Economy
Many Americans say their financial situation is worse since the Great Recession (Adam)
More than half of Americans who were adults amid the Great Recession said they endured some type of negative financial impact, Bankrate found. And half of those people say they’re doing worse now than before the crisis.
Trump Has Gotten China to Lower Its Tariffs. Just Toward Everyone Else. (edelinski)
Another important implication of China’s action is that Americans are likely suffering more than President Trump thinks due to his trade war. Inflicting such punishment on Americans may be one factor motivating China. A separate motivation may be that it is trying to minimize the harm to its own economy by importing vital goods at better prices from other parts of the world.
Awakening to the Traumacene (Eric G.)
I wonder if the impulses that lead us to transform our world emerge from a profound sense of disconnection, one rooted in millennia of accumulated trauma. I use this essay to explore this idea, and invite you to scrutinize it along with me. The seed of this particular wondering was planted years ago when I first read Jack Forbes’ book Columbus and Other Cannibals. In it he describes wétiko, an infectious spirit driven by greed, aggression and selfish consumption that emerges from native lore and legend.
When Social Security Runs Out: What the Program Will Look Like in 2035 (Adam)
Part of the problem can be attributed to longer life expectancies, a smaller working-age population and an increase in the number of retirees. By 2035, the number of Americans 65 and older will increase to more than 77 million from about 52.4 million today. As a result, more people will be taking money out of the Social Security system — but there will be fewer people paying into it.
How the FCC lost a year in “the race to 5G” (edelinski)
A year ago, the Trump FCC announced a proposal to reallocate such C-band spectrum for 5G. With much fanfare, the FCC trumpeted a plan to outsource to the satellite companies the process of auctioning these airwaves. Rather than the kind of open and transparent auction process the agency has followed since the first spectrum auction in 1994, the Trump FCC declared it would be “faster” to embrace what they called a “marketplace approach” in which the licensees took over the job traditionally done by the FCC.
Blood Types May Soon Be Indifferent As Scientists Use Our Gut Bacteria to Make ‘Universal’ Blood Type (Thomas R.)
“By screening a library of gut microbiome enzymes using fluorogenic substrates that mimic the blood antigen carbohydrates, we identified a set of enzymes expressed by a particular bacterium, Flavonifractor plautii, that are able to cleave the A antigen very efficiently.
Meanwhile, over on Planet Japan (thc0655)
This year’s ‘Annual Report on Ageing Society’ plainly stated this reality; it was a brutally honest assessment of Japan’s underfunded pension program.
The report went on to tell people that they needed to save their own money for retirement because the pension fund wouldn’t be able to make ends meet.
The diet that’s shrinking your brain (Adam)
“We’ve found strong evidence that people’s unhealthy eating habits and lack of exercise for sustained periods of time puts them at serious risk of developing type 2 diabetes and significant declines in brain function, such as dementia and brain shrinkage,” Prof Cherbuin said.
The Worst Patients In The World (tmn)
Recriminations tend to focus on how Americans pay for health care, and on our hospitals and physicians. Surely if we could just import Singapore’s or Switzerland’s health-care system to our nation, the logic goes, we’d get those countries’ lower costs and better results. Surely, some might add, a program like Medicare for All would help by discouraging high-cost, ineffective treatments.
Saving the Planet With Electric Cars Means Strangling This Desert (tmn)
Atacama has become one of the busiest mining districts on the planet in the intervening decades, following discoveries of massive deposits of copper and lithium. In recent years that mining has intensified, thanks to booming demand for lithium, which is indispensable in the production of rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles. Chile exported nearly $1 billion of lithium last year, almost quadruple the export value from four years ago.
Largest Animal Epidemic in History Is Due to Industrial Farming (Don R.)
The African Swine Fever outbreak, which has now spread to China, could result in the slaughter of 200 million hogs this year, in an effort to get the disease under control. Rob Wallace of the Agroecology and Rural Economics Research Corps outlines the causes and possible solutions
Oil price drop would dampen the offshore rebound (newsbuoy)
The producer’s decision becomes a bet on future oil prices, and possibly further cost reductions. Given the short time to reach cash flow of shale projects, the risk of misjudging the direction of oil prices is muted. On the other hand, offshore, especially deepwater projects, is full of risk from oil prices. When a new field begins producing, oil prices can be wildly different than those that were predicted at the time of the go decision. If offshore output fortuitously begins when oil prices are high, producers reap the benefit. If prices are low, executives must grin and bear it.
Biblical plague of locusts is swarming over Italian farmlands. Could it happen in the US? (Sparky1)
In 2013, a massive swarm of locusts roughly 30 million strong hit Egypt and the Middle East, and in 2004, an infestation in Africa and the Middle East cost $400 million as well as harvest losses of $2.5 billion, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.
AccuWeather’s new analysis predicts substantial 2019 crop yield shortfall (newsbuoy)
Corn and soybean planting remain well below normal, according to Monday’s latest USDA Crop Progress compared to the average from 2014-18. The Crop Progress indicated just 83% of corn was planted in 18 key corn-producing states. The 2014-18 average for corn planted by June 9 is 99%, so planting is off 16.1% in comparison.
Gold & Silver
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The post Daily Digest 6/15 – The Diet That’s Shrinking Your Brain, Awakening to the Traumacene appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
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