New York Times (September 19)
“Taiwan obviously needs a stronger food-safety policy with meaningful penalties.” The latest in a series of food scandals involves the sale of nearly 650 tons of adulterated “gutter oil,” which was produced from unsuitable sources, such as restaurant waste, and sold as cooking oil. “The Taiwanese authorities need to be doing more than reacting to food-safety problems on an ad hoc basis to ensure that what people eat is safe.”
Tags: Adulterated, Authorities, Cooking oil, Food safety, Gutter oil, Penalties, Restaurant waste, Scandals, Taiwan
The Scotsman (September 18)
“The people of Scotland will go to the polls in record numbers today.” They will decide “the future of Scotland and that of the 307-year-old United Kingdom.” This will be “the most important vote in the country’s history.”
Washington Post (September 17)
“Afghanistan is teetering between a political implosion that could ignite civil war in Kabul and a power-sharing deal that could give the country another chance for stability.” Official election results will soon be announced, but due to voting irregularities a “winner-takes-all approach” is unsustainable. “It is up to Mr. Abdullah and Mr. Ghani [the two candidates] to show that Afghanistan can have a future under moderate, pragmatic leaders who are able to compromise.”
Tags: Abdullah, Afghanistan, Civil war, Compromise, Election, Ghani, Implosion, Kabul, Leaders, Moderate, Power sharing, Pragmatic, Results, Stability, Voting
Financial Times (September 16)
“Fears of disruption following a Scottish vote for independence and intensifying conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have damaged prospects for the world economy,” according to the latest assessment of the OECD, which lowered growth forecasts for 2014 to 2.1% in the U.S., 0.9% in Japan and 0.8% in the eurozone.
Tags: Conflict, Disruption, Economy, eurozone, Independence, Japan, Middle East, OECD, Scotland, U.S., Ukraine, Vote
Wall Street Journal (September 15)
“The world’s second-largest economy is faring worse than previously thought, with government stimulus measures proving too short-lived to counter China’s sharp real-estate downturn or to prop up flagging factory output.” The slowdown in growth was highlighted by a slump in industrial production which fell to levels last seen during the financial crisis. “The falloff comes as Europe is stumbling and the U.S. recovery looks more moderate than expected, leaving the world in search of economic growth.”
Tags: China, Downturn, Economy, Europe, Factory output, Financial Crisis, Government, Growth, Industrial production, Real estate, Recovery, Stimulus, U.S.
Euromoney (September Issue)
“The recovery of the global real estate market from the devastating toll inflicted by the financial crisis is continuing to gather pace, with investment almost back to 2008 levels and growing confidence fueling increased risk appetite.”
The Economist (September 13, 2014)
“Ten years ago, developing economies were catching up with developed ones remarkably quickly.” But this “aberration” resulted from a convergence of favorable factors like “the commodities boom and hyperglobalisation of the turn of the century.” It once looked like worldwide average incomes would catch up with those of the U.S. in little more than a generation. Now, it appears the catch up will take decidedly longer, perhaps a century or more.
Tags: Aberration, Century, Commodities boom, Developed, Developing economies, Generation, Hyperglobalisation, Incomes, U.S.
Boston Globe (September 13, 1964)
“The Beatles are not merely awful; I would consider it sacrilegious to say anything less than that they are god awful. They are so unbelievably horribly, so appallingly unmusical, so dogmatically insensitive to the magic of the art that they qualify as crowned heads of anti-music, even as the imposter popes went down in history as ‘anti-popes.’”
Tags: Anti-music, Art, Awful, Beatles, Dogmatic, Imposter, Insensitive, Unmusical
Los Angeles Times (September 11)
“The gravest immediate threat to the West’s long-term security does not emanate from Vladimir Putin or from the militants of the Islamic State. Rather, surprisingly, it comes from peace-loving Scots.” On September 18, we will see if Scotland will “actually break away from Britain.”
Tags: Britain, Immediate threat, Islamic State, Putin, Scotland, Security, West
Financial Times (September 10)
“China and Japan are heading towards military conflict, according to a majority of Chinese surveyed on ties between the Asian powers in a Sino-Japanese poll.” According to the poll by Genron/China Daily, 87% of Chinese respondents view the Japanese unfavorably and 53% think the two countries will go to war. The same survey found 93% of Japanese view the Chinese unfavorably, but only 29% expect war to break out.
Tags: China, Japan, Military conflict, Survey, Unfavorably, War
