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| dari Noorsha |
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| dari Nor (Secubit Garam) |
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| dari Nur (Ceturan Rasa) |
A recent article in The Economist discusses the widespread famine currently plaguing Eastern Africa as a result of severe drought in the region. The famine is concentrated in Somalia and Ethiopia, as shown in the map of the region included in the article (right), which shows the percent below normal precipitation levels of the region. The area being hit hardest, with precipitation less than 50% of its normal levels, is southern Somalia. According to surveys conducted by Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) across southern Somalia this month, malnutrition exceeds 38% in most areas. The article discusses the UN's response to the famine at the beginning of this month, suggesting it was slightly delayed considering the famine was predicted as early as November, and refers to the response of donors as "patchy." Some of the donors' hesitancy can be attributed to the Shabab, an Islamist militia in Somalia that controls much of the southern region and has banned Western aid, which it has labeled anti-Muslim. Donors may be concerned about violence against Western aid workers that has occurred in the past in the region and that food aid could be used to support the militia.
According to a study published last week by Pew Research Center, Hispanic families experienced the greatest decline in net worth of all ethnic and racial groups in the US during the recession. The study used US Census data and found that the median wealth of Hispanic households decreased 66% from 2005 to 2009. This and the percent change in median household net worth of other racial and ethnic groups can be seen in the chart (right) that was included in a recent New York Times article discussing the results of the study. As the chart indicates, the Asian population experienced the second largest decrease in net worth at a 54% decrease between 2005 and 2009, while the Black population also experienced a large decrease in net worth at 53%. Whites fared comparatively well to all other races and ethnicities, only experiencing a decrease of 16%. Consequently, the US is currently experiencing the greatest wealth disparities in the 25 years the Census Bureau has been recording data of this nature, with the median wealth of white households now 20 times that of Black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households. The author of the article, Sabrina Tavernise, speculates that Hispanics were particularly vulnerable economically during the recession because nearly two-thirds of their net worth in 2005 was from home equity, which declined sharply with the collapse of the housing market. Whites, on the other hand, had a greater portion of their wealth in other assets, such as stocks. Ms. Tavernise also points out that Hispanics may have been more vulnerable due to the large Hispanic populations in places like Florida and California, which were hit particularly hard by the recession.
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| Cheesy Wedges and Creamy Coleslaw |
A recent article in The Economist discusses legislation that is being passed, mainly in Europe, that promotes greater female representation in board rooms and executive committees. European countries that have passed such legislation include Norway, which passed a law in 2003 that required all publicly listed firms to reserve 40% of seats on their boards for women by 2008, and France and Spain, which have both passed similar legislation. Earlier this month, the European Parliament passed an EU-wide resolution that called upon member states to require that at least 40% of seats on listed companies' supervisory boards be reserved for women by 2020. This legislation is in response to a lack of female chief-executives in large companies that persists even in the world's wealthiest countries. In the US, for example, only 15 chief executives of Fortune 500 countries are women while in France, none of their CAC 40 share index firms have chief executives that are women. The chart to the right conveys this by showing the percentage of board members and percentage of the executive committee that were women in 2010. Norway had the highest percentage of female board members at a little over 30% while it fell somewhere between 5 and 15% for most other countries.
A recent Daily Chart blog on The Economist's website includes an interactive graphic cre
ated by Congressional Quarterly that breaks down the U.S. federal debt by its various bondholders. As of the end of March, the total federal debt was 14.27 trillion dollars to holders of US Treasury securities. The two graphics below indicate these holders of US Treasury securities and the amount that they hold in billions of dollars. As the chart indicates, the three nations that hold the largest amount of US debt are China (with 1.15 trillion dollars), Japan (with 906.9 billion dollars) and the United Kingdom (with 333 billion dollars). It is important to note that this doesn't necessarily mean that the governments or central banks of these countries own the securities, but are simply the location of the securities. Additionally, about 4.61 trillion dollars of the federal debt is held by US government accounts, over half of which (2.61 trillion dollars) is held by Social Security trust funds. Who actually holds the federal debt has become relevant recently, as a government default has become a feasible possibility with the approach of the debt ceiling deadline (August 2nd). As a related Congressional Quarterly article discusses, an increase in the debt ceiling is necessary to prevent a default so that the government can continue to borrow in order to meet its financial obligations.
A recent article in the Economist discusses the rising costs of food stamps in recent years. As the chart (right) indicates, costs have risen from $35 billion in 2008 to $65 billion last year. Participation has also increased, as nearly 45 million (or one in seven) Americans were recipients of food stamps in April 2011. With budget debates continuing, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have proposed a 20% reduction in spending on the program by 2015 in their budget outline for next year. The author of this article points out, however, that benefits are "far from lavish," the average being $133 a month, and the recipients are the neediest portion of the population. About half of recipients are children and 18% are elderly. To be eligible, recipients must be receiving an income of 130% or less of the poverty line, but 41% of recipients earn half of that amount or less and 18% earn no income at all. The author also discusses the economic benefits of the food stamps program, quoting Jim Weill of the Food Research and Action Centre, who argues that food stamps stimulate the economy more than other forms of government spending because the money is typically spent immediately due to the low income of recipients.
In a recent FiveThirtyEight blog post, Nate Silver rated each governor's political ideology and the ideology of voters in the governor's state on a scale from liberal to conservative. He found that Republican governors--unlike their Democratic counterparts--are abandoning the middle, and are often taking conservative stances that outpace the more moderate views of the voters who elected them to office.
