UN: Water and Energy Must Work Together

Water and energy are vital resources yet are depleting in our world because of the overuse of water.  The United Nations states that they need to be managed together properly because they are interrelated.  The increase of hydraulic fracturing has put pressure on water sources and has led to water contamination.  This is bad for water and the environment and thus how we get electricity needs to be rethought.

The U.N blames this on financial subsidies that are keeping the price of water artificially low. This is caused by governments who make water cheap or free for energy producers.  But this does not give them an incentive to conserve.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/21/water-un-energy-worlddayreport.html

Not just java: Beer and wine coming to Starbucks

Morning coffee stop, study destination, meeting place with friends, and soon to be, evening destination for wine and beer. Starbucks started serving wine and beer in one of their cafes in downtown Seattle, (no surprise), back in 2010. The company waited a while before taking the change further. Currently there are 26 cafes serving alcohol, certainly not Delaware, Ohio, with plans to increase the number to 40 by the end of the year. That is 40 out of nearly 11,000 US cafes, so I'm not holding my breath that Delaware will be on the receiving end of this deal. The move might seem bold but it is an active attempt to increase sales after the morning commute. Starbucks also plans to introduce hors d'œuvres to the alcohol serving cafes. It will be interesting to see how this change effects the brand that Starbucks has built. Could this possible be a more successful attempt on an international scale?

Billions to Capitalists, not Charities

Google CEO Larry Page on Wednesday, March 19 said at a TED Q&A session that instead of giving his billions to philanthropic organizations, he'd rather give his cash to capitalists like Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, SpaceX, and Solar City. Larry Page went further and argued that everyone should give their money to corporations trying to accomplish big things. However, it's still a little unclear to what extent the Google CEO was being serious about the matter.

Do you agree or disagree?

Data Wizard Relaunches New Site

Statistician genius, Nate Silver, has relaunched his FiveThirtyEight website.  Most familiarly known for accurately predicting each state in the 2012 election, the site has been published under ESPN ownership.  Silver says the site will offer more than politics and sports, he claims to cover science, economics, and lifestyle as well.  Silver argues that his 2012 predictions are overrated, and that his new team includes more data visualization and computer programming tactics.  By spanning more coverage areas, he hopes the site will increase popularity and branch away from the 2012 hype.  While “explanatory journalism” has recently increased, Silver claims his staff is “unique and weird nerds, essentially outsiders.” 

 http://www.newsweek.com/data-wizard-nate-silvers-new-site-launches-under-espn-ownership-232154

The Home Front: The Kremlin’s belligerence in Ukraine will ultimately weaken Russia

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21599061-kremlins-belligerence-ukraine-will-ultimately-weaken-russia-home-front

This article makes a very interesting analyses of sanctions that the EU and the US are threatening Russia with. As article points out this is exactly what Mr. Putin wants and it provides him with a great opportunity to blame Russia economic downturn on the West. This might not satisfy the elites, who store their money and buy assets abroad, but considering how slow the West has been in assigning sanctions, they might have enough time to move their cash elsewhere. Putin has been warning the elites, but it mostly lead to capital flight, increase in the cost of borrowing and restriction of the new investments.

Putin is painting a bright picture through the total control of the media sources. But not everyone is buying what Putin is selling even in his own country. The article refers to the letter sent to Putin by a journalist from Vologda, the heart of Russia, provides a clue as to how some ordinary Russians feel. “Could you also send the troops to the Vologda region?” it said. “We are all Russian-speakers here and our rights are really infringed upon: our sick cannot get medication and care, our education is getting worse every year, our agriculture is dead.” I am personally very curious as to how economist got its hands on this letter but regardless this is how a great number of people in Russia feel about Putin and his propaganda machine. 

China’s military spending At the double

China announced a defence budget for 2014 of $132 billion which is an increase of 12.2% on the year before. This sets off a flurry of alarm among neighboring countries. They see the relentless growth in China's military spending- double digit increases almost every year for the past two decades, and now the biggest in three years. This growing military capability causes concern. Even though China's military budget is only about a third the size of America's but, if present trends continue, the gap will quickly narrow. Japan, Korea and Vietnam are raising their military spending in response to the Chinese military build-up, but China will still vastly outspend the combined efforts of all its maritime neighbors. 

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21599046-chinas-fast-growing-defence-budget-worries-its-neighbours-not-every-trend-its-favour

Higher education: Harvard's exit strategy

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/02/higher-education

This article is about how online education might affect higher education. Stanford economist Caroline Hoxby responded to this issue stating that “For top schools, the best bet may simply to preserve their exclusivity.” I agree that top schools must preserve their exclusivity in order to maintain their current business model, but I wonder if the increased popularity for online courses is an indicator that the system needs a change. Competition between universities for professors and attracting students at elite universities is very expensive, as the article explains. Costs of education and costs for universities have increased tremendously. NPR’s Planet Money reports in the article that “In 1984, it cost $10,000 a year to go to Duke University. Today, it’s $60,000 a year.” I would be curious to find out if the quality of education has increased at the same rate. As time goes on, new technologies emerge and more information is available, which has strengthened our education system and also changed the traditional way of educating. Online courses are a new method of education that has been embraced by our society due to its lower costs and flexibility. Better institutions will remain “better” because they will offer more both in online and classroom settings. Whether online or in the classroom, the price of education should be relative to the quality offered. Elite institutions will remain elite if they continue to offer the highest level of education to the students accepted and if the competition for acceptance remains challenging. 

Bargain Retail Taking Over

Nearly everyone in America would say that the Great Recession of 2008 affected them in one way or another. This reigns true today for many "large, old retailers" such as JCPenny and Sears. This article discusses the shift from large anchor stores, such as JCP and Sears, to bargain retailers, specifically big box stores, such as TJ Maxx and Nordstrom Rack. This shift is likely caused by consumers hesitation to spend full price on practically anything, and the satisfaction of buying items at a reduced price. The pain consumers are still feeling from the recession is not likely to disappear any time soon. Are we still in a recession? I believe not, but it is hard to change the minds of consumers as a whole. "In 2013 nearly 10,500 new retail stores opened, compared with about 2,600 closures, according to Factset research." (MacLaughlin, 2014) This is simply a shift in buying styles and will cause businesses to close as well as others to open. The market is the midwife and the undertaker. 

People Think We’re in a Recession. Don’t Blame Them.

Americans were asked if they think we are still in a recession. Majority of them said yes because they cannot find a job or have not received a raise in years. The higher profits and stock prices have not created higher wages for the employees. The current economic policy focuses on improving the overall economic growth and not improvements to employment and wages. The policies that the Obama administration have been put in effect, only help the poor and provide little help to the middle-class. Education and human capital policies have been thought of to help improve the overall growth. Most of these policies will help in the long-run.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/people-think-were-in-a-recession-dont-blame-them/?ref=economy