1 US jobless lowest since 2008 (Heidi Moore in The
Guardian) The US unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since 2008 on
Friday, in a move hailed as a sign of progress by economists despite 9 million
people remaining out of work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said that the
unemployment rate fell to 5.8%, as employers added 214,000 jobs in October. The
industries that added the most jobs were “food services and drinking places,
retail trade, and health care” the BLS said.
In its report, the BLS said that the number of
unemployed has fallen by 1.2 million this year and the number of long-term
unemployed has fallen by 1.1 million. Justin Wolfers, a fellow at the Peterson
Institute for international economics, called the jobs numbers “a great report”
and publicly hailed one of the BLS’s data points, the household survey, which
suggested that 683,000 people found new jobs in October.
Others were sceptical of the household survey.
“These data, remember, are much less reliable than the payroll numbers, and
can’t be taken seriously month-to-month,” wrote Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon
Macroeconomics. Others warned about embracing too much optimism. The National
Women’s Law Center, similarly, objected that most of the gains were jobs gains
were in low-paying minimum-wage jobs.
One measure that economists put emphasis on is the
“labor force participation rate,” which measures how many Americans are working
as a percentage of the overall labor force. That percentage, a very low 62.8%,
is nearly the lowest since the recession of 1978. Joblessness also shows stark
differences by ethnic group. The black unemployment rate, at 10.9%, is more
than double the white unemployment rate of 4.8%.
2 Top ship fuel supplier goes bankrupt (BBC) The
world's largest ship fuel supplier, OW Bunker, has filed for bankruptcy after
alleged fraud. The company's troubles came to light earlier this week when it
discovered suspected fraud by senior employees in a Singapore-based subsidiary.
OW Bunker is Denmark's third-largest company and supplies 7% of the world's
bunker fuel, used in shipping.
Shipping lines were trying to find alternative suppliers
in the wake of the news. The company owes 13 banks $750m and says it cannot
survive without new credit. OW Bunker's chairman, Niels Henrik Jensen, said in
a statement: "It is now clear that such facilities will not be made
available. Nor is a sale as a going concern a realistic option."
The company said it had discovered fraud by senior
employees in its Singapore-based subsidiary, Dynamic Oil Trading. OW Bunker
only became a public company this year when it joined Copenhagen's Nasdaq in
March. Its float was a market highlight, the second biggest initial public
offering of shares since 2010.
In October it published figures estimating a trading
loss of $24.5m, but has now increased that to $150m. The alleged fraud at DOT
is potentially one of the biggest financial market scandals to hit Singapore in
10 years.
3 The rise of unreason (Pervez Hoodbhoy in Dawn) Some
300 years ago the age of reason lifted Europe from darkness, ushering in modern
science together with modern scientific attitudes. These soon spread across the
world. But now, running hot on its heels is the age of unreason.
India’s prime minister recently proclaimed that the
people of ancient India had known all about cosmetic surgery and reproductive
genetics for thousands of years. Here’s his proof: “We all read about Karna in
the Mahabharata. If we think a little more, we realise that the Mahabharata
says Karna was not born from his mother’s womb. This means that genetic science
was present at that time. That is why Karna could be born outside his mother’s
womb.” And a staggering number of
Pakistanis believe that everything from quantum mechanics to black holes and
genes were anticipated 1,400 years ago.
Once evidence becomes irrelevant, everything becomes
possible. Take, for example, the question of whether Ram Janmabhoomi is
actually the birthplace of Rama, the seventh avatar of Vishnu. Is this located
precisely where Emperor Babar built the now-demolished Babri mosque? No
conceivable archaeological evidence can adjudicate the matter. In fact it is
impossible to establish on physical grounds the existence of Rama, much less
the coordinates of his birthplace. But, the tragic events of Dec 6, 1992, owed
to this belief. The scars of that terrible carnage have yet to heal.
It is not just South Asia where unreason is on the
rise. The US, the centre of high science, is now struggling with various
crackpot anti-science movements. However, determined opposition has kept
astrology, creationism, UFOs, magnetic therapy, etc. away from the mainstream.
India has a strong Nehruvian past and Indian
rationalists have strongly opposed so-called Vedic mathematics and cosmology,
and revamping school curricula. The price has not been small. For example, Dr
Narendra Achyut Dabholkar was murdered in Pune almost a year ago. He had helped
draft the Anti-Jadu Tona Bill (Anti-Black Magic Bill) which political parties
like the BJP and Shiv Sena opposed, claiming it would adversely affect Hindu
culture, customs and traditions.
But nowhere in the world has unreason grown faster,
and become more dangerous, than in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Polio workers here
have shorter lives than soldiers in battle. More importantly, with schools, colleges,
and universities actively working to crush young minds rather than enlighten
them, this fight against unreason is surely going to be a much tougher one.
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