1 Eurozone inflation near five-year low (BBC) he
eurozone inflation rate has fallen to 0.3% in August, near a five-year low,
adding to fears of a deflationary spiral, according to Eurostat figures. That
compares with a rate of 0.4% in July. The drop, driven by lower food and energy
prices, will add to pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to take action
to stimulate the economy.
Separate figures showed the unemployment rate
remained near a record high at 11.5% in July. Most analysts are not expecting
any action yet, but speculation is growing that in the coming months it may
inject money into the system, a practice called quantitative easing, in the
hope of stimulating growth and pushing up prices.
Mario Draghi, head of the ECB, has previously
described inflation at below 1% to be in a "danger zone".
"There
is plenty of ammunition here... to argue for more policy support," wrote
Jennifer McKeown from Capital Economics in a research note. "While the
Bank is unlikely to act at its meeting next week, it is likely to hint that
quantitative easing is firmly on the table," she added.
2 The mystery of Britain’s falling crime rate (Ian
Cobain in The Guardian) According to the official statistics, crime is falling
across Britain. It has been falling steadily for almost 20 years, despite the
occasional spike in the statistics for some forms of crime. And over the past
12 months, the sharpest fall – 19% – has been recorded in Northampton.
But it is not just the people of Northampton who are
perplexed by crime trends. Surveys have shown that while most people in England
and Wales believe lawlessness to be falling in the area where they live, the
overwhelming majority believe it to be rising nationally, when it has actually
fallen to its lowest level in decades. The Office for National Statistics (ONS)
believes this may be explained by the way some crimes are reported in the
media.
The experts are just as baffled as the public: like
the economists who failed to foresee the global financial crisis,
criminologists were taken by surprise by what happened during the years of
recession that followed the crash. Public spending was cut, unemployment rose,
incomes were squeezed, families resorted to food banks. And yet, against all
expectations, the number of recorded offences fell.
This phenomenon is not unique to Britain: crime has
been falling steadily across much of the western world. But while most senior
police officers, social scientists and Home Office officials accept that crime
is falling across Britain, they rarely agree on the cause. Some highly
respected criminologists believe so-called acquisitive crime must have risen
during the recession, and argue that the surveys are asking the wrong
questions: that new forms of crime – often perpetrated online – are not being
acknowledged.
3 Being fair to grads and non-grads (Straits Times) The
promise made by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day
Rally speech earlier this month, that the public service could and would do
more to support the aspirations of non-graduates, is taking shape. The Public
Service Division (PSD) has announced that management support officers - most
non-graduates in the civil service are hired under the management support
scheme - who perform well and are able to take on larger responsibilities could
expect faster career progression.
This is not only equitable but reflects also the
need to give better career opportunities to a segment of the population that
does not possess a degree but is equipped with the right aptitude, skills and
attitude to contribute to an efficient and motivated civil service. It is the
end product that matters.
So long as high standards are maintained, the
educational starting points of civil servants should count less than the
contributions that they make at work. This consideration enjoys particular
weight in the case of teachers, whose academic proficiency, whether they are
graduates or not, must be complemented by a genuine desire to nurture the next
generation. That non-graduate teachers who perform well can now be placed on the
graduate salary scale recognises their role in a profession that is second to
none in moulding the future.
Graduates will have to justify the higher
expectations that society generally has of them; non-graduates will be spurred
into proving that they deserve no less. In the process, the best performers in
either group will shine, and be rewarded correspondingly. The sense of a gulf
between the two groups should narrow.
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