Archive for the 'Economy' Category
U.S. Provides Military Aid to 3/4 of World’s Dictatorships
September 27th, 2017Via: Mint Press: Rich Whitney, an attorney and writer, sought to compare Freedom House’s rating system of political rights for 2015 to the U.S. government’s provision of military assistance – military training, military aid and weapons sales – to foreign nations that same year. Whitney’s stated goal was to determine whether the U.S. government actually […]
Japanese Banks Are Planning to Launch J-Coin, a Digital Currency Meant to Kill Off Cash
September 27th, 2017Via: MIT Technology Review: Japan’s central bank is backing a scheme that could see the the cash-dependent country move toward a digital currency built on blockchain technology. The J Coin, as it’s to be called, is under development by a group of Japanese banks with the blessing of financial regulators. According to the Financial Times […]
Too Many Drug Victims to Autopsy
September 27th, 2017Via: Daily Mail: The number of people dying from opioid overdoses is skyrocketing so quickly that medical examiners’ offices across the country cannot autopsy them all. These offices are being forced to neglect suspected opioid overdose victims by giving them a watered-down version of an autopsy that provides a minimal amount of information on their […]
Governments Are Testing Their Own Cryptocurrencies
September 25th, 2017Via: MIT Technology Review: The people of Sweden are breaking up with cash. The number of banknotes and coins in circulation has fallen to its lowest level in three decades. Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, estimates that cash transactions made up only 15 percent of all retail transactions last year, down from 40 percent in 2010, […]
New Zealand: Family of Four Living in Bus Conversion
September 25th, 2017Wow, that’s a much nicer bus (we call them Choochoo buses because of the chimneys) than the ones we see around Kaitaia. Via: Exploring Alternatives:
BYD Predicts Ambitious China Shift to Electric Cars by 2030
September 24th, 2017Via: Reuters: Chinese automaker BYD Co Ltd (002594.SZ) expects the country’s shift to cleaner new-energy vehicles (NEV) to be complete in just over a decade, an aggressive timeframe that would challenge traditional carmakers in the world’ top auto market. All vehicles in the country will be “electrified” by 2030, which could range from full electric […]
Nestlé Makes Billions Bottling Water It Pays Nearly Nothing For
September 22nd, 2017Via: Bloomberg: The company’s operation in Michigan reveals how it’s dominated the industry by going into economically depressed areas with lax water laws. … The Michigan operation is only one small part of Nestlé, the world’s largest food and beverage company. But it illuminates how Nestlé has come to dominate a controversial industry, spring by […]
Mercedes Plots Tesla Attack With $1 Billion U.S. Electric Push
September 21st, 2017Via: Bloomberg: Daimler AG plans to spend $1 billion to start production of Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles at its Alabama factory, setting the world’s largest luxury-car maker up to battle with battery-car specialist Tesla Inc. on its home turf. The German automaker will build its fifth battery plant globally and create more than 600 jobs in […]
New Zealand: One Pipeline Rupture Later…
September 18th, 2017Update: New Zealand Military Deploying for Fuel Transportation — Update: Air New Zealand Restricting Ticket Sales, Cargo Reduced — New Zealand is a funny place. It sort of pretends to be a modern, first world sort of place, when in actuality, it’s a hair’s width away from infrastructure collapse at all times. Combine the she’ll-be-‘right […]
Forget Equifax, Facebook and Google Have the Data That Should Worry You
September 12th, 2017Via: Bloomberg: Just for a minute, imagine that hackers have gained access to a database containing sensitive information about hundreds of millions of people. In this totally hypothetical scenario, the theft would be comprehensive—including enough details to do real damage to those whose data had been exposed—and would involve a company that wasn’t widely recognized […]
