Sunday, April 29, 2012

What Mattered This Week?

Let's see...we had the first round of French elections at the beginning of the week, and developments in Egyptian elections at the end of the week.

New GDP numbers. The real story there, as with almost all the economic data we've seen, is that we're headed for an election with neither a recession that would eliminate Barack Obama's chances nor a boom that would make him an easy winner.

What else? What do you think mattered this week?

6 comments:

  1. I'd says the other series of blows to what you might call the "austerity thesis" mattered. Namely the collapse of the conservative government in the Netherlands and the fact that the UK has officially entered another recession (and their depression is now statically longer and worse than the one in the 30's).

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    Replies
    1. Is there some metric you would accept as evidence that your "profligacy thesis" is nonsense?

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  2. Wow. Gene found which seems to affect brain size and IQ. No surprise if true, but certainly disconcerting for some.

    http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/04/16/3478267.htm

    A few more studies with similar results will have enormous effects.

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  3. Half of polled UKer doctors want more denial-of-care unless citizens obey doctor demands:

    http://m.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/28/doctors-treatment-denial-smokers-obese?cat=society&type=article

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  4. "Doherty, who has compiled statistics about presidential travel and fundraising going back to President Jimmy Carter in 1977, found that Obama had held 104 fundraisers by March 6th this year, compared to 94 held by Presidents Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Snr, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined.

    "Since then, Obama has held another 20 fundraisers, bringing his total to 124. Carter held four re-election fundraisers in1980,Reaganzeroin1984, Bush Snr 19 in 1992, Clinton 14 in 1996 and Bush Jnr 57 in 2004."

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