1 IMF sees no return to economic growth (Larry
Elliott in The Guardian) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut its
global growth forecasts for 2014 and 2015 and warned that the world economy may
never return to the pace of expansion seen before the financial crisis.
In its flagship half-yearly world economic outlook
(WEO), the IMF said the failure of countries to recover strongly from the worst
recession of the postwar era meant there was a risk of stagnation or
persistently weak activity.
The IMF said it expected global growth to be 3.3% in
2014, 0.4 points lower than it was predicting in the April WEO and 0.1 points
down on interim forecasts made in July. A pick-up in the rate of expansion to
3.8% is forecast for 2015, down from 3.9% in the April WEO and 4% in July. But
the IMF highlighted the risk that its predictions would once again be too
optimistic.
2 EU’s anti-extremist tech meeting (David Lee on
BBC) A "private" dinner has been planned between tech firms and
government officials from across the EU. The purpose of the meeting is to
discuss ways to tackle online extremism, including better cooperation between
the EU and key sites. Twitter, Google, Microsoft and Facebook will all be
attending.
Governments are becoming increasingly concerned over
how social media is being used as a recruitment tool by radical Islamist
groups. The meeting will be attended by ministers from the 28 EU member states,
members of the European Commission and representatives from the technology
companies.
The European Commission said: "There is strong
interest from the European union and the ministers of interior to enhance the
dialogue with major companies from the internet industry on issues of mutual
concerns related to online radicalisation."
It is learnt that this is the second time since July
that the firms have been called in to discuss possible measures. However a
notable absence at the meeting will be Ask.fm, a social network believed to
have been extensively used as a recruitment tool for radical Islamist groups. The
site's new owners said: "Ask.fm has not been invited. If we had known
about it, we would have attended for sure."
3 Maximizers and satisficers (Elizabeth Bernstein in
The Wall Street Journal) Psychology researchers have studied how people make
decisions and concluded there are two basic styles. “Maximizers” like to take
their time and weigh a wide range of options—sometimes every possible
one—before choosing. “Satisficers” would rather be fast than thorough; they
prefer to quickly choose the option that fills the minimum criteria (the word
“satisfice” blends “satisfy” and “suffice”).
“Maximizers are people who want the very best.
Satisficers are people who want good enough,” says Barry Schwartz, a professor
of psychology at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and author of “The Paradox
of Choice.”
In a study published in 2006 in the journal
Psychological Science, Dr. Schwartz and colleagues followed 548 job-seeking
college seniors at 11 schools from October through their graduation in June. Across
the board, they found that the maximizers landed better jobs. Their starting
salaries were, on average, 20% higher than those of the satisficers, but they
felt worse about their jobs.
“The maximizer is kicking himself because he can’t
examine every option and at some point had to just pick something,” Dr.
Schwartz says. “Maximizers make good decisions and end up feeling bad about
them. Satisficers make good decisions and end up feeling good.” Dr. Schwartz
says he found nothing to suggest that either maximizers or satisficers make bad
decisions more often.
Satisficers also have high standards, but they are
happier than maximizers, he says. Maximizers tend to be more depressed and to
report a lower satisfaction with life, his research found. The older you are,
the less likely you are to be a maximizer—which helps explain why studies show
people get happier as they get older. “One of the things that life teaches you
is that ‘good enough’ is almost always good enough,” Dr. Schwartz says. “You
learn that you can get satisfaction out of perfectly wonderful but not perfect
outcomes.”
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