1
Automobiles
Wheelies: The Super-Size Sorento Edition
Kia introduces a larger Sorento crossover for 2016; G.M. decides to keep its towing capacity numbers honest after all.U.S.
On Immigration, House G.O.P. Starts to Embrace an Emboldened Tea Party
A legislative year in which Speaker John A. Boehner set out to marginalize more vocal right-wing Republicans ended with them buoyed, and with some ready to bring them back into the fold.U.S.
In Atlanta, Jury Selection Is Set to Begin in Test Scandal
Twelve former public school employees are accused of conspiring to alter and boost students’ standardized test scores.N.Y. / Region
A Factory in Brooklyn That Constructs Homes Is Losing Its Own
Capsys has made thousands of apartments and homes through modular construction from its factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, but its lease is running out.Business Day
Fed Official Warns ‘Disappointing’ Growth Could Foretell Future
The Fed vice chairman, Stanley Fischer, told a conference in Sweden that growth had been disappointing, possibly reflecting a structural shift in the global economy.
"Japanification is well underway. Not quite deflation yet, but headline at 0.4 percent, core at 0.8 percent.
In the U.S. the Fed is, rightly in my view, focused on slow wage growth
as an indication of slack; in the euro area annual growth in labor
costs is sliding:
Business Day
Now Arriving at Pittsburgh International: Fracking
The airport’s runways are sitting on enough natural gas to run the whole state of Pennsylvania for a year and a half.World
Tracing Ebola’s Breakout to an African 2-Year-Old
The current Ebola outbreak, the largest ever, seems likely to surpass all previous known Ebola outbreaks combined, and epidemiologists predict it will take months to control.Confirmed, probable, and suspect cases and deaths from Ebola virus disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, as of 9 August 2014
| New (1) | Confirmed | Probable | Suspect | Totals | |
| Guinea | |||||
| Cases | 11 | 362 | 133 | 11 | 506 |
| Deaths | 6 | 238 | 133 | 2 | 373 |
| Liberia | |||||
| Cases | 45 | 158 | 306 | 135 | 599 |
| Deaths | 29 | 146 | 125 | 52 | 323 |
| Nigeria | |||||
| Cases | 0 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 13 |
| Deaths | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Sierra Leone | |||||
| Cases | 13 | 656 | 37 | 37 | 730 |
| Deaths | 17 | 276 | 34 | 5 | 315 |
| Totals | |||||
| Cases | 69 | 1176 | 486 | 186 | 1848 |
| Deaths | 52 | 660 | 294 | 59 | 1013 |
| 1. New cases were reported between 7 and 9 August 2014. | |||||
8
Sports
Sale of Clippers to Steve Ballmer Is Finalized
The sale, for a record $2 billion, came shortly after a California state court confirmed that Rochelle Sterling had the right to make the sale on behalf of her estranged husband, Donald Sterling.U.S.
With 4 Retirements, Michigan Will Lose Congressional Clout
When Senator Carl Levin and Representatives John D. Dingell, Mike Rogers and Dave Camp step down, the state will lose four of its most senior members, and all the firepower that came with them.N.Y. / Region
In Brooklyn, Officials Court Democrats in Bid to Host 2016 Convention
The city’s effort to bring the Democratic National Convention to the Barclays Center reached the pep rally stage on Monday, as convention officials were welcomed for a two-day tour.U.S.
Florida: Lawmakers Approve New Voting Maps
The Republican-controlled Legislature approved new maps that would alter seven of the state’s 27 congressional districts after a judge ruled the current districts were illegally drawn to benefit Republicans.Sports
N.C.A.A.’s Vote on New Rules Creating Divisions Among Conferences
Granting autonomy to the five richest conferences would contradict the stated mission of the N.C.A.A., which is to govern college sports in a fair manner.World
Times Reporter Is Injured in Iraq Helicopter Crash
The pilot was killed in the crash in Iraqi Kurdistan, and Alissa J. Rubin of The New York Times, who was one of the passengers, was among the injured.U.S.
Invader Batters Rural America, Shrugging Off Herbicides
A herbicide-resistant weed known as palmer amaranth or carelessweed has devastated Southern cotton fields and is poised to wreak havoc in the Midwest, partly because of farming practices.N.Y. / Region
Barneys Agrees to Pay $525,000 in Racial Profiling Inquiry
Barneys New York said it would institute reforms after a state investigation showed that the department store singled out minority shoppers for heightened surveillance.Opinion
Lupita Nyong’o Wants to Braid Your Hair
The Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o tells Vogue why she loves to braid hair in this short film.Business Day
A Corporate Tax Break That’s Closer to Home
By allowing a telecom company to spin off part of itself into a real estate investment trust, the I.R.S. has opened a window to a way for many corporations to have lower tax bills.Real Estate
A Ranch With 1,000 Acres, for Your Inner Buckaroo
Recreational ranches offer the ultimate anti-Hamptons getaway.Opinion
Preserving Biocultural Diversity
This dual extinction crisis is a golden opportunity for new directions in conservation.Opinion
The C.I.A. and Torture
The Rev. Ron Stief of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture responds to an Op-Ed article, “Stop the C.I.A. Spin on Torture.”
