Foreign Policy (February 20)
“Children born in the year of the dragon are considered lucky.” This is, however, unlikely to cause a bump” in China’s birthrate during 2024, which is “likely to see fewer births than any previous year of the dragon.” From 2011 (the last year of the dragon), the nation’s birthrate has dropped from 13.27 children to “just 6.39 children per 1,000 people” last year. The precipitous fall suggests “this year of the dragon may be a bit of a bust as people in China shy away from the soaring costs of child-rearing despite government propaganda pushing women to have more children and to stop working to raise them.”
Tags: Birthrate, Bump, Bust, Child-rearing, Children, China, Dragon, Fall suggests, Government, Lucky, Precipitous, Propaganda, Soaring costs, Women
Financial Times (November 1)
“If America is lucky,” Biden will be elected and “the country will breathe a sign of relief, literally. Whether or not one agrees with the president’s policies, his divisiveness and vitriol are among the reasons that researchers have found correlations between Mr Trump’s spell in power and things like rising anxiety levels, cardiovascular problems and even preterm pregnancies (especially among Latinas) in the US.
Tags: Anxiety, Biden, Cardiovascular problems, Divisiveness, Elected, Lucky, Preterm pregnancies, Relief, Trump, U.S., Vitriol
The Independent (April 8)
“As the international swooning over the young, vigorous and cool French President Emmanuel Macron continues almost unabated, a dissident voice has piped up that will play well for this (so far) very lucky politician.” Very few French are likely to side with Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan president, who called Macron a wimp and a hit man, and also alleged he was destroying France.
The Economist (May 17)
The planned merger of Publicis and Omnicom would have created the world’s largest advertising firm. Last week it was called off. “Anyone connected with the two firms should probably count himself lucky that they uncoupled before rings were exchanged. (Indeed, shares in both firms edged up after the cancellation.) Corporate marriages often go wrong, but mergers of equals…account for a disproportionate share of the most notorious failures.”
Tags: Advertising, Cancellation, Equals, Failures, Lucky, Merger, Omnicom, Planned, Publicis, Shares, Uncoupled