1 IMF sees an ‘investment deficit’ (The Guardian) Global
economic activity should strengthen in the second half of the year and
accelerate in 2015, although momentum could be weaker than expected, Christine
Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, has said hinting at a slight
cut in the fund's growth forecasts.
Lagarde said central banks' accommodative policies
may have only a limited impact on demand and that countries should boost growth
by investing in infrastructure, education and health, provided their debt stays
sustainable. The IMF's update of its global economic outlook, expected later
this month, will be "very slightly different" from the forecasts
published in April, she said.In April, the IMF had predicted that global output
would grow by 3.6% in 2014 and 3.9% in 2015.
"Global activity is picking up but the momentum
could be less strong than we had expected because potential growth is weaker
and investment ... remains subdued," she said. Lagarde made a plea for
more public investment, saying that the "investment deficit" in both
the public and private sectors was dragging down growth in most countries. "Despite
the many responses to the crisis ... recovery is modest, laborious, fragile,
and measures to boost demand, despite the goodwill of central banks, will find
their limits," she said.
2 Why Australia should not imitate the US (Joseph
Stiglitz in Sydney Morning Herald) There are several areas where Australia should
be particularly cautious about imitating the US model. One of the reasons that
the US has gone to the bottom of the league tables in economic opportunity is
our education system, and especially the way higher education is financed. It
is one of the reasons that only about 8 per cent of those in the bottom half
get a college education. Australia’s income contingent loan program, HECS, is
the envy of the rest of the world. It works.
The best US universities are superb - the best in
the world - but they are all either state financed or non-profits, supported by
generous philanthropy. They compete vigorously in quality - but it is not
conventional market competition, where price plays a pivotal role. The
under-regulated for-profit universities excel - in exploiting children from
poor families and in lobbying to make sure that they can continue to do so.
Another area in which Australia leads, and America
fails, is health. The American mostly private health care system is probably
the least efficient in the world - spending twice the percentage of GDP of
Australia, with much poorer results, exemplified by a life expectancy that’s
three years shorter. The country is perhaps the only in the advanced world not
to recognise the right to access to healthcare, with the result that
inequalities in health outcomes are enormous.
A third area where America trails is basic welfare
support and systems of social protection. With almost one out of four children
living in poverty, and with deficient public support, the prospects for their
future are not rosy. The combination of unequal education opportunities and
access to healthcare and inadequate systems of social protection translates
into poor average performance of our children, in contrast to Australia, whose
children perform well above average.
Two big lessons of economic research over the past
10 years are that inequality is not the result of inexorable laws of economics
but rather of policy; and that countries that adopt policies that lead to high
inequality pay a high price - inequality not only leads to a divided society
and undermines democracy, but it weakens economic performance. Hopefully, as
Australia debates its new government’s budget and economic “reforms,” it bears
this in mind.
3 Euthanasia issue divides France (Zafar Masud in
Dawn) A French judicial ruling has ignited a fierce controversy all over the
country on the question of euthanasia in extreme cases when there remains no
hope of a patient’s recovery.
France today is split in two halves over the issue
which comes at the same time as the trial of Dr Nicolas Bonnemaison who was
accused of hastening the deaths of no fewer than seven patients connected on life-support
systems. The main charge against Bonnemaison, an emergency room physician in
the Bayonne hospital, was “poisoning particularly vulnerable people”. Five
women and two men had died between March 2010 and July 2011 soon after being
admitted to the hospital and then left in Bonnemaison’s care.
Dr Bonnemaison faced life imprisonment when his
trial began in the middle of last month in the southern French city of Pau.
During the hearings there were emotional and often poignant speeches appealing
to the audience’s sense of compassion and comprehension. Some also laid
emphasis on the solitary role of the doctors while taking major decisions and
on the dangers of their profession. There were vivid descriptions too of the
patients’ agony.
As France today remains in the middle of a heated
debate, there are frequent demonstrations, for or against euthanasia, in all
the major cities. Not untypically, the dispute is also assuming somewhat
philosophical proportions in the media. An editorial in the daily Le Figaro
raises interesting questions in this regard:
“What is life and what is its worth? Is it simply
the capacity to eat, to talk and to feel? At what stage does it become useless
to go on living? Human history has reached a point where people no longer look
for answers to these essential queries in reflection, in great philosophers’
writings or in sacred texts but in legal codes and court decisions. There
certainly is something bone-chilling in all this!”
4 How skinny legs support 1,000-kg giraffes (Khaleej
Times) Ever wondered how a giraffe’s thin legs support its massive 1,000 kg
weight? Credit it to a special ligament, new research says.
“Giraffes are heavy animals (about 1,000 kg), but
have unusually skinny limb bones for an animal of this size,” explains lead
investigator Christopher Basu, a PhD student at the Royal Veterinary College in
London. “This means their leg bones are under high levels of mechanical
stress,” Basu adds.
In giraffes, the equivalents to our metatarsal bone
(in the foot) and metacarpal bone (in the hand) are extremely elongated,
accounting for roughly half the leg length. A distinct groove runs along the
length of these bones, housing a structure called the suspensory ligament. This structure is found in other large
animals, such as horses (which are well known for their ability to sleep whilst
standing) but this is the first time that it has been studied in giraffes.
Ligaments are elastic tissue, and can only offer
passive support. This means that giraffes can support their weight without
engaging as much muscle, and do not get tired as soon. This information will
help to explain how giraffes evolved from small, antelope-like species to the
long-necked animals we know today, Basu says.
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