1
Opinion
If Old Humans Grew Like Old Trees, Stand Back
A comprehensive tree survey finds that big old trees continue to grow at a rapid pace.
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U.S.
U.S. to Expand Rules Limiting Use of Profiling by Federal Agents
The new rules will prohibit federal agents from considering religion, national origin, gender and sexual orientation in their investigations, a government official said Wednesday.
3
Opinion
How the Poor Get Washed Away
Poor people who don’t own land routinely bear the brunt of natural disasters.
4
Health
What Ultra-Marathons Do to Our Bodies
Those who race 50 to 100 miles at a time or longer tend to be older and have different health concerns than most of us might expect, new research shows.
5
Health
Giving Vaccines Together Increases Fever Risk
When shots for flu and pneumococcal disease were given together, children were more likely to develop a fever within a day.
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11
U.S.
Florida: House Member Apologizes for Cocaine Use
House aides say a Florida congressman who pleaded guilty to cocaine possession has apologized to his Republican colleagues.
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14
Business Day
Holiday Sales Slide 60% at Struggling Barnes & Noble Nook Unit
Revenue in the Nook division, which includes digital content and devices, fell 60 percent, while sales in its bookstores dropped 6.6 percent, the company said.
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Business Day
European Central Bank Set to Do Whatever It Takes to Bolster Recovery
The European Central Bank’s president said he would “consider all available instruments” if the threat of deflation persists.Success, European Style
Since I’m in Ireland, I should give a belated plug to the very good piece by Fintan O’Toole debunking talk about Irish recovery.
It’s kind of amazing, really. Here’s what
Ireland’s recovery — both what has happened so far, and what’s likely
over the next two years — looks like, according to the European
Commission itself:
European Commission
It takes an almost heroic act of denial to look at this chart and see a success story, a vindication for austerity policies.
And for what it’s worth (which isn’t much),
Dublin still looks like a depressed city, with a lot of vacant
storefronts — although my impressions may be colored by what I know
about the macro numbers. Also, hotel rooms are remarkably cheap — good
for visitors, but a sign that business remains very slack.
It’s really quite awesome, then, how the
slight uptick here and in a few other places is being greeted by the
likes of Olli Rehn with victory dances."
France by the Numbers
“You shall not crucify mankind upon a croissant d’or.” That was Alan Taylor’s response (in correspondence) to François Hollande’s embrace of Say’s law
— he literally said that “supply actually creates demand” — together
with a shift to, again in his own words, supply-side policies. Kevin O’Rourke also weighs in, as did Ambrose Evans-Pritchard . Mark Thoma is your go-to site for the rapidly growing avalanche of horrified snark.
The amazing thing to me, aside from
Hollande’s haplessness, is the extreme pessimism that has evidently
enveloped French elite opinion. You’d think that France was a disaster
area. Yet the numbers, while not good, just aren’t that dramatic.
Start with growth since the crisis. How does
France stack up in the European context? Not as good as Germany,
obviously. But if you compare it with other European countries — even if
you leave out the troubled debtors — it doesn’t stand out as a poor
performer:
European Commission
What about declining competitiveness? It’s
true that France has run consistent current account deficits in recent
years, but they’re quite small:
International Monetary Fund
France’s fiscal outlook doesn’t look at all
worrying, except to the extent that it has slashed its structural
deficit too much in the face of economic weakness:
International Monetary Fund
Bond markets, which panicked during the worst of the euro crisis, don’t seem very worried at this point:
French-German yield differential
Now, French performance has definitely been weak in recent quarters. But why? Francesco Saraceno argues, using survey evidence, that it’s demand, not supply. Inflation data also support this view:
France, like much of Europe, seems to be
flirting with deflation and very much at risk of a Japan scenario. Oh,
and the IMF’s most recent Article IV consultation,
while it tries to place some weight on “uncertainty” — zombies at the
Fund! — still concludes that austerity policies are a large part of the
story.
Again, things aren’t good. But you do have to
wonder why the French elite is so easily intimidated into making a hard
right turn while the elites of much worse cases like Finland and the
Netherlands remain steadfast in their notion that the worse things get,
the more committed they have to be to inflicting further pain."
18
Opinion
Tobacco, Firearms and Food
There should be a way for producers and processors of fruits and vegetables to make money without competing with subsidized junk food.
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U.S.
H.I.V.-Positive Person, Told Otherwise, Is Being Sought
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center made a false H.I.V.-negative finding after a mix-up of blood samples.
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Travel
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