[Shira Ovide] Apple’s iPhone warning comes years too late

The optimistic narrative about Apple’s iPhone business is falling apart in front of our eyes.　The company on Wednesday stunningly slashed its own revenue forecast for its first fiscal quarter that ended in December. Apple led by blaming a slowing economy in China and the trade skirmish with the US for worse-than-expected consumer transactions in the region that includes China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Apple said its first quarter revenue is now expected to fall about 5 percent from a year earlier.

Jan. 7, 2019

[Thomas Spoehr] Five deadly myths of defense spending

It’s both necessary and healthy for the 116th Congress to have a full debate on defense funding. Unfortunately, it’s a near certainty that some members of Congress will muddle that debate by trotting out the following timeworn arguments in an attempt to slash the Pentagon’s budget. Let’s hope our leaders see these assertions for what they truly are: myths.　Myth 1: The US spends more on defense than the next seven countries combined.　Sure, it’s an irrelevant argument. After all, what a nation spe

Jan. 7, 2019

[Faye Flam] Why (some) humans are born to have a beer belly

It’s that time of the year when a middle-aged person’s fancy turns to treadmills and diets. Scientific literature on excess weight and health is expanding along with global waistlines, and yet, it is hard to find a solid, coherent scientific explanation for why some people get fat and others do not, and why some overweight people get Type 2 diabetes and heart disease and others do not.　In the US, beliefs about fat follow a science-y sounding quasi-religious narrative: Our prehistoric ancestors h

Jan. 7, 2019

[William M. McSwain] The feds are focused on ending modern-day slavery in the US

Human trafficking in the form of sexual slavery is a real problem in our country, one that the federal government is fighting hard to dismantle. The ability of traffickers to sell their victims for sex on the internet has caused this problem to proliferate. In response, federal investigative and prosecutorial efforts have increased dramatically in recent years. For example, in 2009, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania initiated a sex-trafficking working group with t

Jan. 6, 2019

[Navneet Manchanda, Vaishali Jain] A few steps on a long journey

The Prime Minister’s Independence Day speech of 2018 marked the announcement of yet another scheme, this time pertaining to the ailing health care situation of India. The National Health Protection Scheme, dubbed “Modicare” is deemed to be one of the largest health insurance schemes in terms of extent and expense. The scheme can be seen as an extension of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana launched by the UPA government in 2008.Like RSBY, AB is targeted at poor, deprived rural families and ident

Jan. 6, 2019

[Adam Minter] No, China Isn’t winning the space race

On Wednesday, China successfully landed its Chang’e-4 spacecraft on the moon’s far side -- an impressive technological accomplishment that speaks to China’s emergence as a major space power. Understandably, some Chinese scientists are taking a victory lap, with one going so far as to gloat to the New York Times that “We Chinese people have done something that the Americans have not dared try.”That cockiness speaks to the spirit of great-power competition animating the Chinese space program. Chin

Jan. 6, 2019

[Faye Flam] Why smart people may be more likely to fall for fake news

One might suspect scientists of belaboring the obvious with the recent study called “Belief in Fake News Is Associated With Delusionality, Dogmatism, Religious Fundamentalism and Reduced Analytical Thinking.” The conclusion that some people are more gullible than others is the understanding in popular culture -- but in the scientific world it’s pitted against another widely believed paradigm, shaped by several counterintuitive studies that indicate we’re all equally biased, irrational and likely

Jan. 3, 2019

[Shira Ovide] Apple’s iPhone warning comes years too late

The optimistic narrative about Apple Inc.’s iPhone business is falling apart in front of our eyes. The company on Wednesday stunningly slashed its own revenue forecast for its first fiscal quarter that ended in December. Apple led by blaming a slowing economy in China and the trade skirmish with the US for worse-than-expected consumer transactions in the region that includes China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Apple said its first quarter revenue is now expected to fall about 5 percent from a year earl

Jan. 3, 2019

[Andy Mukherjee] Bad loan farce gets another rerun in India

A new year, a new central bank governor. Yet the first salvo to come out of the Reserve Bank of India’s policy arsenal in 2019 is encouragement of good old “extend and pretend” lending.Banks and shadow banks are being allowed a one-time restructuring of loans of up to 250 million rupees ($3.6 million) to micro, small and medium enterprises that were in default on Jan. 1, without having to mark them as nonperforming, the RBI said Tuesday. Lenders are being given an extension of 15 months (up to M

Jan. 3, 2019

[Satyajit Das] Five doom loops to navigate in 2019

As the great unwind of global monetary stimulus gains momentum, markets are at increased risk of experiencing doom loops. Investors need to be prepared for these downward spirals, where shocks set off a self-perpetuating sequence of disruptions.There are five doom loops that feed each other in a financial crisis. The collateral doom loop. Declines in the value of stocks, bonds, property or derivatives tied to them trigger margin calls. These demands for collateral absorb cash or necessitate liqu

Jan. 2, 2019

[Eli Lake] How the US should treat Brazil’s Bolsonaro

When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shows up in Brasilia on New Year’s Day for the inauguration of Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, he should prepare for some bad press.The incoming leader of the Western Hemisphere’s second-largest economy campaigned like the strong men of Latin America’s past. One newspaper marked his victory in October with the headline: “Fascism Has Arrived in Brazil.” A headline in a foreign-policy magazine compared his political style to that of Joseph Goebbels.The

Jan. 2, 2019

[Harsha Kakar] Politicians in glass houses should not throw stones

A senior Indian National Congress politician, Veerappa Moily, seeking to counter comments of the country’s air force chief on the Rafale aircraft, termed him a “liar.”This was because the air force chief’s comments were at variance with those of his party. P Chidambaram of the congress subsequently requested the army and air force chiefs stay away from the Rafale controversy, as their words were impacting the congress stand.Earlier another congress leader, Sandeep Dixit, had called the army chie

Jan. 2, 2019

[Christopher Balding] Beijing dithers as the economy declines

China’s annual economic policy summit has come and gone, leaving a wet lump of coal in place of stimulus hopes. Beijing will have to do better if it wants to steer the country to another year of robust growth.The economy started slowing in September, and has only worsened since then. Consumption tax revenue was up 16.3 percent year-to-date as of that month. In the following two months, it collapsed, recording declines of 62 percent and 71 percent from a year earlier. Value-added tax revenue has

Jan. 2, 2019