RefBan

Referral Banners

Yashi

Friday, March 14, 2014

Baby talk



Babies! They’re (mostly) cute, but they’re increasingly less common in America. In 2012, America’s fertility rate fell slightly to another all-time low -- though it may be closer to bottoming-out as the economy improves. And as economists Melissa Kearney and Phillip Levine write, America has seen a “remarkable 52% decline in teen childbearing since 1991”. Between 2008 and 2012, teen pregnancy fell an astonishing 7.5% per year.

Kearny and Levine say teen pregnancy hasn’t fallen because of any specific US policy. Instead, they cite “broader trends that transcend national borders”, which include “improved contraceptive technology and expanded access to it, along with expanded educational opportunities for young women”. Also a factor: MTV. A recent paper by Kearney and Levine found that the network’s Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant resulted in a 5.7% reduction in teen pregnancies in the 18 months after its debut.

Falling birth rates are now a largely global phenomenon. “The result will be a much older world, a future in which roughly one-in-six people is expected to be 65 and older by 2050, double the proportion today”, Pew reports. In November, Ian Bremmer declared that the world is near “#PeakChild”, using perhaps history’s worst hashtag.  Martin Lewis wrote last year that it’s “extraordinary that the massive global drop in human fertility has been so little noticed by the media”:

In today’s world, high fertility rates are increasingly confined to tropical Africa. Birthrates in most so-called Third World countries have dropped precipitously, and some are now well below the replacement rate. Chile (1.85), Brazil (1.81), and Thailand (1.56) now have lower birthrates than France (2.0), Norway (1.95), and Sweden (1.98).

Of course, birth rates aren’t just about families -- fewer babies mean fewer people to eat, buy, and consume things. Derek Thompson writes “the drop in US fertility rates in recent years has almost certainly had a negative effect on consumer spending (and, in turn, lower birthrates are probably an outcome of the recession)”. Last year, Jonathan Last called for “pronatalist” policies to fight the “demographic disaster” America is approaching, in which we’d have too few young workers to care for an aging population. He’s one of several writers in the coming-demographic-bomb genre.

Germany may already be confronting this kind of demographic conundrum. The NYT reports that Germany is having trouble dealing with increasingly empty smaller towns, and worries of a labor shortage are mounting. “By 2060, experts say, the country could shrink by an additional 19 percent, to about 66 million”. -- Ryan McCarthy

On to today’s links:

Abenomics
The next phase of Abenomics: getting the world's biggest pension fund to take more risk - The Economist

Analogies
How Waiting for Godot explains Iran's economy - NPR

Fail
Why Ukraine's economy is such a mess - Chrystia Freeland

Your Daily Outrage
The racist housing policies that created inner-city American poverty - Jamelle Bouie
In 1967, median white income was 43% higher than median black household income. In 2011: 72% - Ned Resnikoff

China
"China is looking increasingly towards higher domestic debt to sustain its growth rate" - Amit Mian and Amir Sufi

Quotable
A top bank regulator says his agency has "a priest-penitent relationship” with banks - Peter Eavis

Inefficient Markets
Everyone is bad at pricing carbon - Ben Walsh

Legal Arcana
Copyright takedown notices are great for everyone -- except the public - Wired

Politicking
The marijuana lobby wafts onto Capitol Hill - WaPo

Healthcare
How to shave $1 trillion off of US health care spending - NYT

Big Data Fail
Google's flu tracker gets it wrong 3 years in a row - New Scientist

Noble But Futile
One blogger's quest to clean up Wikipedia's most horrendous pie charts for Pi Day - Junk Charts

Want to sign up for the Counterparties email? Click here.

Follow Counterparties on Twitter. And, of course, there are many more links at Counterparties.


 

- 3 Times Square New York, NY 10036 USA © Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters
Ensure delivery of Reuters Newsmails, add mail@nl.reuters.com to your address book. Details
Subscribe to other Reuters newsletters.
Unsubscribe from this newsletter.
Follow us on Twitter facebook Friend us on Facebook Forward this newsletter to a friend Forward to a friend
 

 

Business Today: Wall Street ends lower on jitters over upcoming Crimea vote

Click to View in Browser
03/14/2014
Reuters Election 2012 Daily round-up of the day's top news from the campaign trail, the White House and all the politics in between
Wall Street ends lower on jitters over upcoming Crimea vote
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street ended lower on Friday with all three major stock indexes down for the week, as concerns over tensions between Ukraine and Russia escalated ahead of a referendum in Crimea this weekend.
U.S. regulator sues 16 banks for rigging key interest rate
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation sued 16 of the world's largest banks on Friday, accusing them of colluding to suppress interest rates.
IBM says it has not given client data to the U.S. government
NEW YORK (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp has not relinquished its customers' data to the U.S. government and would challenge any orders to do so, the company said in a blog post on Friday.
U.S. consumer sentiment slips; bad weather eyed
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer sentiment weakened in early March as an unusually harsh winter appeared to dim views on the economy's prospects.
Mexico telecoms reform could take years to unseat Slim
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Tycoon Carlos Slim, under fire from regulators in his home country, has spent the last two years sniffing out deals in Europe to offset an impending regulatory shake-up of Mexican telecoms.
Canada investigating fatal crash for possible link to GM defect
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's transport ministry said on Friday it is investigating a fatal car crash that appears to be related to an ignition defect in cars recalled last month by General Motors Co <GM.N.
Target warns data breach could be worse than reported so far
BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Target Corp warned that last year's massive security breach could have been more extensive than reported so far, leading to further losses at the No. 3 U.S. retailer.
Delaware court upholds Perelman-M&F ruling, may alter buyouts
(Reuters) - Ronald Perelman's buyout of a company he controlled was not subject to heightened court review because the billionaire acted as if he were an outside buyer, according to a Delaware Supreme Court ruling that could affect future insider deals.
Western banks cold-shoulder Iran trade finance scheme
LONDON/ANKARA (Reuters) - Despite a diplomatic thaw, Western banks are steering clear of attempts by Iran to get them involved in financing humanitarian transactions, fearing they could be penalized under U.S. sanctions, bankers and government officials told Reuters.
Vodafone close to deal to buy Spain's Ono: sources
MADRID/LONDON (Reuters) - Shareholders of telecommunications company Ono are close to agreeing a deal with Britain's Vodafone which has offered to buy the Spanish group for about 7.2 billion euros ($10 billion) including debt, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Related Video
Russian economy hurts as sanctions loom
Has copper reached a bottom?
Economic News
U.S. consumer sentiment slips; bad weather eyed
Eyes turn to Russia on record drop in U.S. bond holdings
SUBSCRIBE TO OTHER REUTERS NEWSLETTERS
Counterparties
A daily digest of breaking business news, coverage of the US economy, major corporate news and the financial markets. Register Today  
 Money
The latest Reuters articles on M&A, IPOs, private equity, hedge funds and regulatory updates delivered to your inbox each day. Register Today  
» MORE NEWSLETTERS
- 3 Times Square New York, NY 10036 USA © Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters
Ensure delivery of Reuters Newsmails, add mail@nl.reuters.com to your address book. Details
Subscribe to other Reuters newsletters.
Unsubscribe from this newsletter.
Follow us on Twitter facebook Friend us on Facebook Forward this newsletter to a friend Forward to a friend

Yashi

Chitika