1 Major job loss, recession warning for UK (Sean
Farrell in The Guardian) The Bank of England needs to use a sledgehammer to
combat a severe economic downturn caused by the vote to leave the EU, one of
Britain’s most respected thinktanks has warned.
In a grim assessment of the UK economy after the
vote for Brexit, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)
said 320,000 jobs would be lost by the third quarter of next year and warned
that the economy had a 50% chance of slipping into recession in the next 18
months.
Inflation would increase to more than 3% for the
first time in five years in late 2017 as the weak pound pushes up the price of
imports and the government would be forced to borrow an extra £47bn in the next
four years, NIESR said.
According to the thinktank, economic growth would
slow to 0.2% in the current quarter from 0.6% in the previous three months and
stagnate for the rest of the year. Growth is forecast at 1% for all of next
year but conditions could worsen, it said. Its report followed a series of dire
business surveys including one showing the economy shrinking at its fastest
pace since 2009.
NIESR said the slowdown was caused by reduced
business investment after Brexit, which threatened to disrupt companies’ most
important trading relationships. Rising unemployment, muted wage growth and
uncertainty would also hit consumer spending, it added.
With the Bank set to announce its response to Brexit-induced
economic uncertainty on Thursday, NIESR called on the monetary policy committee
to act decisively by cutting interest rates and resuming its bond-buying
programme, known as quantitative easing.
Cutting rates from 0.5% to a new record low of 0.1%,
starting with a quarter point cut on Thursday, and buying another £200bn of
government bonds could offset most of the effects of Brexit, NIESR said. The
government may also need to step in with tax cuts or spending increases to
support the economy, it added.
2 Stimulus fails to lift Japan (BBC) Japanese shares
traded lower on Wednesday continuing a global sell-off on US and European stock
markets. In Japan, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was down by 1.4% to 16,151.47 points.
Investor mood failed to be lifted by Tuesday's large
stimulus package as economists doubt it will have much of an impact on the
country's sluggish economy. Wall Street markets fell on Tuesday with indexes
registering some of their biggest losses in a month. South Korea's benchmark
Kospi dropped 1% to 1,998.94.
3 ‘Millennials have less sex’ (Johannesburg Times) Young
people today are not having as much sex as previous generations, despite the
widespread availability of dating sites and apps and more accepting attitudes
about premarital sex, researchers have said.
The study focused on millennials, the generation of
people born in the 1990s, and found they were the most sexually inactive group
since the Depression era. "The only other generation that showed a higher
rate of sexual inactivity were those born in the 1920s," said the study by
researchers at Florida Atlantic University.
The report found that among Americans aged 20 to 24,
those born in the early 1990s were significantly more likely to report no
sexual partners after age 18 than Gen X'ers born in the late 1960s.
"This study really contradicts the widespread
notion that millennials are the 'hookup' generation, which is popularised by
dating apps like 'Tinder' and others, suggesting that they are just looking for
quick relationships and frequent casual sex," said co-author Ryne Sherman,
associate professor of psychology in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at
Florida Atlantic University.
Young women today are about twice as likely as men
to be sexually inactive, it found. The study also showed that fewer young
people get a driver's license or work for pay, suggesting they "are
growing up more slowly than those born in the 1980s." Somehow, knowing
more about sex and being able to see it on video has not translated into more
actual sex for young people today.
No comments:
Post a Comment