punishment is entirely appropriate.”

 

Economist (October 15)

2011/ 10/ 17 by jd in Global News

The Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act threatens a trade war with China and would, in all likelihood, be found to contravene WTO rules. On October 11, the U.S. Senate passed the legislation. The House should not pass the bill, and President Obama should promise a veto. “The global economy is sicker than a man with a bellyful of bad oysters. The last thing it needs now is a trade war.”

The Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act threatens a trade war with China and would, in all likelihood, be found to contravene the WTO’s rules. On October 11, the U.S. Senate passed the legislation. The House should not pass the bill, and President Obama should promise a veto. “The global economy is sicker than a man with a bellyful of bad oysters. The last thing it needs now is a trade war.”

 

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