Bloomberg (September 20)
There has been “a huge and very worrying change in Japanese education policy….Essentially, Japan’s government just ordered all of the country’s public universities to end education in the social sciences, the humanities and law” with a non-binding order from Hakubun Shimomura, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. This is “a terrible direction for Japan to be going.” To succeed as a rich country in a service economy, Japan will need more conceptual thinkers who can communicate, rather than more engineers. “Japan needs to keep educating students in the social sciences and humanities. It needs to avoid a doomed attempt to return to a developing-country model of growth.”
Tags: Communicate, Conceptual thinkers, Education policy, Engineers Developing country, Government, Humanities, Japan, Law, MEXT, Rich, Service economy, Shimomura, Social sciences, Universities
Washington Post (October 31)
“The U.S. recovery is frustrating—but it’s the envy of the advanced world.” Underemployment remains a problem and few Americans are feeling rich, but with annualized GDP growth reaching 3.5% in the third quarter, the U.S. is outpacing other leading nations.
Tags: Frustrating, GDP, Growth, Recovery, Rich, U.S., Underemployment
The Economist (April 19)
Coal is a “cheap, ubiquitous and flexible fuel” that will be “the fuel of the future, unfortunately.” Although it remains very dirty, coal “offers the best chance for poor countries wanting to get rich” and even for some rich countries, like Japan and Germany, seeking nuclear alternatives.
Tags: Cheap, Coal, Dirty, Fuel, Future, Germany, Japan, Nuclear alternatives, Rich, Ubiquitous
New York Times (January 23, 2014)
“It is hard to imagine a country more miserable than the Central African Republic.” Though potentially rich, the country has been repeatedly looted by previous leaders. Ongoing conflict has displaced a quarter of the population and claimed 1,000 lives since December. “So, to the degree to which they can offer any hope for this broken-down state, the announcement of a new interim president, a decision by the European Union to send a peacekeeping force and a pledge of half-a-billion dollars in humanitarian aid are all good news.”
Tags: Central African Republic, Conflict, EU, Humanitarian aid, Leaders, Looted, Peacekeeping force, Population, President, Rich
