"Mimi Whitefield" - China will displace U.S. as top exporter by 2025, HSBC warns

Posted on Wed, Oct. 12, 2011

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/10/12/126971/china-will-displace-us-as-top.html

Mimi Whitefield | The Miami Herald

October 12, 2011 

An HSBC forecast released Tuesday projects U.S. trade will rise by $4.4 trillion, up more than 62 percent, over the next 15 years, even as the U.S. share of the world market shrinks.

The inaugural Trade Connections forecast by the London-based banking and financial group predicts that the U.S. share of the world market will fall from 11.3 percent (2010) to 9 percent by 2025, and that China’s share of world trade will reach 13 percent by then to overtake the United States as the world’s top exporting nation.

In the short-term, U.S. traders are jittery. The latest HSBC Trade Confidence Index, which also was released Tuesday, found that only 49 percent of U.S. respondents expected a slight or significant increase in trade volumes over the next six months. That was a 13 percent drop from the response in the first half of the year and the lowest confidence level among U.S. traders since the survey was first conducted in 2009.

Forty-nine percent of U.S. businesses surveyed also felt the world economy would decline over the next six months, considerably more than the 30 percent who thought so during a survey conducted in February and March.

The surveys were released at a “Doing Business in Latin America’’ conference that HSBC organized at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables on Tuesday as well as at an HSBC Trade Summit in Hamburg, Germany.

One of the few bright spots for American traders was Latin America, according to the trade confidence survey. Twenty-seven percent said it represented the best opportunity for business growth in the next six months. That placed it just ahead of China (26 percent) as the best prospect.

The surveys come at a time when the U.S. Congress is considering a bill that would punish countries with artificially low currencies, allowing the imposition of additional duties on products from nations that subsidize exports by undervaluing their currencies.

China began allowing its yuan to trade within a narrow daily band in 2005 and since then it has appreciated by more than 20 percent against the dollar, but critics say it is still undervalued, making Chinese exports cheaper.

"Robert Reich" - THE SEVEN BIGGEST ECONOMIC LIES

http://www.opednews.com/articles/THE-SEVEN-BIGGEST-ECONOMIC-by-Robert-Reich-111011-432.html

October 11, 2011 By Robert Reich The President's Jobs Bill doesn't have a chance in Congress -- and the Occupiers on Wall Street and elsewhere can't become a national movement for a more equitable society -- unless more Americans know the truth about the economy.    Here's a short (2 minute 30 second) effort to rebut the seven biggest whoppers now being told by those who want to take America backwards. The major points: 1.  Tax cuts for the rich trickle down to everyone else. Baloney. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both sliced taxes on the rich and what happened? Most Americans' wages (measured by the real median wage) began flattening under Reagan and have dropped since George W. Bush. Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke.

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"Michael Lind" - 6 Reasons Why Occupy Wall Street Protests Won't Help Democrats

By Michael Lind, Salon
Posted on October 11, 2011, Printed on October 12, 2011

http://www.alternet.org/story/152693/6_reasons_why_occupy_wall_street_protests_won%27t_help_democrats

Can the Occupy Wall Street movement do for the Democrats what the Tea Party has done for the Republicans? Will a spontaneous grass-roots uprising against the rich neutralize the manipulated “Astroturf” Tea Party movement’s assault on big government, assure a second term for Barack Obama and lead to the new New Deal that progressives have been waiting for?

Alas, probably not. Ever since Richard Nixon won his reelection victory in 1972 by appealing to many of the discontented populists attracted to George Wallace, the Republican Party, formerly a party of big city boardroom types and small-town Rotarians, has been based at least in its rhetoric on right-wing populism. The Tea Party movement is merely an extreme exaggeration of the mainstream GOP.

But the Democrats since George McGovern captured the party’s presidential nomination in the same fateful year of 1972 have been the opposite of a left-wing populist party. Thus while right-wing populism reinforces the existing Republican story about America, any genuine left-wing populism would challenge the basic constituencies and values of the McGovern-to-Obama Democrats. There are six reasons in particular why Democrats are unlikely to benefit as much from populism as Republicans.

