1 Bank of England fears housing market crash (Larry
Elliott, Hillary Osborne & Rupert Jones in The Guardian) Britain's booming
housing market could be heading for a fresh crash, the Bank of England said in
its toughest warning yet about the dangers of the return of rapidly rising
property prices. Sir Jon Cunliffe, Threadneedle Street's deputy governor for
financial stability, said it would be dangerous to ignore the momentum apparent
across the country and dropped strong hints of new measures to slow down the
market in the months ahead.
On a day when it emerged that one in 15 London homes
are now selling for £1m or more, Cunliffe said Britain had a history of booms
turning to bust. "This is a movie that has been seen more than once in the
UK." The Bank's deputy governor said that there were always risks to
financial stability "blinking on the dashboard" but made clear his
concern about the possibility that borrowers taking on large mortgages could
find themselves in trouble when interest rates inevitably rose.
He said the risk was of "a major overshoot in
prices and buildup in debt followed by a sharp correction with negative equity
and an overhang of debt for many households", adding: "Unfortunately,
there are more precedents in UK for periods of a rapidly growing housing market
to end in this way."
Figures from the Nationwide building society showed
annual house price inflation at a seven-year high of 10.9%. Cunliffe said:
"There is good reason to believe that a ... combination of strong demand,
weak supply and expectations of a rising market could lead to a period of
sustained and very powerful pressure on house prices in the UK."
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/01/bank-of-england-warns-housing-market-property-price-boom-crash
2 Why India’s election takes so long (Soutik Biswas
on BBC) As India enters the eighth phase of its marathon general election, many
are asking whether the world's largest democracy deserves such a protracted
voting exercise. For those not up to speed, India's 16th general election for
its 543 parliamentary seats is currently being held in nine phases from 7 April
to 12 May - at 36 days, it is the longest in the country's history.
This is "an election without end" laments
political analyst Jawid Laiq. India's drawn-out election, he argues, leads to
several unintended consequences: campaigns become bitter and acrimonious and
development work is on hold because of a model code of conduct for candidates
and political parties. If vast and populous countries like Indonesia and Brazil
can complete their elections in a single day, he asks, why can't India with its
formidable election machinery?
It wasn't always like this. India's historic first
election in 1951-52 took three months to complete. Between 1962 and 1989,
general elections were completed in between four and 10 days. The four-day
elections in 1980 were the country's shortest ever. But most of these polls
were marked by violence and were hardly free and fair. In the 1990s, under a
tough new election chief, TN Seshan, things began to change. Mr Seshan sought
paramilitary forces from the federal government to keep violence in check
during an election.
"The long-drawn, multi-phased election in India
boils down to a single reason - security," former election commissioner SY
Qureshi says. "The local police are seen to be partisan, so we need to
deploy federal forces. These forces have been freed up from their duties and
moved all around the country to ensure peace.
That is why it takes time." Some
120,000 such federal troops have been deployed this time - they are drawn from
security forces who guard borders, industrial installations and railway
properties, among other things.
India's marathon election actually shines a light on
one of its most glaring deficiencies: its poorly paid, badly equipped, ill-trained
and understaffed police. Unless the police force is beefed up considerably and
its standard improve, voters will have to live with "elections without
end".
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-27233843
3 To be more creative, take a walk (Gretchen
Reynolds in The New York Times) Most of us have heard that exercise, including
walking, generally improves thinking skills. Multiple studies have shown that
animals and people usually perform better after exercise on tests of memory and
executive function, which is essentially the ability to make decisions and
organize thoughts (although prolonged, intense exercise can cause brief mental
fatigue — so don’t take a math test after a marathon).
Similarly, exercise has long been linked anecdotally
to creativity. Researchers at Stanford University recently decided to test that
possibility, inspired, in part, by their own strolls. With the enthusiastic
support of her adviser, Daniel Schwartz, a professor in the Stanford Graduate
School of Education, Dr. Marily Oppezzo recruited a group of undergraduate
students and set out to see if she could goose their creativity.
Gathering her volunteers in a deliberately dull,
unadorned room equipped with only a desk and (somewhat unusually) a treadmill,
Dr. Oppezzo asked the students to sit and complete tests of creativity, which
in psychological circles might involve tasks like rapidly coming up with
alternative uses for common objects, such as a button. Then the participants
walked on the treadmill, at an easy, self-selected pace that felt comfortable.
The treadmill faced a blank wall. While walking, each student repeated the
creativity tests, which required about eight minutes.
For almost every student, creativity increased
substantially when they walked. Most were able to generate about 60 percent
more uses for an object, and the ideas were both “novel and appropriate,” Dr.
Oppezzo writes in her study.
Finally, to examine another real-world implication of
walking and creativity, Dr. Oppezzo moved portions of the experiment outdoors.
“Most people would probably guess that walking outside should be much better
for creativity” than pacing inside a drab office. But surprisingly, her study
undermined that assumption. “It really seems that it’s the walking that
matters,” in terms of spurring creativity, Dr. Oppezzo said, and not the
setting
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/30/want-to-be-more-creative-take-a-walk/?_php=true&_type=blogs&src=me&ref=general&_r=0
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