Global slowdown is in the air; Quantitative easing isn't magic; Books in times of war; Is teleworking driving us crazy?

1 Global slowdown in the air (The Guardian) The prospect of a synchronised recession across the global economy looms larger after news that China's factory output shrank for an 11th straight month, Europe's recession intensified and the manufacturing sector in the US had its weakest quarter in three years. Four years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered the biggest slump since the 1930s, a range of gloomy data highlighted the struggle of policymakers to boost activity.

Analysts said Europe's sovereign debt crisis, high commodity prices, the legacy of the financial collapse and tension between the world's three biggest economies had soured the economic environment since the start of 2012.

Japan, involved in a territorial row with China over disputed islands, reported a drop in exports for a fourth month, leaving the country on course in 2012 to run a trade deficit for a second year. Meanwhile, a flash estimate of US industry in the third quarter from Markit showed that output has barely been rising over the summer.

"Manufacturing isn't looking good," said David Sloan, economist at 4Cast in New York. "The global situation is a restraint on the US economy. "Certainly, there is not going to be much growth in Europe. Growth in Asia, and China in particular, is slowing down, so US growth is going to have to be domestically generated."

Analysts were particularly worried about the big fall recorded in France, seeing it as confirmation that even Europe's biggest economies were not immune from the knock-on effects of the debt crisis. Although Germany put in a stronger than expected performance, financial markets are braced for official growth figures to show that the eurozone contracted by 0.3-0.4% in the third quarter.

2 Quantitative easing isn’t magic (James K Galbraith in The Guardian) Quantitative easing, the third tranche of which was announced in the US last week (QE3), is just a fancy phrase for buying bonds, notably mortgage-backed-securities, in which operation the Federal Reserve takes assets from the banks and gives them cash. This raises the bond price and lowers the yield. It also tends to boost stock prices – very nice for people who own stock – and it can spur mortgage refinancing, improving the cashflow of solvent homeowners.

And the effect on the economy of all this is? Mostly indirect and quite small. People don't generally spend capital gains as windfalls. Saving on mortgage debt helps to support spending but some of it goes to paying down other debts. People who are already underwater on their mortgages can't refinance anyway, and are not affected. Yes, there is some effect. But powerful stimulus, this is not.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank is buying the dregs of the European bond market, propping up their price. The operation is similar to QE but the help for the economy is even less. Mario Draghi, the bank chief, aims to save the euro, not the eurozone; his conditions actually prevent beneficiaries from using the money they save; in fact, to get the aid they must spend less. So long as this goes on, unemployment, budget deficits and debt will get worse. It's no surprise that sensible countries refuse the deal for as long as they can.

What we need instead, today, is a candid review of what central banks cannot do. Yes, they can usually forestall panic. Yes, for better or worse they can keep zombie banks alive. No, they cannot bring on economic recovery or solve any of our deeper economic problems, from unemployment and foreclosures in America to unemployment and economic collapse in Greece and elsewhere. The sooner we stop thinking of central bankers as wizards and magicians, the better.

3 Books in times of war (Zubeida Mustafa in Dawn) A children’s literature festival in Quetta sounds like a contradiction in terms. Quetta is in Balochistan and one doesn’t have to be reminded that the province is in the grip of a violent insurgency. The festival amounts to making a political statement: children need peace. We knew that whatever the state of security, life has to go on. Yet one could not turn a blind eye to the tight security which in turn made one feel insecure. The event was not advertised and was reported in the media only after the show was over.

Death haunts the hills and valleys, the towns and villages. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan titled its recent report on Balochistan Hopes, Fears and Alienation which captures the emotions being generated by the crisis. How is this affecting the children? No one has time to really address the issue. The impact of violence on the child’s education, health and family life has not been documented sufficiently. And no one speaks of what violence does to a child’s mind.

Against this backdrop the proposal to hold the Children’s Literature Festival in Quetta was a courageous move and an act of humanism. It needs a woman to think of the children. On this occasion there were two women with a third prodding them on.  Ameena Saiyyid of the Oxford University Press and Baela Raza Jamil of Idara-i-Taleem-o-Agahi are the brains behind the idea of a children’s literature festival, the first of which was held in Lahore last November. Zobaida Jalal, a former education minister, now an MNA and the founder of the Female Education Trust, suggested Quetta as the venue and mobilised local support.

4 Is teleworking driving us crazy? (BBC) As the boundaries between work and family life become increasingly blurred in the "always-on" era of digital communications, what psychological pressure does this put on us and our relationships with partners and families? A study by the US not-for-profit organisation WorldatWork indicated the number of people working from home or another remote location for an entire day at least once a month fell from 33.7 million in 2008 to 26.2 million in 2010. When the job market is tough, it seems workers fear out of sight really does mean out of mind. The issue particularly affects younger, less established workers.

In a major study into the wellbeing of mobile workers conducted for iPass, a network provider, Dr Carolyn Axtell, senior lecturer at Sheffield University's Institute of Work Psychology and Management, found more than a quarter of respondents said they worked 15 to 20 hours extra a week, largely because technology enabled them to do so, a trend "likely to have significant repercussions for work-life balance and employee well-being".

A third of these workaholics said they had logged on even while on holiday and that this was expected of them by managers and colleagues, leading to greater stress and poorer quality sleep. In turn, this was having a negative impact on family relationships.