1 David Cameron says second global crash is looming
(Patrick Wintour in The Guardian) David Cameron has issued a stark message that
“red warning lights are flashing on the dashboard of the global economy” in the
same way as when the financial crash brought the world to its knees six years
ago. Cameron says there is now “a dangerous backdrop of instability and
uncertainty” that presents a real risk to the UK recovery, adding that the
eurozone slowdown is already having an impact on British exports and
manufacturing.
His warning comes days after the Bank of England
governor, Mark Carney, claimed a spectre of stagnation was haunting Europe. The
International Monetary Fund managing director, Christine Lagarde, expressed
fears in Brisbane that a diet of high debt, low growth and unemployment may yet
become “the new normal in Europe”.
“The eurozone is teetering on the brink of a
possible third recession, with high unemployment, falling growth and the real
risk of falling prices too,” Cameron wrote. “Emerging market economies which
were the driver of growth in the early stages of the recovery are now slowing
down. Despite the progress in Bali [trade talks in 2013], global trade talks
have stalled while the epidemic of Ebola, conflict in the Middle East and
Russia’s illegal actions in Ukraine are all adding a dangerous backdrop of
instability and uncertainty.”
With Germany, Europe’s manufacturing powerhouse,
growing by just 0.1% in the third quarter, the eurozone economy appears to be
faltering. The EU may also be only one or two new rounds of sanctions away from
pushing Russia into a deep recession as punishment for its interference in
Ukraine. World leaders pledged 800 separate measures designed to lift their
combined economic growth by an additional 2.1% above the current trajectory by
2018 compared with 2013.
2 Japan economy in recession (BBC) Japan's economy
unexpectedly shrank for the second consecutive quarter, marking a technical
recession in the world's third largest economy. Gross domestic product fell at
annualised 1.6% from July to September, compared to forecasts of a 2.1% rise. That
followed a revised 7.3% contraction in the second quarter, which was the
biggest fall since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The economy shrank 0.4% in the third quarter from
the previous one. Economists said the disappointing figures are likely to lead
to a delay to the proposed increase of the country's sale tax. Private
consumption, which accounts for about 60% of the economy, was 0.4% higher from
the previous quarter - much weaker than the 0.8% increase that economists had
been expecting.
3 Singapore’s tuition dilemma (Straits Times) That
the tuition industry is now worth $1.1 billion a year is cause for concern,
although tutors are contributing to the gross domestic product and the Inland
Revenue Authority of Singapore has recovered more than $2.3 million in unpaid
taxes and penalties from private tutors and tuition centre proprietors who
under-declared their incomes.
There would be nothing to complain about tuition per
se as an educational transaction engaged in by parents and tutors, willing
buyers and sellers of knowledge and skills. But it is the purpose and impact of
tuition on students generally that warrants introspection. Individual attention
can help immensely. But for many parents, tuition is synonymous with
educational rites of passage such as the PSLE and later national examinations.
To them, tuition is all about making a difference to test scores.
However, those who truly embrace holistic education
might instead tap tuition to spark or sustain a child's interest in the arts or
sports, to broaden his social horizons, or to equip him to participate more
fully in the life of the country. Not every such child will become a literary
or sporting star, but all children will gain from a sounder sense of their
place in the social scheme of things.
The problem occurs when parents view tuition not as
an exceptional means of meeting minimal educational goals or of expanding a
child's mind, but as a perpetual attempt to game the educational system at
elusively higher and higher levels of expectation.
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