Consumers, who keep the American economy humming, are hurting. Economic data released Friday showed that beleaguered Americans were losing confidence and hitting the shops less. Consumer spending during the back-to-school season fell short of expectations. The Commerce Department announced that U.S. retail sales rose by 0.3% in August. Economists were expecting sales to rise by 0.5%. Stripping out automobiles, sales were even softer, declining 0.4%. The weak sales come as consumers grow increasingly concerned about the economy. Consumer confidence is at its lowest point since mid-2006 according to RBC Financial Group. The RBC Cash Index fell to 71.1 in September, from 89.3 in August. The index measures consumer confidence with a survey of 1,000 Americans. ‘Americans have a dim view of their current financial situation and an even bleaker view of their future prospects,’ said T. J. Marta, RBC’s Economic and Fixed Income Strategist. American consumers are trying to deal with a few different problems: The value of their homes is declining for the first time in over a decade. (See: ‘National Home Price Index Slides’) They’re shelling out more for meals and gas. (See: ‘Pricey Meals For Chickens Cost Sanderson’) Also, they’re having a harder […]
They dreamt of love, marriage and children. But, as a new book reveals, the Great War robbed two million women of the men they would have married, leading many into relationships which could only be whispered about… One hazy morning in 1917 the senior mistress of Bournemouth High School For Girls stood up in front of the assembled sixth form and announced to her hushed audience: ‘I have come to tell you a terrible fact. ‘Only one out of ten of you girls can ever hope to marry. This is not a guess of mine. It is a statistical fact. ‘Nearly all the men who might have married you have been killed. You will have to make your way in the world as best you can. ‘The war has made more openings for women than there were before. But there will still be a lot of prejudice. You will have to fight. You will have to struggle.’ Long terms statistics show that 35 per cent of women failed to marry during their ‘reproductive’ years Sitting in the assembly hall among her shocked and silent schoolfellows was 17-year-old Rosamund Essex. She was never to […]
We all make mistakes and, if you believe medical scholar John Ioannidis, scientists make more than their fair share. By his calculations, most published research findings are wrong. Dr. Ioannidis is an epidemiologist who studies research methods at the University of Ioannina School of Medicine in Greece and Tufts University in Medford, Mass. In a series of influential analytical reports, he has documented how, in thousands of peer-reviewed research papers published every year, there may be so much less than meets the eye. Are scientists and scientific publishers vigilant enough about the findings they publish? Share your thoughts. These flawed findings, for the most part, stem not from fraud or formal misconduct, but from more mundane misbehavior: miscalculation, poor study design or self-serving data analysis. ‘There is an increasing concern that in modern research, false findings may be the majority or even the vast majority of published research claims,’ Dr. Ioannidis said. ‘A new claim about a research finding is more likely to be false than true.’ The hotter the field of research the more likely its published findings should be viewed skeptically, he determined. Take the discovery that the risk of disease may vary […]
WASHINGTON — The US state of Vermont has won a landmark victory in the battle against global warming being waged at local level across America in defiance of the Bush Administration. A federal judge has ruled against an alliance of US and European car companies seeking to kill off Vermont’s tough new greenhouse gas standards for motor vehicles. The regulations are modelled on California’s groundbreaking pollution standards for cars which were adopted in the teeth of opposition from President George Bush. Earlier this year the US Supreme Court recognised for the first time the phenomenon of global warming and its potentially catastrophic effects upon the environment. Now, the courts have said that, as a result, individual states have the authority ‘to monitor and regulate emissions’, in effect to adopt tougher rules than those at than federal level on carbon dioxide pollution from cars. Irate car manufacturers hope to have the ruling overturned in a higher court. They had sued Vermont saying it was usurping federal authority by passing its own laws to limit the sale of polluting vehicles. California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called the Vermont ruling an ‘important victory in the fight against global warming.’ The […]
It was a very wet summer in much of England. Floods in central and western parts of the country, the worst in decades, resulted in widespread misery: around 60,000 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed. Insurers, which are facing at least £3 billion ($6.1 billion) in claims, have said they expect household premiums to rise next year. Amid the long process of drying out and sorting through claims, a group of leading insurers gathered in London on Thursday September 13th to unveil a joint initiative to address climate change. Hailing what it called ‘a new era’ in industry action to deal with the issue, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) put forth a series of principles-ranging from greater engagement in public-policy making to incorporating climate change in members’ investment strategies-that it dubbed ClimateWise. The goals are worthy, but the likely impact of the plan remains to be seen. The complexity and global nature of climate change calls for long-term, broad-based solutions. Aside from the victims themselves, the insurance industry is among the first to feel the after effects of extreme weather. It is no surprise, then, that some of the biggest names in the business-firms such as […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
