The gender gap in science

This article from The Economist, talks about the major gender gap present in the field of science and scientific research. The article talked about how less women are present in the science industry especially in the physical science compared to healthcare industry where men dominate by 74%. I think that closing the gender gap in the economy in the field of science can have a positive impact on economic growth and development.

In another article I read earlier, an economist from the Women’s Policy Research predicts that there will be an economic stimulus effect from closing the gender gap in general could help the economy grow by at least 3 to 4 percentage points. Interestingly enough the labor force participation rate for the Unites States for women is significantly lower than in other countries such as Sweden. This gender gap is present due to lack of encouragement for women to join the labor force.

In another article I read earlier in the semester it talked about the pay differences that men and women receive in the US economy and how women are paid significantly lower than men for the same job which in turn leads to discouragement to joining the labor force.

Link http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/03/daily-chart-5

                                                                                                                                                          

U.S. Economy adds 235,000 jobs in Trump's First full month

http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/10/news/economy/february-jobs-report/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom

The article explains how Donald Trump is fulfilling his promise to the American people to create 25 million jobs in 10 years.  Economists explain how unlikely it is that such a feat can be accomplished, however, the first full month of the Trump era shows to be on track to accomplish the goal.  He created quite a few jobs in the manufacturing sector along with the construction sector across the country.  Trump is pushing for better trade deals to even further increase the jobs in the U.S. which is exciting.  On top of the job creation, the country is also seeing better consumer and business confidence levels with increases in the wage levels.  I am anxious to see how things continue to improve moving forward.

E.P.A. Head Stacks Agency With Climate Change Skeptics

This article mentions Scott Pruitt, who ironically is now the leader of the Environment Protection Agency. Pruitt is a former Oklahoma attorney general who throughout his career has sued the agency he now leads. Most of the people assigned to these top positions in EPA are skeptical about climate change and they intent to cut back on the environmental regulations. They see some of these laws as harmful to business and therefore are looking for a way in which they can get rid of them. Gina McCarthy, who was the head of the EPA under Obama’s administration mentioned how it is good to have different opinions on how to meet the mission of the agency. However, she believe that Pruitt is not committed to the agency’s mission.

Douglas Ericksen, a current Washington state senator is being considered as the regional administrator of the E.P.A.’s Pacific Northwest office. Ericksen has been active in opposing a climate change state law that would tax carbon pollution. Unlike these new administrators, Obama had aimed to have better EPA regulations that reduced global warming and the usage of coal-fired plans. Pruitt is expected to mandate a higher fuel economy standards. This, however, will cut the EPA budget by about 24 percent, or $2 billion from $8 billion that we spend now.

I find it interesting how the new leaders of the EPA are opposed to laws that deregulate laws that protect our environment. Also, leaders that do not believe in climate change and believe that it is a good idea to cut spending from this program.  

Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/us/politics/scott-pruitt-environmental-protection-agency.html?ref=business&_r=0

China Sees First Monthly Trade Deficit in Three Years

China has just reported its first monthly trade deficit in three years. Imports have increased and output has decreased. Imports are said to have risen due to higher commodity prices and higher domestic demand which are reported to have pushed up imports 38.1%. While imports rose, exports fell 1.3 % resulting in a $9.2 billion trade deficit for the month. While this report may come as a big surprise, imports are expected to eventually slow down to bring China back to where it was. Many researchers believe a surplus is inevitable, and the current rise in imports cannot be sustained long term. Chinese officials are likely to be encouraged by this news as they are wishing to balance the Chinese economy because growth rates have been slow.
It will also be fascinating to see how Donald Trump will react to the possible shift in the Chinese economy. Before taking office, he was highly critical of China and claimed that they manipulate their currency. Since taking office though, he has not touched that subject yet. Maybe this is a sign of a new turn in China's economy, or skeptics may be correct in their assumption that the trade deficit is a blip. Either way, this highlights the influence China's economy has on the rest of the world and even the possibility of a trade balance makes one think about what that means for the world.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39191200

Who's Running Nigeria?

The president, Muhammadu Buhari has been out of the country since January 19th being treated for a mysterious illness.  Meanwhile, the country is experiencing extreme civil and economic unrest.  The economy shrank by 1.5% in 2016, and inflation more than doubled to 18.7% in 12 months.  Much of this can be attributed to conflict within the country; Boko Haram is far from defeated, despite official claims by the government, farmers are still unable to return safely to their fields; 450,000 children are malnourished.  Additionally, clashes between Muslim Fulani herdsmen and largely Christian farmers in southern Kaduna, have killed at least 200 people since December.  Furthermore, oil production has not fully recovered after money-hungry militants attacked pipelines and rigs in the Niger Delta last year.

