dismal statistics on child poverty, declaring it an outrage that of the 35 most economically advanced countries, the United States ranks 34th, edging out only Romania
Water Statistics - 0 views
Discordant Financial Messages From China Spur Global Unease - 0 views
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China's stock market bailout was a significant setback to its decades-long efforts to build a modern financial system. Its currency devaluation shocked global investors and altered the policy calculus at central banks. Statistics coming from within China seem to contradict each other, calling into question the legitimacy of such statistics.
Candidates and the Truth About America - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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educational achievement, noting that this country comes in only 28th in the percentage of 4-year-olds enrolled in preschool
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14th in the percentage of 25-to-34-year-olds with a higher education
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The Story of Catherine's iPod on Vimeo - 3 views
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"The Story of Catherine's iPod"
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The disconnect here is so weird. It begins with people digging in the mountainside with sticks, and ends with a tiny, sleek, lightweight computer that makes images flick past at the swipe of your finger and makes music. It's like magic, except instead of the instead of using "toe of newt and eye of frog" the world is making these products by allowing people to be greatly mistreated. Beyond educating people, as Arshia and Alison said, it seems we must either: find other materials to make electronics out of (although that doesn't strike me as very likely?) or pressure companies (who have the money and the leverage) to enforce better regulation. To follow up on Catherine's video, I put three t's into google and got an article about an investigation into the mining in the Congo (maybe Catherine has already seen this): http://africarising2010.blogspot.com/2009/11/tracing-3-ts-from-congo.html. It says: "Even though they found that it is relatively easy to determine the source of minerals based on different coloration and texture based on the source mine, there is insufficient regulation to make this work....Export companies are required to register with the government, but their method of determining the source of minerals they buy is to merely ask the seller whether their goods are from conflict mines. There is no system of confirming what the seller says."
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This presentation kept shocking me. I was surprised to hear that basic parts of the iPod (the Three Ts) originate in the Congo rather than China. I was then shocked (and horrified) by the rape statistics. I had heard the statistics before, but not in relation to the acquisition of the Three Ts and production of products that we use. The story about the woman whose brother was ordered to rape her and then stabbed to death when he refused was particularly awful. I was also In summary, I was appalled at all the crimes that took place in the Congo- before the Three Ts even got to the factories in China that Catherine talked about. When Catherine started talking about the factories in China, I was again shocked at the working conditions- 100 workers sleeping to a room and clothes locked in a bucket with no visitors allowed (to protect the secrecy of Apple's product plans) while workers worked 15 hour days. The suicide reports from the FoxCon (spelling) factories were also shocking, as was the revelation that workers make just half of what they did in the 1800s. It was sad that the factory earns only $4 per iPod sold- while Apple earns $80. This presentation was very thought provoking- I had never assumed that Apple would be one of the "bad" companies with very questionable labor and humanitarian practices (a la Wal-Mart). Thanks for bringing it up, Catherine. I'm now thinking about it in a whole new light.
BBC News- Libya Controversy in Vice-Presidential Debate - 1 views
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Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are tying to do whatever they can to avert the attention from Ryan losing the Vice Presidential debate. The main area of contention is whether or not the US Embassy in Benghazi asked the American government for extra security before the attacks on September 11th that killed 4 Americans. Biden claims that he and the president were not asked to enhance security measures, while sworn testimony from the staff of the embassy said that they asked for more protection. In my opinion, there is a lot of ad-libbing in the debates, therefore to put a candidates word choice under so much scrutiny is pointless. Mitt Romney's camp seems to be jumping on biden's every word to make up for the insufficiencies in his own platform.
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Its unfortunate that the campaign race has become something of a food fight of gossip and rumors. It has gotten to the point where no one can tell who is telling the truth or not. Romney seems determined to portray the President as incompetent especially his comparison between Joe Bidden and Paul Ryan.
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Although I agree with both Matt and Rory, I would like to point out that the criticism of the campaign is very much focused on the Republican party. I think it's important to note that perhaps Biden did, in fact, distort the truth in the debate; saying that he didn't know about something if he did is not a simple slip of the tongue. factcheck.org put Ryan's falsehoods at 6 and Biden's at 3. Although it is clear who lied more, this is a disgusting statistic: the candidates lied NINE TIMES during their debate. Although there is a lot of information they have to cover, I think that one must hold Biden as responsible for his lies as one does Ryan.
Public insurance and the least well-off | Lane Kenworthy - 6 views
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Public insurance also boosts the living standards of the poor. It increases their income, and it provides them with services for which they bear relatively little of the cost.
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Critics charge that public social programs tend to hurt the poor in the long run by reducing employment and economic growth. Are they correct?
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Does public insurance erode self-reliance? Is a large private safety net as helpful to the least well-off as a large public one? Are universal programs more effective than targeted ones? Are income transfers the key, or are services important too?
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Through this article I have gained a deeper insight in how public expenditures and public goods promote wealth equality in a society. "Public services are an important antipoverty tool."
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Cool theory in regards to "the tipping point". Interesting, and solid criticism of large social expenditures. Wonder how socialists view this, as opposed to free-market economists.
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"Public services are an important antipoverty tool. Their benefit doesn't show up in income data, but they appear to play a key role in reducing material hardship." INteresting to see the statistics and how social expenditures help reduce poverty and the wealth gap.
