Wall Street Journal (January 15)
Encryption and security protections “have significant social and public benefits.” These are becoming “more important as individuals store and transmit more personal information on their phones—including bank accounts and health records—amid increasing cyber-espionage.” The U.S. Attorney General wants Apple to provide law enforcement with a backdoor. It won’t and it shouldn’t. “Any special key that Apple created for the U.S. government to unlock iPhones would also be exploitable by bad actors.”
Tags: Apple, Backdoor, Bad actors, Bank accounts, Benefits, Cyber-espionage, Encryption, Exploitable, Health records, Law enforcement, Personal information, Phones, Security, U.S., Unlock
Washington Post (January 8)
“Money for war, but not for the poor.” Arguments over Mideast intervention overshadow “our failure to invest in or prioritize the safety and health of 327 million people living in the United States.” This “is also a threat to our safety and well-being.” In the U.S., 15% of children live in poverty, an opioid epidemic rages, suicide presents a massive threat, and life spans are actually declining.
Tags: Arguments, Children, Epidemic, Failure, Health, Intervention, Invest, Life spans, Mideast, Money, Opioid, Poor, Poverty, Safety, Suicide, Threat, U.S., War
New York Times (December 21)
The Twenty-Teens have “been fundamentally shaped by the technological creations of the young, in the form of social media and mobile apps; by the mass migrations of the young, from Africa and the Middle East to Europe and from Latin America to the U.S.; by the diseases of the (mostly) young, notably addiction and mental illness; and by the moral convictions of the young, from the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements in the U.S. to mass demonstrations from Cairo to Hong Kong.”
Tags: #MeToo, Addiction, Africa, Apps, Black Lives Matter, Cairo, Demonstrations, Diseases, Europe, Hong Kong, Latin America, Mental illness, Middle East, Migrations, Moral convictions, Movements, Social media, Technology, U.S., Young
LA Times (December 19)
In its first climate risk assessment, CalPERS, the largest U.S. pension fund, “found that one-fifth of the fund’s public market investments were in sectors that have high exposure to climate change. Those include energy, materials and buildings, transportation, and agriculture, food and forestry.” The report by CalPERS, however, didn’t go into much detail because “less than half of the 10,000-plus companies in their portfolio voluntarily disclose information about their carbon emissions.”
Tags: Agriculture, Assessment, CalPERs, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Energy, Exposure, Forestry, Investments, Materials, Pension fund, Portfolio, Risk, Transportation, U.S., Voluntary disclosure
Chicago Tribune (December 17)
“Chicago-based Boeing said Monday that it will suspend production of the Max starting sometime in January.” The 737 Max is the largest U.S. export product. “Shares of major manufacturers that supply Chicago-based Boeing with critical elements of the 737 Max fell Tuesday” and the “ramifications are likely to ripple beyond the factory floor and across both the aviation and manufacturing sectors. The decision could affect the country’s trade balance.”
Tags: Aviation, Boeing, Chicago, Export, Manufacturers, Manufacturing, Production 737 Max, Ripple, Shares, Suspend, Trade balance, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (December 8)
“The S&P 500 is having its best run in six years, but individual investors are fleeing stock funds at the fastest pace in decades…. Investors have pulled $135.5 billion from U.S. stock-focused mutual funds and exchange-traded funds so far this year, the biggest withdrawals on record.” And, surprisingly, this may be a good sign for the stock market. The outflows show “investors aren’t chasing the stock market’s strong performance…. This suggests major indexes like the S&P 500 still have plenty of room to run after a decadelong rally.”
Tags: ETFs, Fleeing, Investors, Mutual funds, Outflows, Stock funds, U.S., Withdrawals
Washington Post (December 5)
In the impeachment proceedings, “even the Republican witness helped the Democrats… If Turley is an example of the type of witnesses they think helpful, perhaps Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) should allow them to call many more.”
Tags: Democrats, Impeachment, Nadler, Republican, Trump, Turley, U.S., Witness
Washington Post (December 1)
“Experts have known for years what the United States must do: place a strong and steadily rising price on carbon dioxide emissions, invest heavily in clean-energy research and development, and make climate a top priority in international diplomacy. President Trump is instead denying the problem.”
Tags: Clean energy, Climate, CO2, Denying, Diplomacy, Emissions, Experts, Invest, Price, Priority, Trump, U.S.
The Economist (November 30)
World trade “works best when there is a referee, and for nearly 25 years a group of seven judges at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has done the job. But on December 11th this body will cease to function, because America is blocking new appointments.” Losing this final arbiter ”will make cross-border commerce unrulier and, in the long run, invite an anarchy that would make the world poorer.”
Tags: Anarchy, Appointments, Cross-border commerce, Judges, Poorer, Referee, U.S., Unrulier, World trade, WTO
Wall Street Journal (November 28)
“American voters, beware. Politicians promising that Medicare for All and a Green New Deal can be financed by the rich are lying to you. The middle class will pay because that’s where the real money is.”
Tags: Beware, Green New Deal, Lying, Medicare, Middle class, Money, Politicians, Rich, U.S., Voters
