LIMA, PERU — Remittance flows to Latin America and the Caribbean will drop by 11 per cent in 2009 to $62bn, the lowest level since 2006, according to research carried out by the Inter-American Development Bank. ‘The decline will have a direct effect on more than 1m households in Latin America and the Caribbean, half of which are in Mexico, says the IDB report, published on Tuesday. El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti and Nicaragua – all countries with greater dependence on the export of manual labour – are among those worst hit. Ecuador, a dollarised economy which has a high proportion of workers living in Spain and in the US, has also been particularly hard hit. It has seen a 22 per cent decline in remittances in the last quarter of 2008 and a 27 per cent fall in the first quarter of 2009, according to Robert W. Meins, remittances specialist at the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Mr Meins said the outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean region could be even more bleak, with a decline of 12.4 per cent, or $8.5bn (ââ¬6bn, ã5.2bn) for 2009, given the region’s strong links with the US and […]
WASHINGTON — Bowing to Republican pressure and an uneasy public, President Barack Obama’s administration signaled Sunday it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance as part of a new health care system. Facing mounting opposition to the overhaul, administration officials left open the chance for a compromise with Republicans that would include health insurance cooperatives instead of a government-run plan. Such a concession probably would enrage Obama’s liberal supporters but could deliver a much-needed victory on a top domestic priority opposed by GOP lawmakers. Officials from both political parties reached across the aisle in an effort to find compromises on proposals they left behind when they returned to their districts for an August recess. Obama had wanted the government to run a health insurance organization to help cover the nation’s almost 50 million uninsured, but didn’t include it as one of his core principles of reform. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that government alternative to private health insurance is ‘not the essential element’ of the administration’s health care overhaul. The White House would be open to co-ops, she said, a sign that Democrats want a compromise […]
The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans now have a larger share of total income than they ever have in records going back nearly a century – an even larger amount than during the Roaring Twenties, the last time the US saw such similar disparities in wealth. In recent years, the fact that differences between rich and poor are the greatest they’ve been since the Great Depression has become a popular talking point among liberal-leaning economists. But an updated study from University of California-Berkeley economist Emanuel Saez shows that, in 2007, the wealth disparity grew to its highest number on record, based on US tax data going back to 1917. According to Saez’s study, which Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman drew attention to at his New York Times blog, the top 10 percent of earners in America now receive nearly 50 percent of all the income earned in the United States, a higher percentage than they did during the 1920s. ‘After decades of stability in the post-war period, the top decile share has increased dramatically over the last twenty-five years and has now regained its pre-war level, Saez writes. ‘Indeed, the top decile share in 2007 is […]
WASHINGTON — Much of the money and strategy behind the so-called grassroots groups organizing opposition to the Democrats’ health care plans comes from conservative political consultants, professional organizers and millionaires, some of whom hold financial stakes in the outcome. If President Barack Obama and Congress extend health insurance coverage to millions of uninsured Americans, raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for it, and limit insurers’ discretion on who they cover and what they charge, that could pinch these opponents. Most of them say they oppose big government in principle. Despite Obama’s assurances to the contrary, many of them insist that the Democrats’ legislation is but the first step toward creation of a single-payer system, where the federal government hires the doctors, approves treatments, sets the rules and imperils profit. These opposition groups appear to have spent at least $10 million so far on ads attacking the Democrats’ plans. Still, supporters of a health care overhaul have outspent opponents by more than 2-to-1 so far, according to Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks ad spending. Supporters include drug makers angling for their own protections, unions, the American Medical Association and AARP, the seniors’ […]
A new study suggests that people from different cultures read facial expressions differently. East Asian participants in the study focused mostly on the eyes, but those from the West scanned the whole face. In the research carried out by a team from Glasgow University, East Asian observers found it more difficult to distinguish some facial expressions. The work published in Current Biology journal challenges the idea facial expressions are universally understood. In the study, East Asians were more likely than Westerners to read the expression for ‘fear’ as ‘surprise’, and ‘disgust’ as ‘anger’. The researchers say the confusion arises because people from different cultural groups observe different parts of the face when interpreting expression. East Asians participants tended to focus on the eyes of the other person, while Western subjects took in the whole face, including the eyes and the mouth. Co-author, Dr Rachael Jack, from the University of Glasgow, said: ‘Interestingly, although the eye region is ambiguous, subjects tended to bias their judgements towards less socially-threatening emotions – surprise rather than fear, for example. ‘This perhaps highlights cultural differences when it comes to the social acceptability of emotions.’ The team […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