2
Opinion
A Judge Rules for Alabama Women on Abortion
A law that restricts access to abortion — the admitting-privileges requirement — was blocked by a federal judge. His opinion should serve as a model for other courts.
U.S.
Coaxing Fire and Police Staffs in Arizona to Cut Own Pensions
With many pension plans for the state’s police officers and firefighters underfunded, the firefighter association’s leader says his group must protect the public from financial ruin.World
At Heart of Ebola Outbreak, a Village Frozen by Fear and Death
More than 60 people have died from the virus in a tiny village in Sierra Leone, and now people there worry that a quarantine will cut off their food and supplies.Technology
Simplifying the Bull: How Picasso Helps to Teach Apple’s Style
The tech company’s highly secretive internal training program is like its products: meticulously planned, with polished presentations and a gleaming veneer that masks a great deal of effort.Science
Tall, Ancient and Under Pressure
If a long-term drought continues, “most of the big trees could be gone” within a century, a United States Geological Survey ecologist says.U.S.
Ohio: Moratorium on Capital Punishment Is Extended
A freeze on capital punishment in Ohio will continue through Jan. 15 after a federal judge extended a moratorium set to expire this week.U.S.
Midterms Give Parties Chance for Sweeping Control of States
Republicans, who already control 55 percent of all state legislative seats, aim to pick off about a half-dozen chambers in elections this year and enact policies that can get no traction in Washington.World
Taliban Take Responsibility for Bombing in Kabul
While the insurgents have repeatedly fired rockets at the airport and carried out a broad campaign of violence across the country, the suicide attacks that have been a hallmark of the war have been less common in the capital.N.Y. / Region
Police Files on Radicals Are at Center of a Lawsuit
A judge has been asked to order the New York Police Department to find and turn over documents on the Puerto Rican militant group Young Lords to a Baruch professor.Opinion
Making the Case for High-Speed Rail
Despite modest investments and a few visible improvements, American passenger trains still lag behind other nations.Opinion
The Death of Michael Brown
A police shooting in a St. Louis suburb is a reminder of a toxic racial legacy.Business Day
Print Is Down, and Now Out
The persistent financial demands of Wall Street have trumped the informational needs of Main Street. Print has become too much of a drag on earnings, so media companies are dividing back up and print is being kicked to the curb."What’s the Matter With Europe?
Just
a few months ago Europe’s austerians were busy congratulating
themselves, declaring that a modest upturn in southern Europe vindicated
all their actions. But now the news is looking grim, with industrial
production stalling out and good reason to fear yet another slide into
recession:
This comes as many
though not all US data points are suggesting stronger growth. So why has
Europe done so badly? I’m actually not too committed to any one story
here; there are arguably several factors.
First, there is fiscal
austerity, which has been a very big drag. It’s important to realize,
however, that the US has also had quite a lot of de facto austerity via
the sequester and all that at the federal level, and state and local
cutbacks. If we use the IMF’s measure of structural balances, Europe has
indeed tightened relative to the United States:
But it’s not as big a difference as you might think — maybe 2 1/2 points of potential GDP.
You can also argue
that Europe’s fundamentals are considerably worse. If you’re worried
that secular stagnation might be depressing the natural real rate of
interest — the rate consistent with full employment — and you think that
demography is a big factor, Europe looks really terrible, indeed
full-on Japanese:
This
says that Europe really, really needs to keep inflation expectations
from sliding — in fact, it almost surely needs expected inflation higher
than 2 percent. In fact, however, the ECB has been much less successful
than the Fed at keeping expected inflation from declining.
And this reflects past
policy choices and what they say about institutional biases. In the US,
Janet Yellen and associates have been quite clear that they are prepared to take some inflation risks on the upside
in order to avoid the “nightmare scenario” of raising rates only to
discover that the economy was weakening again, and thereby deepening the
liquidity trap. In Europe, however, the nightmare scenario isn’t
hypothetical: it happened both in 2008 and, incredibly, again in 2011. And the sadomonetarists at the BIS and elsewhere continue to have much more influence in Europe than in the United States.
The thing is, I don’t
believe that current management at the ECB is that different in its
understanding of what policy should be doing from leadership at the Fed.
But it has to struggle against an economy that is weaker in its
underlying fundamentals, bad history, and a much more powerful
contingent of monetary hawks.
It really is quite scary."
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