Washington Post (June 25)
“Governments around the world are scrambling for ways, often at great fiscal cost, to slow or even reverse their baby busts. From cash incentives to paid leave, the results have been disappointing.” They would do better to quit fighting and focus on adaptation. After 17 years of population decline, Japan “now offers a surprisingly hopeful counter that an aging economy can still offer growth and prosperity.” Recent analysis by Goldman Sachs found that in Japan “the demographic decline that once drained vitality is now creating a ‘virtuous cycle’ of tightening labor markets, increased worker bargaining power and more investment in productivity-enhancing tech. These trends are helping prop up the economy even as it weathers a shock from the U.S.-led trade war.”
Tags: Adaptation, Aging economy, Baby busts, Cash incentives, Cost, Demographic decline, Goldman Sachs, Governments, Growth, Investment, Labor markets, Paid leave, Population, Prosperity, Reverse, Scrambling, Tech, Virtuous cycle
Forbes (September 20)
“Britain’s non-binding resolution, to leave the EU (aka Brexit) is moving forward because one weak-willed and weak-minded politician, U.K. Prime Minister Teresa May, is treating the 2016 opinion poll as legally binding. It wasn’t and isn’t.” It is time for the Prime Minister to “exit Brexit” and “reverse the U.K.’s mistake.”
Tags: Britain, EU, Exit Brexit, May, Mistake, Non-binding resolution, Reverse, U.K.
New York Times (October 30)
“Alarming new evidence” indicates “that insect populations worldwide are in rapid decline.” We need to take the “proven steps” that can slow the decline even as we look for ways to reverse it. “The fate of the world’s insects is inseparable from our own.”
Tags: Alarming, Decline, Evidence, Insect populations, Inseparable, Reverse
