1. Germany’s Political Fragmentation May Pose Challenge
for Merkel
The New York Times September 16, 2013
FRANKFURT — The real political drama in Germany this year may
get under way only after Chancellor Angela Merkel faces
the voters.
As state elections in Bavaria underlined on
Sunday, Ms. Merkel’s personal popularity conceals a high degree of political
fragmentation. That could make it tricky for her to assemble a governing
coalition, especially if her center-right Christian Democratic Party performs
the way polls suggest, winning this Sunday’s national election but falling
short of an outright majority.
Her current coalition partner, the Free
Democratic Party, did so poorly in the Bavarian election that it might emerge
from the national vote with no seats. That could force Ms. Merkel, who is
seeking a third term, to make a power-sharing deal with the main opposition
party, the more left-leaning Social Democrats.
Meanwhile, pop-up parties — notably the
anti-euro Alternative for Germany — have occupied
political space vacated by Ms. Merkel as she moved left on issues like a
national minimum wage and nuclear power.
The situation underlines the major role that
small parties can play in German politics and the growing willingness of German
voters to switch from one party to another.
“It used to be that 30 percent of the voters
would vote for the Christian Democrats no matter what the party said or did,”
said Stephan Werhahn, a grandson of Konrad Adenauer, the country’s first
postwar chancellor.
“Today the voters orient themselves according
to their personal interests,” said Mr. Werhahn, a Munich lawyer who himself
defected from the Christian Democrats to a minor party last year but then
returned this year. “The parties have had to take over more issues that are not
in harmony with their basic principles, in order to attract these voters.”
2. In Surprise, Fed Decides to Maintain Pace of Stimulus
The New York Times September
18, 2013
WASHINGTON — It turns out that the Federal
Reserve is not quite ready to let go of its extra efforts to help the economy
grow.
All summer, Federal Reserve officials said
flattering things about the economy’s performance: how strong it looked, how
well it was recovering, how eager they were to step back and watch it walk on
its own.
But, in a reversal that stunned economists
and investors on Wall Street, the Fed said on Wednesday that it would postpone
any retreat from its monetary stimulus campaign for at least another month and
quite possibly until next year. The Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, emphasized
that economic conditions were improving. But he said that the Fed still feared
a turn for the worse.
He noted that Congressional Republicans and
the White House were hurtling toward an impasse over government spending. That
was reinforced on Wednesday, when House leaders said they would seek to pass a
federal budget stripping all financing for President Obama’s signature health
care law, increasing the chances of a government shutdown.
And the Fed undermined its own efforts when
it declared in June that it intended to begin a retreat by the end of the year,
causing investors to immediately begin to demand higher interest rates on
mortgage loans and other financial products, a trend that the Fed said
Wednesday was threatening to slow the economy.
“We have been overoptimistic,” Mr. Bernanke
said at a news conference Wednesday. The Fed, he said, is “avoiding a
tightening until we can be comfortable that the economy is in fact growing the
way that we want it to be growing.”
Investors cheered the Fed’s hesitation. The
Standard & Poor’s 500 stock-index rose 1.22 percent, to close at a record
high, in nominal terms. Interest rates also fell; the yield on the benchmark
10-year Treasury reversed some of its recent rise.
3.
Wider
understanding
How the
bacteria in your gut may be shaping your waistline
The Economist Sep 14th 2013
A
CALORIE is a calorie. Eat too many and spend too few, and you will become obese
and sickly. This is the conventional wisdom. But increasingly, it looks too
simplistic. All calories do not seem to be created equal, and the way the body
processes the same calories may vary dramatically from one person to the next.
This is
the intriguing suggestion from the latest research into metabolic syndrome, the
nasty clique that includes high blood pressure, high blood sugar, unbalanced
cholesterol and, of course, obesity. This uniquely modern scourge has swept
across America, where obesity rates are notoriously high. But it is also doing
damage from Mexico to South Africa and India, raising levels of disease and
pushing up health costs.
Metabolic
syndrome can still be blamed on eating too much and exercising too little. But
it is crucial to understand why some foods are particularly harmful and why
some people gain more weight than others. Thankfully, researchers are beginning
to offer explanations in a series of recent papers.
One debate concerns the villainy of glucose, which is found in
starches, and fructose, found in fruits, table sugar and, not surprisingly,
high-fructose corn syrup. Diets with a high “glycaemic index”, raising glucose
levels in the blood, seem to promote metabolic problems. David Ludwig of Boston
Children’s Hospital has shown that those on a diet with a low glycaemic index
experience metabolic changes that help them keep weight off, compared with
those fed a low-fat diet. This challenges the notion that a calorie is a
calorie. Others, however, blame fructose, which seems to promote obesity and
insulin resistance. Now a study published in Nature Communications by Richard Johnson, of the University
of Colorado, explains that glucose may do its harm, in part, through its
conversion to fructose.
4. Iran's president calls for 'constructive' dialogue,
end to 'unhealthy' rivalries
CNN September 20, 2013
Iran: We want "constructive engagement"
(CNN) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made his case Thursday to the American
people and the world for "a constructive approach" to contentious
issues including his nation's nuclear program, arguing that failing to engage
"leads to everyone's loss."
"We must work
together to end the unhealthy rivalries and interferences that fuel violence
and drive us apart," Rouhani said in an op-ed published Thursday evening
on the Washington Post's website.
It's not the first time
a leader from a country often at odds with the United States has used its
newspapers to convey his or her views. Just last week, for instance, Russian
President Vladimir Putin argued against international military intervention in
Syria and jabbed his U.S. counterpart for saying Americans should consider
themselves "exceptional" -- a remark that quickly elicited derision
from across the U.S. political spectrum.
But Rouhani's tone
differed from Putin's, echoing the theme of "prudence and hope" and
the promise of more positive engagement with the rest of the world that helped
propel him to an election win in June.
"To move beyond impasses
... we need to aim higher," he said. "Rather than focusing on how to
prevent things from getting worse, we need to think -- and talk -- about how to
make things better."
Contending "the age
of blood feuds" and the idea of diplomacy as a "zero-sum game"
no longer apply in a "changed" world, Rouhani said leaders should
engage each other "on the basis of equal footing and mutual respect."
"My approach to
foreign policy seeks to resolve ... issues by addressing their underlying
causes," he said. "We must work together to end the unhealthy
rivalries and interferences that fuel violence and drive us apart."
Chief among those
issues, for Iran, is its nuclear program. Iranian officials have insisted its
aim is peaceful and for energy purposes only, but skeptical U.S., Israeli and
other officials accuse Tehran of working to develop nuclear weapons. Iran's
lack of openness on the issue and its perceived lack of cooperation with
international nuclear authorities, have led to stringent international
sanctions and increased tensions in the region.
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