Wednesday, June 25, 2014

US economy shrinks 2.9% in Q1; World is now a safer place with less wars; Google's low-cost smartphone for emerging markets

1 US economy shrinks 2.9% in Q1 (BBC) The US economy suffered its worst performance for five years in the first quarter of 2014, latest figures show. The economy shrank at an annualised rate of 2.9% in the first three months of the year, the third estimate from the US Commerce Department showed. This was worse than the previous estimate of a 1% contraction, and also worse than economists' expectations.

However, the economy is expected to have recorded a sharp recovery during the second quarter of the year. The unusually cold weather in the first quarter of the year has been blamed for the poor performance of the economy.

BBC’s Michelle Fleury says, “On the surface, the latest US GDP number is unnerving. The first three months of this year were far weaker than expected. Many Americans may feel as if the recovery has taken one step forward and two steps back. But plenty of economists argue that the glass is in fact half full. The most recent data shows consumers are feeling better as job opportunities improve and business orders are picking up. If the optimists turn out to be right, the world's largest economy should show a return to growth in the second quarter.”


2 Well, there has never been less war (Jonathan Power in Khaleej Times) War is all over the place. It seems. Not just Syria and Iraq but now inside Pakistan. Not to mention Somalia and Sudan. Yet paradoxically there has never been less war.

Sweden’s Uppsala University Conflict Data programme is about to publish its results for 2013. It reports that the number of conflicts in the world increased by one between 2012 and 2013- pace all the press and TV coverage which sometimes gives the impression that half the world is going up in smoke. There were 15 conflicts of this size in the early 1990s. Today there are only seven.

The number of democratic countries was 69 at the end of the Cold War. Today there are around 120. The number of autocracies has declined in that time from 62 to 48. The chances of terrorists getting their hands on nuclear weapons are minimal. At the end of the Cold War many of the Soviet storage sites were poorly guarded. Thanks to US on-site advice that is no longer true.

The economic and social front is good too. All over the world life expectancy is climbing steadily. Child mortality has plunged. The rates of polio and malaria are falling steadily. Likewise crime in most countries is markedly down. In 1981 half the people in the developing world survived on less than $1.25 a day. Today it is down to one-sixth.

The populace is extremely badly informed on the world’s true picture. As Zbigniew Brzezinski told me this ignorance is a real problem. Instead attention and resources should be concentrated on malaria eradication, providing safe water and sewerage, health services and education to all, controlling pandemic diseases, ending the trafficking of women children and transnational criminal networks and fighting climate change. Good times should breed better times. Bad and narrow-minded people see only the worst.


3 Google’s low-cost smartphone for emerging markets (Straits Times) Google has announced it is working on a low-cost smartphone aimed at emerging markets as part of an initiative called Android One. The Android-powered handset will be built with a basic set of features including FM radio, have a screen slightly smaller than five inches and be priced at less than $100, Google senior vice-president Sundar Pichai said.

“We are going to be launching it around the world, but will launch in India first in the fall of this year,” Mr Pichai said. He added that Google was working with carriers in India to provide affordable telecom service packages to go with the smartphones, which could in many cases provide Internet access for the first time.


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