1 OECD sees growing unemployment (The New York Times) The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, whose members include all large industrialized countries, issued its annual employment outlook report this week, forecasting rising unemployment in many countries. An accompanying chart shows the forecasts for unemployment rates in all 34 countries that belong to the organization. The figures for each year are the average of the monthly numbers, so the forecast of 8.1% in 2012 for the US implies that the rate will fall below 8% by late 2012. The average for 2013 is predicted to be 7.6%, 1.3 percentage points below the 2011 rate.
In most countries, the organization expects that rates in 2013 will be higher than they were in 2011. Only in Estonia and Iceland are rates expected to have fallen faster than in the US. "You may think you’ve got it bad in the US," said Mark Keese, the head of the OECD’s employment division, "but they are a lot worse in Europe." Of the 15 OECD members that use the euro, only Germany and Estonia are expected to have a decline in unemployment.
2 Slowdown hits Chinese workers (San Francisco Chronicle) From shopkeepers to shipbuilders, some sectors are feeling more pain from China's deepest slowdown since the 2008 global crisis than still-robust headline growth of about 8% might suggest. Higher spending by state industry and government-directed investment is pumping up the world's second-largest economy, but that is masking the fact that the private sector is cutting jobs and scrambling to prop up plunging sales.
Revenues for companies in construction, shipbuilding and export manufacturing are down by up to half compared with a year ago. The slowdown is a setback for economies around the world that were looking to China to drive demand for exports and support global growth. Job losses could fuel political tensions, eroding economic gains that underpin the Communist Party's claim to power. Though China's growth even now is higher than those of developed economies, many industries depend on a much faster expansion to propel demand for new factories, cargo ships and other goods.
3 JP Morgan's trading loss at $5.8bn (The Guardian) The London trading debacle that JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon once dismissed as a "tempest in a teapot" has so far cost the bank $5.8bn, almost three times initial estimates, the bank said as it released second quarter results that included a $4.4bn loss on the massive European trades known as "the London whale". Dimon said the bank had clawed back two years of annual compensation from those involved in the trades. The bank also confirmed that the three traders at the heart of controversial trading had left.
The losses at JP Morgan's London offices have caused a political firestorm in the US and led to calls for tighter regulation of Wall Street banks. They come as the bank is also under investigation for its role in the alleged fixing of Libor interest rates. Finance chief Doug Braunstein put the trading loss at $5.8bn and confirmed that the bank believed it could lose between $800m and $1.7bn more as it tried to unwind the complex bets.
4 Lemurs slide towards extinction (BBC) A new survey shows lemurs are far more threatened than previously thought. A group of specialists is in Madagascar - the only place where lemurs are found in the wild - to systematically assess the animals and decide where they sit on the Red List of Threatened Species. More than 90% of the 103 species should be on the Red List, they say. Since a coup in 2009, conservation groups have repeatedly found evidence of illegal logging, and hunting of lemurs has emerged as a new threat.
5 In age of anxiety, are we all mentally ill? (Khaleej Times) There is an extraordinary trend in mental illness: an increase in the prevalence of reported anxiety disorders of more than 1,200% since 1980. In that year, 2-4% of Americans suffered from an anxiety disorder, according to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders, used by psychiatrists and others worldwide to diagnose mental illness. In 1994, a study asking a random sample of thousands of Americans about their mental health reported that 15% had ever suffered from anxiety disorders. A 2009 study of people interviewed about their anxiety repeatedly for years raised that estimate to 49.5% - which would be 117 million US adults.
Some psychiatrists say the increase in the prevalence of anxiety from about 4% to 50% is the result of psychiatrists and others "getting better at diagnosing anxiety," as Dr. Carolyn Robinowitz, a past president of the APA who is in private practice in Washington, DC, put it. "People who criticize that are showing their bias," she said. "When we get better at diagnosing hypertension, we don’t say that’s terrible." Critics, including other leading psychiatrists, disagree. They say the apparent explosion in anxiety shows there is something seriously and dangerously wrong with the DSM.
