CNBC (November 13)
As large U.S. retailers report earnings, inventory levels will dominate the gaze of analysts and investors. Retailers including Walmart, Target and Gap “are trying to sell through a glut of extra merchandise piling up in store backrooms and warehouses…. Balancing inventory has taken on additional urgency, as economists warn of dwindling savings accounts, rising credit card debt and the risk of a recession.”
Tags: Analysts, Debt, Dominate, Earnings, Economists, Gap, Glut, Inventory, Investors, Merchandise, Retailers, Risk, Savings, Target, Urgency, Walmart, Warehouses
Tampa Bay Times (December 6)
The emergence of the Omicron variant “proves that no nation is an island. Travel bans may slow the spread, but they can’t stop what has already happened…. So instead of pretending that the Atlantic and Pacific oceans somehow will keep the coronavirus and its variants far away, the United States should treat vaccinating people in other nations with more urgency.”
Tags: Urgency
LA Times (May 26)
“Up until just a few weeks ago, China was the single largest market for the world’s recyclables. About two-thirds of the yogurt cups, soda bottles and magazines tucked into curbside recycling bins and crushed into bales were loaded onto cargo ships bound for China…where they were remanufactured into shiny new products and shipped back to the U.S.” China precipitated a crisis, when it halted all imports of recyclables in May. “The U.S. and other nations are still scrambling to figure out what to do with the rapidly growing trash bottleneck,” but China has actually done everyone a favor by creating a sense of urgency. “Policymakers and consumers should step up and take the hard but necessary steps to deal with our out-of-control trash-generating culture.”
Tags: Bottles, China, Consumers, Crisis, Culture, Curbside recycling, Imports, Magazines, Policymakers, Recyclables, Remanufactured, Trash bottleneck, U.S., Urgency, Yogurt cups
Washington Post (July 27)
After great devastation, the Ebola crisis appears to be winding down in Africa. “Now it is time to confront another hard problem: addressing the weaknesses in global response that allowed the virus to spread so rapidly. Without the urgency of another outbreak, national governments and the World Health Organization will be disinclined to change the way they do business. But change they must, or there will be another wave of disease, panic and unnecessary death.”
Tags: Africa, Change, Death, Devastation, Disease, Ebola, Global response, Outbreak, Panic, Urgency, WHO
The New York Times (October 23)
While other countries make “progress from generation to generation,” the U.S. is falling behind in terms of literacy, numeracy and problem solving skills. “In literacy, for example, about 12 percent of American adults scored at the highest levels, a smaller proportion than in Finland and Japan (about 22 percent). In addition, one in six Americans scored near the bottom in literacy, compared with 1 in 20 adults who scored at that level in Japan.” Other nations realized the knowledge economy would offer very “few jobs for workers with mediocre skills…. Those countries, most notably Finland, broadened access to education, improved teacher training and took other steps as well.” The U.S. has yet to act with any sense of urgency.While other countries make “progress from generation to generation,” the U.S. is falling behind in terms of literacy, numeracy and problem solving skills. “In literacy, for example, about 12 percent of American adults scored at the highest levels, a smaller proportion than in Finland and Japan (about 22 percent). In addition, one in six Americans scored near the bottom in literacy, compared with 1 in 20 adults who scored at that level in Japan.” Other nations realized the knowledge economy would offer very “few jobs for workers with mediocre skills…. Those countries, most notably Finland, broadened access to education, improved teacher training and took other steps as well.” The U.S. has yet to act with any sense of urgency.
Tags: Economy, Education, Finland, Japan, Literacy, Numeracy, Problem solving, Progress, Skills, Teachers, Training, U.S., Urgency, Workers
