1 As Spain slumps, Eurozone woes grow (Phillip Inman
in The Guardian) Hopes for a recovery in the eurozone have suffered another
blow with figures showing industrial output fell for a second successive month.
Production declined across the 18 eurozone members by an average 0.3%, with a
return to growth in France and Italy offset by falls in Ireland and the
Netherlands and slow progress in Germany, which struggled to 0.2% growth.
Spain was the worst hit of the currency bloc's major
economies with a 0.8% drop in industrial production. It also suffered the
sharpest drop in shop prices for five years, undermining Madrid's claim that a
rebound in employment last month was a clear indication of the country's return
to sustained growth. Spanish consumers have proved reluctant to spend on the
high street while unemployment remains at around 25%, forcing shops to offer
bigger discounts in July than June.
Weakness across the manufacturing, energy and mining
sectors will pose a problem for Brussels and the European Central Bank (ECB),
ahead of second-quarter GDP figures on Thursday. The €9.6tn economy is
struggling to gain momentum with its recovery a year after exiting recession.
High unemployment, sluggish reforms and the fallout from conflict in Ukraine,
Gaza and Iraq are holding it back.
2 Global oil prices at nine-month low (BBC) Global
oil prices have fallen to their lowest level in nine months, despite fears that
conflicts in Ukraine and Iraq would inflate prices. Brent crude oil has fallen
to $103.70 a barrel, its lowest rate since November 2013. In July, oil hit its
highest level in nine months, valued at $115.71 per barrel. Violence in Iraq
was cited as the reason for the rise.
The current dip in price has led to an increase in
demand from wealthy states. Iraq has scheduled to export about 2.4 million
barrels per day of Basra Light crude in September, up from 2.2 million in the
previous month. In a report on Tuesday, the International Energy Agency (IEA)
said: "Oil prices seem almost eerily calm in the face of mounting
geopolitical risks spanning an unusually large swathe of the oil-producing
world."
The agency said that while tensions in Iraq and
fighting in Ukraine continued, other oil resources were available, such as
those of the US, Libya and Saudi Arabia. According to the IEA: "The
Atlantic market is currently so well supplied that incremental Libyan barrels
are reportedly having a hard time finding buyers."
3 Power of the executive assistant (Thomas Lee in
San Francisco Chronicle) If you define power as simply who makes the most
money, then the most powerful person at a corporation or startup is the CEO or
founder. But if you define power as access and influence, then executive
assistants are downright formidable. People might dismiss executive assistants
as glorified gofers. But these employees are often well-educated individuals
with a broad range of responsibilities like event planning, scheduling,
research and IT support.
"When I was looking for an assistant, what
people didn't understand is what I was not looking for was a senior secretary,
I was looking for a true business partner," Cisco Systems CEO John
Chambers once said, "someone who makes it a point to know the business,
what my priorities are, and who could represent me, as well as the
organization, in the absolute best professional light."
As it turns out, the San Francisco and San Jose
metropolitan areas boast some of the country's highest concentration of
executive assistants. Nearly 11 jobs per 1,000 in San Francisco are executive
assistants, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For San Jose, the
number is 8.36 per 1,000.
Executive assistants in these areas are also among
the best paid, with employees in San Francisco earning an annual mean salary of
$68,850. Women, by far, dominate this profession. About 95 percent of the
nation's 4.1 million executive and personal assistants are female, according to
the Executive Assistants Organization. In
these jobs, women have the numbers, access to leadership and in many cases
influence.
4 Spare me the atrocity porn (Dan Hodges in
Johannesburg Times/The Telegraph) Social media has a new craze. Atrocity porn. "Craze"
probably isn't the right word. It carries connotations of pleasure. In
fairness, most of those taking to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to post graphic
images of the recent bout of barbarity taking place around the globe find
little pleasure in what they are circulating.
I am not talking about the jihadists who post
footage of their own atrocities to galvanise their warped fellow travellers. I
am talking about the campaigners, protesters and ordinary observers who have,
over the last couple of months, started sending out these images to unsuspecting
friends and followers.
If you are one of the people who has taken to
distributing these images, (images that appear entirely unfiltered), I have
news for you. You are not informing people. Or shocking them into action. You
are sickening them. And engaging in a practice that, however well-meaning, is
dehumanising. For you.
Of course, there are some people who genuinely are
seeking to engage. And persuade. "I'm sorry. I really am," they say,
"But if we don't circulate these images, then people will simply walk on
by." Okay. But you have to understand this. People will walk by, not
because they are shocked by the image, but because they are shocked by the person
sending them.
Allow me a moment of self-indulgence. I earn my
living through words. Words can matter. Words do have the power to move. The
point I'm making is this: if you want to persuade me of your cause, persuade
me. But do not try to shame me, or shock me, or bully me onto your side. If you
do try to persuade me, do it with your arguments. Do not do it with the broken,
lifeless body of someone else's child.
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