Bloomberg (November 4)
A United Nations panel released its latest grim report on climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change asserts that irreversible damage could result unless climate change is arrested quickly. Unfortunately, “another report won’t slow climate change…. All this was known. Doing something about it—that’s the hard part, and where most politicians, especially in the U.S., are failing.” Governments need to take action and “change their policies.”
Tags: Climate change, Damage, IPCC, Irreversible, Policies, Politicians, U.S., UN
Bloomberg (August 28)
With all of Japan’s nuclear plants off line, many now expect the first restart won’t occur until 2015. “Delays are prompting a reassessment of Japan’s nuclear outlook. JPMorgan cut its forecast in a July 28 report to 31 reactors to restart by 2019, down from 42. Two-thirds of Japan’s pre-accident fleet may never resume due to damage, seismic conditions that don’t meet NRA guidelines and local opposition.”
Tags: Damage, Japan, NRA, Nuclear, Opposition, Outlook, Reactors, Restart, Seismic conditions
Wall Street Journal (August 6)
“Taiwan’s leaders have warned for years that economic isolation will damage the nation’s competitiveness. Now their worst fears may be coming true, and the consequences of resisting freer trade and economic reform are becoming clear.”
Tags: Competitiveness, Consequences, Damage, Economic isolation, Fears, Free trade, Leaders, Reform, Taiwan
Wall Street Journal (May 26)
Populist, anti-EU candidates did well in the recent election for European Parliament. Nowhere more so than France where Marine Le Pen’s National Front party swept by both the Socialists and the Gaullists. Compared with “the milder populist advances elsewhere in the European vote, France produced a spectacle of nihilism that damages the West and delights Vladimir Putin.”
Tags: Anti-EU, Candidates, Damage, Election, European Parliament, France, Gaullists, Marine Le Pen, National Front, Nihilism, Populist, Socialists, Vladimir Putin, West
Forbes (March 24)
“Vladimir Putin has made a strategic blunder that could rival the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Moscow, counting on Western weakness, may, in the short term, succeed in carving up the country or ending the 22-year existence of an independent Ukraine. But it has set in motion forces that will severely damage Russia, as well as Putin’s own reign.”
Tags: Afghanistan, Blunder, Damage, Moscow, Putin, Russia, Soviet Union, Ukraine, Weakness, West
Wall Street Journal (January 26, 2014)
As the Federal Reserve begins tapering, we’ll see which emerging markets have “been swimming naked.” During the days of easy money, nearly anybody could enjoy the party. Now we’ll see which countries squandered the opportunity and left themselves exposed. “The end of Ben Bernanke’s Fed tide will have its uses if it spurs the kind of tax, trade and investment reforms that have been put off in too many places. The question is how much damage will be done as this global adjustment takes place.”
Tags: Ben Bernanke, Damage, Easy money, Emerging markets, Exposed, Federal Reserve, Global adjustment, Investment, Opportunity, Reforms, Squandered, Tapering, Tax, Trade, U.S.
Washington Post (August 29)
Officials took Hurricane Irene very seriously, issuing evacuation orders and taking extensive measures to avoid injury and damage. The measures seemed to have paid off. Of course, “some of that is luck: a shift a few miles to the west, a tick more ferocity in the winds, and the results might have been far different…At least 15 people in six states were killed in the storm, and as always the casualties seem heartbreakingly random: an 11-year-old Newport News boy dead when a large tree crashed into his apartment; a 15-year-old girl killed in a North Carolina car crash; a Maryland woman struck fatally when a tree toppled the chimney of her house.”
Officials took Hurricane Irene very seriously, issuing evacuation orders and taking extensive measures to avoid injury and damage. The measures seemed to have paid off. Of course, “some of that is luck: a shift a few miles to the west, a tick more ferocity in the winds, and the results might have been far different…At least 15 people in six states were killed in the storm, and as always the casualties seem heartbreakingly random: an 11-year-old Newport News boy dead when a large tree crashed into his apartment; a 15-year-old girl killed in a North Carolina car crash; a Maryland woman struck fatally when a tree toppled the chimney of her house.”
Financial Times (May 16)
“The March 11 earthquake and tsunami caused Y2,000bn ($25bn) in damage to plant and equipment at Japanese companies and left many too uncertain of their business prospects to issue forecasts for the current fiscal year.” While quake-dampened consumer demand remains a concern, “it is the problems on the supply side that have contributed most to the uncertainty.”
Tags: Consumer demand, Damage, Earthquake, Forecasts, Japan, Supply chain
Wall Street Journal (March 12)
“No country was better prepared for an 8.9 quake.” Devastation cannot be escaped when confronting an 8.9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami. Still Japan minimized the damage through preparation and planning. “Japan stands, literally, as a testament to how human planning and industrialized society can cope with natural disasters.”
Tags: Damage, Earthquake, Japan, Preparation, Tohoku
Financial Times (October 20)
A UN report has put “a price on the priceless,” valuing global environmental damage at $2-4.5 trillion each year. Though the estimate is wide, it is still useful. The estimate drives home the extent of the damage we inflict on the natural world. “Pricing the toll of human activity also allows us to prioritize our actions more rationally.”
Tags: Damage, Environment, UN
