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Although one of the world's most prosperous nations, America does seem to lag behind most in one area: life expectancy. This is due to the generally unhealthy lifestyles of Americans and the inequalities between African Americans and whites. This article finds however that the gap between the two races is slowly narrowing, and life expectancy as a whole is increasing.

This article gives an example of a service that causes positive externalities. It describes the addition of two new fire stations. According to the article's report, the positive externality of this service is that response times have been dropped by an average of 30 seconds, which can be the difference between life and death.

The government of Switzerland is planning to impose tax on nuclear energy to fund other renewable energy sources. Nuclear powerplants have been give a longer "life-span" from 40 years to 55 years. Supporters for this taxation say that Extra profit created from the nuclear energy could go toward renewable energies such as solar, geothermal or wind power. However, the nuclear safety issues and alternative taxation are still in questions.

This article is about the profit the insurance, private pension and savings bond businesses of Brazilian banking group Itaú Unibanco had in the third quarter. Business by business, life and private pension plans contributed to this gain. Total profit was $216 million USD.