The risk of a 1930s-style economic slump has been heightened by ‘euphoric’ markets tapping cheap global credit, one of the world’s pre-eminent financial institutions has said. In its annual report, the Bank for International Settlements noted that the conditions that led to the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Asian crises in the 1990s reflected the current environment. ‘Each downturn was preceded by a period of non-inflationary growth exuberant enough to lead many commentators to suggest that a ‘new era’ had arrived,’ the bank said. The BIS, the ultimate bank of central bankers, pointed to a confluence of worrying signs, citing mass issuance of new-fangled credit instruments, soaring levels of household debt, extreme appetite for risk shown by investors, and entrenched imbalances in the world currency system. ‘Behind each set of concerns lurks the common factor of highly accommodating financial conditions. ‘Tail’ events affecting the global economy might at some point have much higher costs than is commonly supposed,’ it said. The BIS said China may have repeated the disastrous errors made by Japan in the 1980s when Tokyo let rip with excess liquidity. ‘The Chinese economy seems to be demonstrating very […]
CHICAGO — Doctors could soon be storing essential medical information under the skin of their patients, the American Medical Association says. Devices the size of a grain of rice that are implanted with a needle could give emergency room doctors quick access to the records of chronically ill patients, the nation’s largest doctors group said in a report. The association adopted a policy Monday stating that the devices can improve the ‘safety and efficiency of patient care’ by helping to identify patients and enabling secure access to clinical information. These radio frequency identification tags (RFIDs) are already used by Wal-Mart and other businesses to speed up their shipping systems by sending out small signals that can be scanned more easily than bar codes. Implanting them in people ‘can improve the continuity and coordination of care with resulting reductions in adverse drug events and other medical errors,’ said the report prepared by the association’s ethics committee. But the devices ‘also may pose some physical risks, compromise patient privacy, or present other social hazards.’ The main concern is protecting the privacy of the information stored on the devices. There are also health concerns. While […]
LONDON — Most of humanity will be living in cities by next year, raising the threat of increased poverty and religious extremism unless the needs of growing urban populations are met, the U.N. said Wednesday. Some 3.3 billion people will live in cities by 2008, a report by the U.N. population agency report said. By 2030, the number of city dwellers is expected to climb to 5 billion. Without proper planning, cities across the globe face the treat of overwhelming poverty and limited opportunities for youth, said U.N. Population Fund Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. ‘In 2008, half of the world’s population will be in urban areas, and we are not ready for them,’ said Obaid told The Associated Press in London. A revival in religious interest has been a surprising characteristic of rapid urbanization, according to the report. Urbanization is often associated with a shift toward secular values. But the growth of new religious movements-such as radical Islam in the Middle East, Pentecostal Christianity in Latin America and the cult of Shivaji in India-has been a primarily urban phenomena, the report said. When cities fail to meet the needs of growing populations, religious […]
A United Nations (UN) report released on Monday shows that,globally, illicit drug use, production has declined. But it fingers akey trouble spot: Afghanistan, which has nearly doubled its opiumproduction since a decade ago and last year pushed global yields to arecord high. According to Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the amount of land globally devoted to producing coca fell by 29 percent to about 156,900 hectares between 2000 and 2006[PDF]. A sharp drop in Colombian production was the main reason. The US has seen a dip in cocaine usage, though Europe has seen a slight uptick. Still, The New York Times reports, the UN’s data indicate that on virtually every level the illegal drug trade is receding, prompting Mr. Costa to say that efforts to contain the problem appear to be working. ‘For almost all drugs – cocaine, heroin, cannabis and amphetamines – there are signs of overall stability, whether we speak of production, trafficking or consumption,’ he said, commenting on the agency’s annual drug report that was released Monday. In a telephone interview from the agency’s Vienna headquarters, […]
SALT LAKE CITY — If it weren’t for the hot rocks down below Earth’s crust, most of North America would be below sea level, report researchers who say the significance of Earth’s internal heat has been overlooked. Without it, mile-high Denver would be 727 feet below sea level, the scientists calculate, and New York City, more than a quarter-mile below. Los Angeles would be almost three-quarters of a mile beneath the Pacific. In fact most of the United States would disappear, except for some major Western mountain ranges, according to research at the University of Utah. ‘Researchers have failed to appreciate how heat makes rock in the continental crust and upper mantle expand to become less dense and more buoyant,’ said Derrick Hasterok, a graduate student in geology and geophysics. Hasterok and his professor, David Chapman, published their findings in the June online issue of Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth. In what they said was the first calculation of its kind, the researchers said heat inside the planet accounts for half the reason land rises above sea level or higher to form mountains. Scientists previously gave other factors greater weight in explaining elevation differences, […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