Enacting Cap-and-Trade Will Present Challenges Under China's System - 8 views
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BEIJING - White House officials have lauded President Xi Jinping's anticipated promise of a national market for China in greenhouse gas quotas as a breakthrough in environmental cooperation and reform. But to work well, Mr. Xi's plan, expected to be announced in Washington on Friday, will demand big changes from a government accustomed to heavy-handed intervention and skewed statistics.
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I really like the cap and trade idea because it ensures that the every firm is paying the maximum amount each is willing to spend to pollute the air. Firms that don't value being able to pollute as much can sell their permits and use the money to become more environmentally friendly. The cap and trade method encourages technological change that reduces the harm from each unit of a firm's product. As the article says, "The intended result is a competitive market that induces companies to devise ways to reduce emissions." The cap and trade method will hopefully relieve China of some of its pollution.
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The national environmental quota set by the cap and trade announced by President Xi shows that there is some possibility of environmental cooperation from China, one of the world's most heavy polluters. The article voices the well founded skepticism of critics, who doubt that this new system will work well when it hasn't exactly taken off among the nations of the European Union; however, China's state is very different from its western counterparts. Comparatively, it can exact more control over its countries' businesses and factories, so this system just may be successful.
In graphics: Eurozone in crisis - 4 views
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very cool infographics on the effect of the recession on EU nations
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This article/graphic poses an interesting but subliminal question about the future of the European Union, or t least its fiscal stability. Started as the unifier of Europe, the EU rests on shaky ground; lacking a powerful central authority with which it can enforce its rules, the ability for the EU to maintain itself is through the combined cooperation of European nations. This article points out that these countries have "failed to follow their own [economic] laws," with "Greece as the biggest offender." If the trend continues towards a disrespect for the EU's laws by the member countries, there could be far more Greece-like economic situations in Europe, it seems, thus jeopardizing the future of the organization.
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I love graphic representations of Information! Nice find, Curtis! As a point of comparison, The United States has a national debt of 8.68 trillion. In the U.S., this is 60.8 percent of the American GDP. Source: www.visualeconomics.com › All Infographics
Say hi to the Crazy - 3 views
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This article is a few weeks old, but the writer brings up interesting points about Islam, the NY mosque debate, and the United States' international relations. His mention of Hiroshima's Peace Park in comparison to the US' plans for Ground Zero is intriguing. Heather's article about the syphilis experiment in Guatemala is just one recent example of why the US is perceived as domineering. I never thought to question our plans for the former site of the World Trade Center, but I completely agree with the writer - why are we building a gaudy shiny tower instead of something more inviting that could facilitate discussions between countries? He states that "It would be nice if our ground zero could become an international home of reconciliation. Instead of continuing the hatred, defuse it."
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I agree with Alison. All to often we get caught up in our own opinions which sometimes means that we contend every other opinion is wrong. For example, I think that the mosque should be built near ground zero. I think this because to generalize against a whole religion because of a small part of one of the largest religions in the world seems dumb; however, after thinking about this I do realize that the other side to this argument is valid. Why a mosque? Can't we accomplish something similar in terms of fostering peace by building something else? As heather said, this still could be moving forward in the wrong direction. I do not know. But I am trying to be open about the other side to this very multidimensional issue. It is wrong of us to think it is an ethical issue with two side of right and wrong, there is in fact a lot of grey areas.
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Hey all, I'd just like to remind everyone that the "mosque" is not being built at ground zero (in fact it's in a Burlington Coat Factory blocks away: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-sledge/just-how-far-is-the-groun_b_660585.html. I think the ethical debate surrounding the issue is just further testament to the fact that many Americans unconsciously subscribe to media hype, regardless of their positions on issues. While I agree with what has been said about the ethics of a hypothetical mosque at ground zero, we should realize that this ethical dilemma is a fallacy and exists only as a headline. Also, I think the we/the press/everyone should be more careful who we label as "crazy irrational terrorists". We should realize that those guys didn't get on the planes on 9/11 because they were born without enough of X hormone, they were there because of a long history of western intervention etc. in their home countries. We shouldn't be so quick to dismiss terrorism as an irrational act by sick people, it only allows us to forget the underlying complicity that we have with the issue.
To Understand Assassination Threat, Look Beyond Tucson - 0 views
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This article by Nate Silver, a well known economics blogger for the New York Times, takes an interesting stance on the Tucson assassination. He looks at it from a data analysis perspective and looks at the history of political assassinations in the U.S. He comes to the conclusion that there not enough data is released by the government about domestic terrorism to make any conclusions, but some of the statistics he presents are still interesting and good discussion points.
The Trayvon Martin Killing and the Myth of Black-on-Black Crime - The Daily Beast - 0 views
What Rudy Giuliani gets wrong about the deaths of young black men - The Washington Post - 0 views
FBI - Expanded Homicide Data - 0 views
Ethiopia Health Stats - 0 views
Millions Lack Safe Water - 0 views
French Economists: Toulouse vs. Paris - 0 views
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French economists have never been as renowned as French philosophers, but currently French economists are on the rise. Two schools are competing for the title of savior of the French economy. The Toulouse School of Economics is number 7th in the world and the Paris School of Economics is 11th in the world. Both schools recruit internationally and have their own private-fundraising campaigns. The Toulouse School of Economics is focused on undergraduate studies specializing in industrial economics, market regulation, and economic theory; on the other hand, the Paris School of Economics, is for the upper-level French elite, only accepts graduates, and specializes in economic theory, public economics and statistics. Competition between these two schools of economic thought has produced new economic philosophies to solve the growing debt problem in France. Where the general systems of French are too "rigid", the Toulouse School and the Paris School seek to find ways to create innovations for a new France.