According to the article, corruption is also a large issue, a lot of “bigwigs” have been arrested, but have not been convicted.  The current president was inaugurated after the collapse of global oil; he reverted to policies that propped up the currency, resulting in a shortage of foreign exchange.  Many foreigners investors have pulled out of the country, deeming it “uninvestable.” The national security (naira) had gained a little bit of traction by February 20th, but Mr. Buhari is wary to accept IMF help, as he blames an IMF-advised devaluation for the coup that ejected him from power in 1985.  As far as the future is concerned, the IMF predicts that economy will expand by 0.8% this year.  However, Nigeria continues to take out expensive domestic and foreign loans; debt is only 15% of GDP but, servicing it is eating up ⅓ of government revenues.  Many Nigerians agree; Mr. Muhammadu Buhari has to come back and implement new policies to rescue their economy.  However, it will be nearly impossible to revitalize the economy without some serious national security changes, and elimination of such rampant corruption.  What is the best course of action for Nigeria?

"Who's Running Nigeria?" The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 04 Mar. 2017. Web. 08 Mar. 2017.

<http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21717787-president-has-been-ill-six-weeks-country-still-needs>.

China cuts growth target to 6.5% this year

The Chinese government has cut down their target growth from 7% last year to a 6.5% for this year's economic goals. The new objective, announced by Premier Li Keqiang, was an address towards the country's rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress. A rubber-stamp parliament, a political metaphor, is used to describe "a person or institution with considerable de jure power but little de facto power". In other words, it is one that rarely disagrees with more powerful entities' choices and, thus, results in a quick or automatic approval of any decisions made without any real debate.

The country's economy has expanded at the slowest pace in the past 26 years. One of Premier Li's proposed solutions to this situation is "to tackle 'zombie enterprises'", which have been overproducing on coal and steel, exceeding the real market demand for such commodities. In describing their current situation, Mr. Li refers to the Chinese economy as being "a butterfly struggling to emerge from a chrysalis". 

Amongst the challenges being faced, he mentions tge overwhelming pollution levels and the "laziness" of a few government officials, which prove to make any proposed solution more difficult to reaching a resolution. In addition, Premier Li has brought out some forecasts predicting a rough year ahead for the country due to the threats of growing protectionist policies, in reference to President Trump's proposed actions on international trade. 

The National People's Congress leaders are looking for ways to deal with some "painful reforms" in order to solve a build-up in the country's debt. But, in the overall grand scheme of things, one of the main concerns goes back to pollution levels, stemming from the heavy manufacturing processes taking place, becoming one of the priorities at the moment. In regards to that issue, Premier Li's statement was as follows: "We will make our skies blue again [...] all sources of industrial pollution will be placed under round-the-clock online monitoring".

Source:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-39137294

Uber has a secret program to foil law enforcement

Since Uber’s inception, the app has had a feature to elude the government efforts to stop drivers from driving without a taxi license, according to the New York Times. The feature, known as “Greyballing,” blocks suspected city officials from calling drivers. When blacklisted officials logged in to Uber, they would be shown a fake map populated with cars that didn’t actually exist. If officials hailed these imaginary cars, the ride would mysteriously get canceled before they got picked up.

Under the rules and regulations in most cities this type of practice is prohibited, but Uber insisted that it was simply a market maker — connecting drivers with riders — and not subject to city taxi regulations. So officials’ only option in many cases was to enforce the law against drivers: fining them or even impounding their cars if drivers were caught picking up passengers without a license.

Uber are dodging the questions surrounding the program especially with comments such as, “This program denies ride requests to users who are violating our terms of service — whether that’s people aiming to physically harm drivers, competitors looking to disrupt our operations, or opponents who collude with officials on secret ‘stings’ meant to entrap drivers,” Uber said in a statement.

The Greyball story follows a line of damaging developments at the company, which represents a time of instability. Less than two weeks ago, a female Uber engineer accused Uber of having a misogynistic culture that turned a blind eye to sexual harassment. Days later, Google’s Waymo unit sued Uber, alleging that Uber used stolen Waymo technology in its own self-driving cars. Then video surfaced of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick lecturing a driver about “responsibility” during an argument about Uber’s falling fares.