Washington Post (April 29, 2013)
Despite the Dodd-Frank financial reforms, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo remain too big to fail. “At $7.8 trillion, their combined assets are half the size of the entire U.S. economy, and they hold more than half of the nation’s $7 trillion in deposits.” It is unlikely that the U.S. government could ever allow any of them to fail.
Tags: Assets, Bank of America, Citigroup, Dodd-Frank, Economy, Financial Reform, JPMorgan Chase, Too big to fail, U.S., Wells Fargo
New York Times (April 28, 2013)
“At first glance, the latest economic growth report, released Friday, appears to show the economy revving up. In reality, the economy is either stuck in low gear, or worse, slowing to a stop as budget cuts harm not only the users of overstretched government services but the overall economy. This precarious situation urgently calls for more federal spending, not less.”
Wall Street Journal (April 27, 2013)
“Who started World War II? We thought that one belonged to the Department of Settled Questions, along with any lingering doubts about whether the Earth orbits the sun. But Japan’s Shinzo Abe has a fresh, er, interpretation.” The Prime Minister’s latest revisionism threatens to further enflame tensions, already running high, in Asia. “Much of the world long ago forgave Japan its wartime atrocities. But it hasn’t forgotten them…. Mr. Abe’s disgraceful remark will make his country no more friends abroad.”
Tags: Atrocities, Disgrace, Japan, Prime minister, Shinzo Abe, WWII
The Economist (April 27, 2013)
Economics has long been defined by choices made by rational beings. These mythical creatures, however, account for many of the field’s shortcomings. “Economics should draw much more heavily on fields such as psychology, neuroscience and anthropology.” Economists should “accept that evidence from other disciplines does not just explain those bits of behaviour that do not fit the standard models. Rather, what economists consider anomalous is the norm.”
Tags: Anomalies, Anthropology, Choices, Economics, Neuroscience, Norms, Psychology, Rational, Standard models
The Atlantic (April 24, 2013)
“Why has Japan’s economy been so lousy for so long? One possibility is that economic stagnation and job insecurity feed on each other—that the sorry state of workers who graduated into Japan’s recession in the early 1990s has hindered growth and, in turn, dimmed job prospects for today’s graduates. Perhaps precarious youth employment is both a symptom and an agent of economic decline.” This is a trap to be wary of as America “struggles to contain the Great Recession’s damage….We must prevent a lost generation by any means necessary. Because it’s hard to stop at just one.”
Tags: Economic decline, Employment, Japan, Job prospects, Recession, U.S.
Forbes (April 23, 2013)
Is growth the root of problems like global warming? No, growth is a panacea that “must not be sold short. Growth is not just morally defensible; it is a moral imperative for achieving lasting human flourishing.” Of course, there have been cases of reckless growth. Overall, however, “hard data documents its positive impact on the things that ultimately matter: education, environmental care, physical health, political freedom, and healthy culture. Failure to realize the transformative power of growth would be a failure of our moral imaginations.”
Tags: Culture, Education, Environment, Freedom, Global warming, Growth, Health
Businessweek (April 23, 2013)
Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) is trying to dismiss a fraud suit being filed by the U.S. Department of Justice. Both “outrageous” and “even insulting,” S&P’s defense asserts “S&P cannot be held liable for its prolific claims of integrity and analytic skill because those boasts were the sort of baloney that investors and the wider public never take seriously in the first place… In other words: Only a sap would believe the nice things we say about our work.”
Bloomberg (April 22, 2013)
“Last week we were reminded both of the dangers posed by chemical plants and of the threat of terrorism in the U.S., and the conclusion that chemical plants could be a lot safer is unsettling. But such a conclusion is also inescapable.” The Texas blast, which killed 14, took place at a fertilizer plant storing highly combustible and toxic substances. The plant “was clearly too dangerous to be located a few blocks from a middle school, a nursing home and a 50-unit apartment building.” The Government needs to institute rules to keep the public safe.
Tags: Blasts, Chemical plants, Fertilizer plant, Government, Terrorism, Texas
New York Times (April 20, 2013)
“The central Arctic Ocean has been covered in ice for eons, but under the influence of global warming, nearly half of it is now open water for part of the year.” Humans must now step up with a treaty to protect this fragile ecosystem, which includes some of Earth’s last untouched fishing stocks. “No matter how severe, how austere, the Arctic may seem in our imaginations, it is almost unbelievably fragile, as are many of the species newly exposed under what is now open water. It is time, now, to intercede and protect this environmental oasis.”
Tags: Arctic Ocean, Environment, Fishing, Fragile, Global warming, Humans, Ice, Species
The Economist (April 20, 2013)
“The threat of a global pandemic is rising again.” In China, the H7N9 avian influenza is troubling and in the Middle East a SARS-like virus has emerged. Compared with a decade ago, the world is more prepared for the “distant but deadly threat” of a pandemic. “But it needs to be better prepared still, because viruses move a lot faster than governments do.”
Tags: Avian influenza, China, Governments, H7N9, Middle East, Pandemic, Preparation, Risk, SARS