6 Tears are OK, says Federer (Khaleej Times) Last Sunday, when he walked away after being crowned 7-time Wimbledon champion, Roger Federer celebrated his victory but you could also sense his empathy for the Andy Murray, whose dreams of greatness he had brought down. Murray wept at the prize–giving ceremony but was brave and generous enough to say he had lost to the man who played better than he. Federer, who has suffered a number of rather humiliating and disappointing defeats in the last couple of years probably understood what Murray meant and, more importantly, how he felt.
The stakes were so high for both of them that it could easily have been him who had to cry, he said adding it is ok for grown up men to cry, "to show you are human, that your heart can be broken too". In that instant, Federer is sure to have garnered thousands of fans in men across the world who have been taught that tears are strictly for girls. The world number one has often shed his tears on both cherished wins and defeats in furiously fought matches said: "When you cry, you communicate with fans. I think they appreciate the fact that we care about winning and losing, we care about what they feel. So, it’s OK to break down, to let it all out."
Federer is also likely to have been moved to tears by the fact that the three special women in his life -- wife Mirka and twin daughters Charlene Riva and Myla Rose -- were at center court as he picked the most special trophy in his spectacular career.
7 India seen as nation of a billion bystanders (Preetika Rana & Diksha Sahni in The Wall Street Journal) Is India a nation of one billion-plus bystanders? Recent shocking incidents from Gurgaon to Kolkata to, this week, the molestation of a young woman in Guwahati, the capital of Assam, could easily lead you to that conclusion.
Of course, it can be a daunting prospect: It would take a lot of bravery to jump into a violent situation, with its potential to backfire on the intervener. Yet, people are brave, and often act irrationally and selflessly in an effort to protect others under attack. The "Bystander Effect" which came to be coined after the infamous Kitty Genovese murder case in the US has taken grip in many places in India: Individuals offer no help to a victim during an emergency. Why? "It is a reflection of the way we live. We do not care enough," claims AK Mathews who teaches humanities at Indian Institute of Management at Kozhikode. "Social change," says Mr. Mathews, "cannot come from Facebook."
He adds that the public needs to be made stakeholders in the justice system and, for that, there has to be trust in legal authorities, the upholders of law and in citizens at large. Our country is experiencing "a touch-and-feel revolution," says Ranjana Kumari, who heads non-profit Centre for Social Research. Outraged texts, compelling Facebook status updates, angry tweets, but what then, she asks.
In most countries, the organization expects that rates in 2013 will be higher than they were in 2011. Only in Estonia and Iceland are rates expected to have fallen faster than in the US. "You may think you’ve got it bad in the US," said Mark Keese, the head of the OECD’s employment division, "but they are a lot worse in Europe." Of the 15 OECD members that use the euro, only Germany and Estonia are expected to have a decline in unemployment.
2 Slowdown hits Chinese workers (San Francisco Chronicle) From shopkeepers to shipbuilders, some sectors are feeling more pain from China's deepest slowdown since the 2008 global crisis than still-robust headline growth of about 8% might suggest. Higher spending by state industry and government-directed investment is pumping up the world's second-largest economy, but that is masking the fact that the private sector is cutting jobs and scrambling to prop up plunging sales.
Revenues for companies in construction, shipbuilding and export manufacturing are down by up to half compared with a year ago. The slowdown is a setback for economies around the world that were looking to China to drive demand for exports and support global growth. Job losses could fuel political tensions, eroding economic gains that underpin the Communist Party's claim to power. Though China's growth even now is higher than those of developed economies, many industries depend on a much faster expansion to propel demand for new factories, cargo ships and other goods.
3 JP Morgan's trading loss at $5.8bn (The Guardian) The London trading debacle that JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon once dismissed as a "tempest in a teapot" has so far cost the bank $5.8bn, almost three times initial estimates, the bank said as it released second quarter results that included a $4.4bn loss on the massive European trades known as "the London whale". Dimon said the bank had clawed back two years of annual compensation from those involved in the trades. The bank also confirmed that the three traders at the heart of controversial trading had left.
The losses at JP Morgan's London offices have caused a political firestorm in the US and led to calls for tighter regulation of Wall Street banks. They come as the bank is also under investigation for its role in the alleged fixing of Libor interest rates. Finance chief Doug Braunstein put the trading loss at $5.8bn and confirmed that the bank believed it could lose between $800m and $1.7bn more as it tried to unwind the complex bets.
