1 IMF cuts US growth forecast for 2014 (BBC) The
International Monetary Fund has slashed
its US growth forecast, urged policy makers to keep interest rates low and
raise the minimum wage to strengthen its recovery. The crisis lender said it
expects 2% growth this year, down from its April forecast of 2.8%, after a
"harsh winter" led to a weak first quarter.
However it expects 3% growth in 2015. It also said the US
should increase its minimum wage to help address its 15% poverty rate.
World economics correspondent Andrew Walker, writes: The
recovery from the great recession is a lot more advanced in the US than in many
other developed economies. Even so, the IMF sees some important weaknesses. It
calls for a catalogue of measures to boost what it calls the modest prospects
for productivity growth.
Job growth, it says has been healthy, but the labour market
is weaker than is suggested by the headline numbers for people out of work.
Long-term unemployment is high and many people are not even seeking work, which
means they don't register in the official jobless numbers. Wages are stagnant
and poverty is stuck at more than 15%. Seven years on from the onset of the
financial crisis, the scars on the wider US economy - never mind some European
countries - have still not really healed.
2 Democracy in decline in Eurasia (Sean Anderson in The
Guardian) Eastern Europe has suffered a sharp democratic decline in the last
year, according to a new report by Freedom House. Since 1995, the US-based
non-governmental organisation has been producing Nations in Transit report
series has monitored democratic development from central Europe to central
Asia, focusing on countries that are undergoing significant reform or turmoil.
Covering 29 countries, this year’s report provides
comparative ratings and in-depth analysis of local and national democratic
governance in the post-communist world. The report opens with this assertion:
Throughout 2013, governments across the former Soviet space worked to shut off
the remaining oxygen supply to their democratic institutions.
As in every year for the past 10 years the average democracy
score for the region declined in 2013, with 16 countries suffering downgrades,
five improving, and eight not registering an overall score change.
3 Amazon may launch smartphone (Wendy Lee in San Francisco
Chronicle) Amazon is expected to unveil a new smartphone on Wednesday,
according to the New York Times. The new product may compete against smartphone
manufacturers like Apple and Samsung. The decision comes at a time when more
consumers are consolidating their devices and Amazon may see that as a threat
to the Kindle, said Rebecca Lieb, an industry analyst.
But the New York Times points out that other tech companies
have struggled to compete in this space. From the story: A Google smartphone,
the Nexus One, failed to catch on. Google next bought Motorola and then dumped
it. BlackBerry, once the dominant smartphone maker, is struggling to survive.
Microsoft’s Windows Phone has less than 3 percent of the global market. A
Facebook phone stumbled last year.
Lieb said Amazon can compete in areas like price, service
and user experience. Forbes reports that Amazon’s smart phone could increase
its sales by $3 billion. Amazon did not immediately return a call for comment.
4 Where are our girls? (Khaleej Times) It is often said that
a story lives for a day. So seems to be the case with abducted Nigerian girls
who are unaccounted for to this day. The
extremist organisation Boko Haram, which claims to hold those 248 plus girls in
captivity, is at large, and no amount of international pressure and aerial
surveillance had been able to secure the release of those poor souls. The
apathy is that early this month, Boko Haram claimed that it had kidnapped more
girl students from the nearby villages, thus embarrassing the government of
President Jonathan Goodluck, which had not been able to do enough in bringing
them back home.
It is no less than a mystery that the manhunt launched by
several countries, including the US, along with their state-of-art gadgets had
yielded no positive results. Whereas, the reclusive organisation claims that
they are very much on the Nigerian soil, and not been moved to any neighbouring
marshlands. It is feared that some of the girls may never be able to return
home as their life and security had been compromised due to the delayed
response of the authorities in going after the culprits.
And now the deal that Jonathan’s administration is cobbling
with the militants seems to be too little, too late. The media, nonetheless,
shouldn’t lose sight of the story and never let the girls end up in oblivion.
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