09-02-2016, 11:11 PM
Still, the above type of innovation is now small fry compared to something else that has emerged as a huge financial juggernaut: financial technology innovation. Of course, the old type of innovation always had its limits. It was fundamentally "epicycles on epicycles" of some of the world's oldest financial instruments, namely debt and equity. But the fin tech revolution, and the extent to which it has reached today, is now of a huge magnitude.
My dog Dolly has an fine-tuned bullshit detector. The eight-year-old mutt I adopted from a New York City shelter knows when I’m feigning enthusiasm to take her out at 7am on a drizzly Saturday morning. She also knows that when I’m telling her to get off the sofa and go to her bed, it’s because I’m about to leave her at home – so she ignores me. She has an uncanny ability to know when I’m trying to get her to do something that’s not very fun. So the results on a new study that found dogs understand both what we’re saying to them – and how we’re saying it – came as no surprise.
Edwards argued that declining business investment and profits are presaging a recession — a point that he has made a number of times, and that the only thing supporting the economy is the consumer, which comprises about 70% of US gross domestic product. This support that consumers are providing for the economy, according to Edwards, is "about to be kicked away." "The only thing keeping the US out of recession is the US consumer," Edwards wrote. "It is difficult to say consumption is driving the economy forward, rather it is like a wood, worm-ridden crutch creaking under the strain of holding up a dead weight economy. This recovery, the fourth longest in history, is surely nearing its end."
Albert Edwards: Consumer crutch holding up US economy 'kicked away' - Business Insider
The small study of only 165 people with mild symptoms of the disorder found that a dozen monthly injections of the antibody aducanumab removed clumps of protein that build up in the Alzheimer’s brain. A leading theory of the disease holds that the steady accumulation of a protein called amyloid-beta in the ageing brain kills off healthy neurons and brings about the memory and cognitive impairments experienced by Alzheimer’s patients. In the trial, the strongest glimpse of mental improvement was seen in patients who had the highest dose of drug and who showed the greatest reduction in amyloid plaque proteins in follow-up brain scans. These patients did not worsen at all after six months of treatment.
Since Rodrigo Duterte assumed the presidency of the Philippines eight weeks ago, the same scene has unfolded night after night in the slum neighborhoods of Manila: A shot rings out, and a person lies dead on the street with a cardboard sign laid next to him, scrawled with a single word: “Pusher.” This is how Duterte’s war on drugs is playing out on the ground. It is a punitive campaign spurred by the president’s promises of immunity and even bounties to those who take drug users and traffickers “dead or alive.” Last week, the national police chief testified during a Senate inquiry that more than 1,900 people suspected of being involved in the drug trade or abusing drugs had been shot dead by police or “vigilantes” (that number now approaches 2,500). Over 10,000 people have been arrested, and at least 675,000 people have voluntarily surrendered to the authorities.