Chicago Tribune (January 9)
“A fast-evolving yet underappreciated phenomenon in American life and politics” is being brought about by millennials who “are so smitten with mobile technology and its social and economic applications that they see tech as the solution to just about everything.” Their digital mindset is driving their politics to become increasingly libertarian. They are “very liberal on social issues such as gay marriage and legalized pot, yet very skeptical of government efforts to regulate the economy or levy taxes.”
Tags: Applications, Economy, Liberal, Libertarian, Life, Millennials, Mobile technology, Politics, Taxes, Tech, U.S.
Financial Times (January 9)
“Investors looking for haven assets are increasingly having to pay up for the safety they provide as the volume of negative-yielding eurozone government debt has swollen to a record €1.2tn.” The change to assets you effectively pay to hold is unprecedented. At €0 in June 2014, this negative-yielding debt now accounts for roughly one quarter of outstanding eurozone sovereign debt, mostly “concentrated among the short-dated debt of core eurozone countries.”
Tags: Assets, eurozone, Government debt, Haven, Investors, Negative-yielding, Safety
Le Monde (January 8)
“The aim of the assassinations on Wednesday 7 January at the offices of Charlie Hebdo was to kill journalists and cartoonists for their opinions. They have plunged everyone who defends freedom of expression into mourning, and horrified the whole of France.” We will defend this freedom and ensure the “free, caring, joyful society that the journalists and cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo were fighting for.”
Tags: Assassinations, Cartoonists, Charlie Hebdo, France, Freedom of expression, Journalists, Opinions
Wall Street Journal (January 7)
“As notable as the magnitude of the greenback’s rise has been its rapidity: 13% against the euro and some 15% against the yen since the end of June. Capital that had flowed into emerging markets since the world financial panic is now heading back to the land of the free,” boosting the economic strength of the U.S.”
Tags: Capital, Economic strength, Emerging markets, euro, Financial panic, Greenback, Magnitude, U.S., Yen
Institutional Investor (January 6)
Amid “slowing global growth concerns and plummeting oil,” Russia has become a “cornered bear.” Food shortages and other anecdotal evidence suggest the domestic economy is crumbling and “that the pain is far from over.” Putin’s chances of finding “a solution that can provide economic relief while allowing him to save face” are looking “increasingly slim.”
Tags: Economy, Food shortages, Global growth, Oil, Pain, Putin, Relief, Russia
Washington Post (January 6)
North Korea’s regime is incomprehensible to many Americans. “There is something about the harshness and the evil nature of the North Korean regime that defies imagination: It’s so bizarre that it makes us laugh rather than cry.” It shouldn’t. North Korea “imprisons whole families for generations. When food is short, it quietly allows thousands to die off.” Under the rule of Kim Jong Un, reality is stark: “people die of starvation and torture.”
Tags: Bizarre, Evil, Harshness, Imprisons, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Starvation, Torture, U.S.
New York Times (January 5)
“Suddenly, or so it seems, the U.S. economy is looking better. Things have been looking up for a while, but at this point the signs of improvement — job gains, rapidly growing G.D.P., rising public confidence — are unmistakable.”
Tags: Confidence, Economy, G.D.P., Growth, Improvement, Job gains, U.S.
The Economist (January 3)
“In pharmaceuticals, the 20th century was the era of the small molecule.” The 21st may be the age of giant molecules as drugmakers seek new solutions. “Steady progress is being made in creating ‘biologics’, drugs that consist of giant molecules, hundreds of times the size of a conventional drug molecule, which are manufactured inside animal cells or micro-organisms such as bacteria. In the coming year a fresh wave of biologics is expected to be approved for use by general practitioners.”
Tags: Biologics, Drugmakers, Pharmaceuticals, Progress, Small molecule
Bloomberg (January 2)
“Venezuela had a banner year in 2014: the world’s highest misery index (inflation plus unemployment), a fresh recession, and a currency whose black-market value plunged faster than even the Russian ruble…. Unfortunately, President Nicolas Maduro doesn’t seem to have any good ideas — any ideas at all, really — for improving things.”
Tags: Black-market value, Currency, Inflation, Misery index, Nicolas Maduro, Recession, Ruble, Russia, Unemployment, Venezuela
Wall Street Journal (January 2)
“By 2115, it’s possible that only about 600 languages will be left on the planet as opposed to today’s 6,000. Japanese will be fine, but languages spoken by smaller groups will have a hard time of it.” English is more likely than Mandarin Chinese to become the world’s common language because it has already gained broad adoption and due to the difficulty of mastering Mandarin’s tones. “Just as the Mongols and Manchus once ruled China while leaving Chinese intact, if the Chinese rule the world, they will likely do so in English.”