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"Progressive Radio Network Mitchell J. Rabin, Mondays @ 6pm(EDT") - Spirit-in-Action & Sacred Stewardship of our Country & Planet

By Mitchell J. Rabin

The world is beginning to percolate with people speaking out and standing up for what they believe. One can do these in any number of ways---through art, theater, media, writing, business and of course, marching and demonstrating. An increasing number of people, largely due to overwhelming frustration and in no few cases despair, are taking their concerns and upset to the streets. This is happening big-time down in Wall Street in the Big Apple in the Occupy Wall St. Movement, which is catching fire across America and now other parts of the world. I've heard that hundreds of "Occupy Cities" are occurring as the wounding upset of outright theft and criminality, thinly disguised as corporate banking "business-as-usual" is being called out for what it is.

The exercise of First Amendment rights protected by the Constitution, which is said to be protected by the sanctity of God, is often a healthy and beautiful exercise. Some police in NYC, however, apparently beg to differ. There have been a few incidents of mass pepper spraying, largely of peaceful women, wholly unprovoked and one of the largest arrests in U.S. history last weekend occurred on the Brooklyn Bridge of around 700 people. In general, the good news is that the demonstration, now completing its third week, has been significantly peaceful, friendly, open to newcomers and affecting world change and attention. The goals of the gathering are coalescing and its purpose gathering coherence. As the focus comes together, so will its power to effect desired outcomes.

This is Democracy-in-Action, which has otherwise become quite marginalized in our society due to numerous causes and for numerous reasons. Suffice it to say here that, as in the classic film Network, people are angry and are saying "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

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"Staff Writers" - Rethinking connection between soil as a carbon reservoir and global warming

by Staff Writers

http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Rethinking_connection_between_soil_as_a_carbon_reservoir_and_global_warming_999.html
Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Oct 11, 2011

Soils store three times as much carbon as plants and the atmosphere. Soil organic matter such as humus plays a key role in the global carbon cycle as it stores huge amounts of carbon and thus counters global warming.

Consequently, the Kyoto Protocol permits the signatory countries to count soils and forests against greenhouse gas emissions as so-called carbon sinks.

Exactly why some soil organic matter remains stable for thousands of years while other soil organic matter degrades quickly and releases carbon, however, is largely unknown. The explanatory models used thus far assume that the degradation rate depends on the molecular structures of the soil organic matter.

An international team of 14 researchers headed by Michael Schmidt, a professor of soil science and biogeography at the University of Zurich, has now revealed that numerous other factors affect the degradation rate of soil organic matter in an article published in Nature.

Soil environment determines degradation rate of humus

The degradation speed isn't determined by the molecular structure of the dead plant debris, but by the soil environment in which the degradation takes place," says Schmidt, summing up the new results.

For instance, the physical isolation of the molecules, whether the molecules in the soil are protected by mineral or physical structures and soil moisture influence the degradation rate of soil organic matter. Furthermore, the researchers are able to show that, contrary to the scientific consensus, there is no humic matter in the soil and this should therefore not be used for models.

New experiments and models needed

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" Fiona Harvey" - European Union Moves Toward Banning Tar Sands

By Fiona Harvey, The Guardian

Posted on October 5, 2011, Printed on October 11, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152620/european_union_moves_toward_banning_tar_sands

Oil from controversial and environmentally destructive tar sands is likely to be all but banned from Europe after a decision on Tuesday. The move also casts doubt on the future of other controversial energy sources such as shale gas.

Tar sands (also known as oil sands) have been a target of green campaigners for several years, as the extraction of low quality oil from sands – chiefly in Canada to date – produces far greater greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil drilling operations, and requires vast quantities of water. The exploitation of tar sands has also led to the destruction of swaths of forest and is blamed for water and air pollution.

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"Dean Baker" - David Brooks, Bard of the 1 Percent

Published on Tuesday, October 11, 2011 by Beat the Press

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/david-brooks-bard-of-the-1-percent

by Dean Baker

David Brooks delved deep into his storage locker of misinformation to tell readers that the idea of blaming the richest 1 Percent for the country's problems is just silly. He told us that the really big ideas aren't about reversing the upward redistribution of income from the top, they are from centrists who want to do things like cut our Social Security and make us pay more for health care. Let's have some fun with Mr. One Percent.