4 Lemurs slide towards extinction (BBC) A new survey shows lemurs are far more threatened than previously thought. A group of specialists is in Madagascar - the only place where lemurs are found in the wild - to systematically assess the animals and decide where they sit on the Red List of Threatened Species. More than 90% of the 103 species should be on the Red List, they say. Since a coup in 2009, conservation groups have repeatedly found evidence of illegal logging, and hunting of lemurs has emerged as a new threat.
5 In age of anxiety, are we all mentally ill? (Khaleej Times) There is an extraordinary trend in mental illness: an increase in the prevalence of reported anxiety disorders of more than 1,200% since 1980. In that year, 2-4% of Americans suffered from an anxiety disorder, according to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders, used by psychiatrists and others worldwide to diagnose mental illness. In 1994, a study asking a random sample of thousands of Americans about their mental health reported that 15% had ever suffered from anxiety disorders. A 2009 study of people interviewed about their anxiety repeatedly for years raised that estimate to 49.5% - which would be 117 million US adults.
Some psychiatrists say the increase in the prevalence of anxiety from about 4% to 50% is the result of psychiatrists and others "getting better at diagnosing anxiety," as Dr. Carolyn Robinowitz, a past president of the APA who is in private practice in Washington, DC, put it. "People who criticize that are showing their bias," she said. "When we get better at diagnosing hypertension, we don’t say that’s terrible." Critics, including other leading psychiatrists, disagree. They say the apparent explosion in anxiety shows there is something seriously and dangerously wrong with the DSM.
6 Tears are OK, says Federer (Khaleej Times) Last Sunday, when he walked away after being crowned 7-time Wimbledon champion, Roger Federer celebrated his victory but you could also sense his empathy for the Andy Murray, whose dreams of greatness he had brought down. Murray wept at the prize–giving ceremony but was brave and generous enough to say he had lost to the man who played better than he. Federer, who has suffered a number of rather humiliating and disappointing defeats in the last couple of years probably understood what Murray meant and, more importantly, how he felt.
The stakes were so high for both of them that it could easily have been him who had to cry, he said adding it is ok for grown up men to cry, "to show you are human, that your heart can be broken too". In that instant, Federer is sure to have garnered thousands of fans in men across the world who have been taught that tears are strictly for girls. The world number one has often shed his tears on both cherished wins and defeats in furiously fought matches said: "When you cry, you communicate with fans. I think they appreciate the fact that we care about winning and losing, we care about what they feel. So, it’s OK to break down, to let it all out."
Federer is also likely to have been moved to tears by the fact that the three special women in his life -- wife Mirka and twin daughters Charlene Riva and Myla Rose -- were at center court as he picked the most special trophy in his spectacular career.
7 India seen as nation of a billion bystanders (Preetika Rana & Diksha Sahni in The Wall Street Journal) Is India a nation of one billion-plus bystanders? Recent shocking incidents from Gurgaon to Kolkata to, this week, the molestation of a young woman in Guwahati, the capital of Assam, could easily lead you to that conclusion.
Of course, it can be a daunting prospect: It would take a lot of bravery to jump into a violent situation, with its potential to backfire on the intervener. Yet, people are brave, and often act irrationally and selflessly in an effort to protect others under attack. The "Bystander Effect" which came to be coined after the infamous Kitty Genovese murder case in the US has taken grip in many places in India: Individuals offer no help to a victim during an emergency. Why? "It is a reflection of the way we live. We do not care enough," claims AK Mathews who teaches humanities at Indian Institute of Management at Kozhikode. "Social change," says Mr. Mathews, "cannot come from Facebook."
He adds that the public needs to be made stakeholders in the justice system and, for that, there has to be trust in legal authorities, the upholders of law and in citizens at large. Our country is experiencing "a touch-and-feel revolution," says Ranjana Kumari, who heads non-profit Centre for Social Research. Outraged texts, compelling Facebook status updates, angry tweets, but what then, she asks.
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