Washington Post (April 27)
“It was supposed to be a period of joyous national celebration, the Golden Week public holiday, which has been extended this year to celebrate the ascension of a new emperor to the Chrysanthemum Throne.” Instead, many Japanese are “miserable and stressed,” especially those in the service industry who have to work. In fact, recent polls show that “more people were unhappy than were happy with the long break.”
Tags: Ascension, Celebration, Chrysanthemum Throne, Emperor, Golden Week, Japan, Joyous, Miserable, Stressed, Unhappy
Los Angeles Times (April 27)
“BPA and BPS lurk in products all around us, notably in plastics, and research has shown that most people have trace amounts in their bodies. But that the millions of paper receipts consumers handle every day might be another—and significant—source of exposure is not well known.” This is one of the reasons California may get behind legislation to ban large retailers and banks from offering paper receipts by 2022.
Tags: Ban, Bank, BPA, BPS, California, Consumers, Exposure, Legislation, Paper receipts, Plastics, Retailers
Wall Street Journal (April 27)
“With the comeback in financial markets this year, we probably should have seen it coming. But the headline rebound in first quarter growth to 3.2% reported Friday is still a pleasant surprise that shows again that the U.S. economy is remarkably resilient when government doesn’t get in the way.”
Tags: Comeback, Economy, Financial markets, Government, Q1, Rebound, Resilient, U.S.
Reuters (April 25)
“Under Xi Jinping, Beijing has elevated its missile forces to a point where many rockets in the Chinese arsenal now rival or outperform those of the United States. This dramatic shift could render American carriers – the backbone of U.S. military supremacy – obsolete in a conflict with China.”
Tags: Arsenal, Beijing, China, Conflict, Military, Missile force, Obsolete, Outperform, Rival, Rockets, Supremacy, U.S., Xi Jinping
Foreign Policy (April 24)
“Britain can’t afford to keep talking about Brexit. The never-ending conversation about leaving the EU has stalled all other progress on economic policy…. We need a resolution to this phase of Brexit, not just to resolve the short-term issue but so that we can start to think about the long term again.”
Bloomberg (April 24)
“China has mismanaged an epidemic of African swine fever that’s on course to kill 130 million pigs—or roughly one-third of China’s herd, the biggest in the world.” The response has taken the pattern of past mismanaged crisis and shows that China remains “systemically unprepared…to report and manage the inevitable next epidemic that kills people.”
Tags: African swine fever, China, Crisis, Epidemic, Inevitable, People, Pigs, Unprepared
New York Times (April 23)
“We can wait to reject this appalling worst-president-ever in the next election. Impeachment would drive the whole country even further apart. The Republicans in the Senate would never go for it anyway. And by the time we staggered to the inevitable stalemate, it’d be well into 2020. Let’s just vote the sucker out.”
Tags: Appalling, Election, Impeachment, President, Reject, Republicans, Stalemate, Trump, Vote 2020, Worst
Newsweek (April 22)
“Donald Trump is the living embodiment of the seven deadly sins—pride, greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, envy and sloth—and he is the precise obverse of the seven virtues as enunciated by Pope Gregory in 590 A.D.; chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility…. No voter in 2020 should be allowed to overlook this basic reality: Donald Trump is a morally despicable human being.”
Tags: Embodiment, Morally despicable, Seven deadly sins, Trump, Voter
The Economist (April 20)
“Investors often describe the world of business in terms of animals, such as bears, bulls, hawks, doves and dogs. Right now, mere ponies are being presented as unicorns: privately held tech firms worth over $1bn that are supposedly strong and world-beating—miraculous almost.” Except they’re not. Many so-called unicorns lack effective business models. In fact, “a dozen unicorns that have listed, or are likely to, posted combined losses of $14bn last year. Their cumulative losses are $47bn.”
Tags: Business models, Investors, Losses, Miraculous, Unicorns, World-beating
Inc (April 19)
“The fast food business encourages fast thinking. Competitors strategize quickly in order to gain that extra percentage of margin, the chance to bite a tiny morsel out of their rivals. This leads them easily into going one way and then veering in the opposite direction. Perhaps one shouldn’t be surprised, then, at McDonald’s suddenly deciding it’s not quite as fancy as it promised to be.” After drifting upscale, it’s now “going another way” and simplifying its menu offerings.
Tags: Competitors, Fast food, Fast thinking, Margin, Menu, Rivals, Simplifying, Strategize, Upscale