First he begins his piece by telling us:

"The U.S. economy is probably going to stink for a few more years. It is beset by short-term problems (low consumer demand, uncertain housing prices, too much debt) and long-term problems (wage stagnation, rising health care costs, eroding human capital).

Realistically, not much is going to be done to address the short-term problems, but we can at least use this winter of recuperation to address the country’s underlying structural ones."

In other words, Brooks wants all those people who are unemployed and losing their homes to just suck it up. Nothing is going to be done to help you: get over it.

And why is nothing going to be done to help the 26 million people who are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work altogether? The reason is that people like David Brooks and rest of the 1 Percent don't give a damn about you.

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"Michael McCarthy" - Why protecting the world's wildlife is good for our wallets

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/why-protecting-the-worlds-wildlife-is-good-for-our-wallets-2364701.html

By Michael McCarthy, The Independent UK

Monday, 3 October 2011

A new world body on wildlife and ecosystems protection being set up by the UN must avoid blaming developing nations, where most of the world's biodiversity loss is occurring, says a top British scientist.

Overconsumption by rich western nations is as big a driver of global environmental degradation as the rapidly growing populations of developing countries, says Professor Bob Watson, a leading figure in setting up the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

The new body – modelled on the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – will assess how and why the natural world is being degraded, what it will cost society, and what can be done to halt the process.

But it must avoid rows between rich and poor countries, says Professor Watson, an ex-head of the IPCC, who is Chief Scientific Adviser to Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. "If they think this is just the white world, the developed world, telling them what to do, that'll be the end of it ... The climate debate has been, 'you rich countries got rich by using cheap fossil fuels, and now you're telling us not to use them.' We must not get into that," he said. Regional assessments of biodiversity problems must be "owned" by the regions concerned, he said. So if there is a regional biodiversity assessment of Latin America, scientists from Latin America will carry it out, not foreign scientists.

Professor Watson will play a key role at a Nairobi meeting today which will decide how the new body can be formed, probably next year. Hopes are high that the IPBES might help halt the loss of global wildlife and habitats.

The IPBES is based on the increasingly influential concept of ecosystem services, that forests rivers or peat bogs are not just parts of the natural world, but produce oxygen, provide food and store atmospheric carbon, vital in the fight against climate change.

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"Medical News Today" - High Chocolate Consumption Linked To Lower Stroke Risk In Females

Medical news Today, 11 Oct 2011

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/235756.php

Women who eat at least two chocolate bars each week appear to have a 20% lower risk of stroke, compared to females of the same age and weight who rarely or never eat chocolate, researchers from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The researchers explained that cocoa has flavonoids - powerful antioxidants that can suppress oxidation of bad cholesterol (LDL, low-density lipoprotein). LDL can cause stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.

As background information, the authors explained that several studies have clearly demonstrated that chocolate can be good for the cardiovascular system - the circulatory system which comprises the heart and blood vessels. The consumption of chocolate has been demonstrated to reduce diastolic and systolic blood pressure in randomized, short-term trials. Chocolate has also been shown to improve endothelial and platelet function, and to improve insulin resistance.

Susanna Larsson Ph.D. and team set out to determine whether chocolate consumption might have an impact on the risk of stroke. They used the population-based Swedish Mammography Cohort. 39,227 adult females had completed a questionnaire that asked 350 questions regarding lifestyle and diet factors.

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"Medical News Today" - Infants As Young As 15 Months Display A Sense Of Fairness, Altruism

Medical News Today, 10 Oct 2011

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/235712.

A new study presents the first evidence that a basic sense of fairness and altruism appears in infancy. Babies as young as 15 months perceived the difference between equal and unequal distribution of food, and their awareness of equal rations was linked to their willingness to share a toy. 

  The study has implications for nurturing human egalitarianism and cooperation. The journal PLoS ONE published the findings online Oct. 7, 2011. Co-author is Marco Schmidt, a doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. 

Previous studies reveal that 2-year-old children can help others - considered a measure of altruism - and that around age 6 or 7 they display a sense of fairness. Sommerville, an expert in early childhood development, suspected that these qualities could be apparent at even younger ages. 

Babies around 15 months old begin to show cooperative behaviors, such as spontaneously helping others. "We suspected that fairness and altruism might also be apparent then, which could indicate the earliest emergence of fairness," Sommerville said. 

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