1 Greeks to suffer for five years (The Guardian) Greeks will suffer austerity measures for another five years as the price of their government securing a €130bn bailout to prevent national bankruptcy and chaos within the eurozone, it has emerged. The scale of the wage and spending cuts required to implement the rescue package prompted an array of analysts to raise the spectre of yet another Greek debt crisis later this year and the country's exit from the euro as recession deepens. But Olli Rehn, the EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner, said Greece had lived beyond its means for a decade and savage cuts in labour costs were vital to restore competitiveness and growth. José Manuel Barroso, the European commission president, said the deal "closes the door on an uncontrolled default, with all its economic and social implications that would mean chaos for Greece and the Greek people." The deal helped push the Dow Jones index in New York over 13,000 for the first time in almost four years.
2 Capitalism going bankrupt? (Al Jazeera) The world is a largely capitalistic economy - one that even communist China is embracing. But with a worldwide financial crisis, towering government debt and the public outrage of the 99 per cent, perhaps the free market is not free enough. The world's largest economy, the US, has a $15.2tn debt. According to Tea Partiers, that is because government spending and central bank meddling has distorted the market. Occupy campaigners, however, argue that capitalism brings excessive wealth to the few. To even the most fiscally unlearned, the disparity is obvious.
The Economic Policy Institute has found that 1% of US households control 42.7% of the country's assets. And with wealth, comes influence - 24.3% of all political donations in the 2010 election cycle were made by 0.01% of Americans. Sadly, the developing world gets left behind as well. According to the United Nations Children's Fund, the richest 20% of the world’s population control 82.8% of its income, while the poorest 20% control just 1%. Capitalism is often celebrated as the panacea for the world's financial problems but the focus now is on how the system is open to abuse, corruption and how it could benefit from taking a page out of the experiences of emerging economies.
3 On India rail tracks, 15,000 perish each year (Dawn) Almost 15,000 people are killed every year crossing India’s rail tracks in what a government report has described as an annual “massacre” due to poor safety standards. Pedestrians guilty of “unlawful trespassing” walk across the tracks at many unofficial crossing points, and about 6,000 of the deaths occur in the congested and frenetic city of Mumbai alone.
“No civilized society can accept such massacre on their railway system”, the report said, adding that efforts to improve safety needed to be put on a “war footing” to tackle the death toll. The fatalities equate to 41 people a day across India on the rail network, which carries 18 million people daily and is still the main form of long-distance travel despite fierce competition from private airlines. In addition to accidents when crossing the tracks, other causes of deaths include train collisions, falling from open doors and being hit by trackside poles. Most stretches of rail track in India are unfenced, allowing people to attempt crossings at any point.
4 Business card survives despite tech (San Francisco Chronicle) A product of French ingenuity during the reign of Louis XIV, the humble business card should be among the dead and buried in this era of social media and cloud computing. Mo Koyfman, a principal at the venture fund Spark Capital, captured the prevailing mind-set of many forward thinkers when he recently declared, "I despise business cards. Using them feels so horse-and-carriage."
"Business cards were originally invented for reasons of legitimacy," said Nathan Shedroff, design strategist at California College of the Arts. "But since the 1980s, when you could custom-print 50 fake cards and pass yourself off as anyone, a resume has become more trustworthy. (This is) the area in which LinkedIn is king." LinkedIn acquired CardMunch in January 2011, an app designed to scan and store the information on a business card, creating digital contact details.
Some analysts believe the business card has a secret lo-fi strength that even the most Asimov-esque flight of fantasy cannot replace: "The act of theater surrounding the exchange of a business card allows for flirtation, self-expression and recognition," said Shedroff. "Bumping may be fun, but in comparison to analog business card exchange, it's the difference between having sex and merely exchanging bodily fluids."
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