11-23-2015, 12:08 AM
Finland is sliding deeper into economic depression, a prime exhibit of currency failure and an even more unsettling saga for theoretical defenders of the euro than the crucifixion of Greece. A full six-and-a-half years into the current global expansion, Finland's GDP is 6pc below its previous peak. It is suffering a deeper and more protracted slump than the post-Soviet crash of the early 1990s, or the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Finland's depression is the final indictment of Europe's monetary union - Telegraph
The huge importance of antibiotics within healthcare globally cannot be overstated. A US study in 1999 calculated that the introduction of antibiotics in 1936 caused deaths in the US to fall by 220 per 100,000 within 15 years. All other medical technologies combined over the next 45 years reduced deaths by only 20 per 100,000 people. The euphoria over the healthcare benefits of antibiotics was encapsulated in 1960, when the US surgeon general announced that “infectious disease is conquered”.
The European Central Bank is prepared to deploy its full range of stimulus measures to fight low inflation, ECB President Mario Draghi said on Friday, suggesting that additional easy money policies are a strong possibility at the bank's next policy meeting in December.
Draghi: ECB will do what it must to lift inflation - MarketWatch
What explains the modern right’s propensity for panic? Part of it, no doubt, is the familiar point that many bullies are also cowards. But I think it’s also linked to the apocalyptic mind-set that has developed among Republicans during the Obama years. Think about it. From the day Mr. Obama took office, his political foes have warned about imminent catastrophe. Fiscal crisis! Hyperinflation! Economic collapse, brought on by the scourge of health insurance! And nobody on the right dares point out the failure of the promised disasters to materialize, or suggest a more nuanced approach.
The Farce Awakens - The New York Times
George Osborne will announce the most dramatic and far-reaching cuts to state spending Britain has ever seen as he sets out his plan to clear the deficit - and run a surplus. The Institute for Fiscal Studies, Britain’s most influential economic think tank, has calculated that Whitehall departments that have not been given special protection face average cuts of 27 per cent in their budgets, when the Chancellor unveils his Spending Review on Wednesday.
Spending Review: IFS warns of deepest cuts in history - Telegraph