Brics insist they are still strong; Crime in England & Wales lowest in 32 years; When bosses turn busy, busy, busy

1 Brics insist they are still strong (Johannesburg Times) Ministers from the Brics economies have defended their growth prospects despite waves of turbulence caused by the tightening of monetary stimulus in the US and concerns about a potential cash crunch in China. "I still believe that the Brics will continue to lead the global economy," said Guido Mantega, the Brazilian finance minister, while discussing the state of the world's emerging powerhouses at the Davos World Economic Forum.

Brics is the acronym used to group the emerging players Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Their economies were thrown into disarray last May when the US Federal Reserve warned it may turn off the taps of easy money that had shifted foreign investment to the developing world in search for better returns. South Africa's Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said that though "there are going to be some shifts" due to tapering, hopefully those shifts were not going to be shocks.

Rather than a change in monetary policy, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said the eurozone, Russia's biggest trading partner, remained the big problem as it continued to grow far too slowly. "If Europe is almost in recession and China is slowing down a little bit, it's natural we will slow down a little bit," he said. Liu Mingkang, a former Chinese central bank deputy governor, said a slowdown in China and fears of financial shocks there should not be underestimated.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/2014/01/23/brics-insist-economies-still-strong-despite-turbulence

2 Crime in England, Wales lowest in 32 years (Alan Travis in The Guardian) Crime has fallen by an unexpected 10% over the past year. The authoritative Crime Survey of England and Wales estimates 8m offences were committed – the lowest level since it started 32 years ago. The fall in crime seen in the 12 months to September 2013 occurred across most types of offences, and includes a drop in the murder rate to 542 homicides recorded by the police – 11 fewer than the previous year. Overall, violent crime is down by 13%, according to the survey.

But the detailed police-recorded crime figures also show "signs of increasing upward pressure" in specific austerity-related crimes. These include a 4% rise in shoplifting, which is up by more than 11,000 to 313,693 offences. The police-recorded crime figures also show a 7% rise in "theft from the person", which includes pickpocketing, to 110,408 offences.

The Crime Survey estimates show that crime in England and Wales has now fallen by 58% since 1995, when it peaked at more than 18m offences. The decline in crime is the longest sustained fall since the second world war and has continued through the latest recession.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/23/crime-falls-lowest-level-32-years

3 When bosses turn busy, busy, busy (Emily Young on BBC) "I'm so busy!" It's a familiar refrain - and never more so than among chief executives and global leaders. In a session run by behavioural economists it soon became clear that time management is an obsession. The buzzword was "bandwidth" - as in "how much mental bandwidth do we have?" 

I'm translating that to "headspace" - as in "I just don't have enough headspace for all this!" The idea is that we understand that we need to rest our bodies and give them time to recover, but do we do the same with our minds? No, was the clear implication. One chief executive made the comparison to lorry drivers - we accept that you can't make them drive all day without break - why not accept that in other parts of the business?

"Time Management 2.0" is about allowing yourself the headspace, sorry bandwidth, to make good decisions. We are urged to "just say no" to unnecessary engagements. One executive talks about delegating all decisions that are not important to avoid cluttering your brain - for example, lunch. He tells us the story of a chief executive who always lets his secretary decide his lunch - so he doesn't waste time thinking about that and can focus purely on the really big decisions.

Of course, that's a luxury that most of don't have. But it's in the same vein as President Obama's routine of only wearing blue or grey suits - to cut down on decision making time in the morning. The point is to distinguish the important from the urgent, as one delegate puts it. There's also a suggestion of scheduling "meetings with self" - actually putting half an hour in the diary where you allow yourself half an hour of mental peace.

The behavioural economist in the room says the reason this is so important is because when we're stressed we make bad decisions. We don't eat well for example, we're much more likely to snack than eat or cancel going for a run, even though we've decided that's important. So if we know we're going to be busy or stressed, we make sure we have apples in the fridge and not snacks to avoid the temptation. But my favourite piece of advice is towards the end when we're told daydreaming is good. Phew. My bandwidth can cope with that. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25862891