A stimulus budget from Canada's new Liberal government, combined with a modest recovery in oil and non-commodity exports, makes it likely the Bank of Canada's next move will be an interest rate rise rather than a cut.
The low- or middle-income trap phenomenon has been widely studied in recent years. Although economic growth during the postwar period has lifted many low-income economies from poverty to a middle-income level and other economies to even higher levels of income, very few countries have been able to catch up with the high per capita income levels of the developed world and stay there. As a result, relative to the U.S. (as a representative of the developed world), most developing countries have remained, or been "trapped," at a constant low- or middle-income level.
Such a phenomenon raises concern about the validity of the neoclassical growth theory, which predicts global economic convergence. Specifically, economics Nobel Prize winner Robert Solow suggested in 1956 that income levels in poor economies would grow relatively faster than income in developed nations and eventually converge with the latter through capital accumulation. (See sidebar.) He argued that this would happen as technologies in developed nations spread to the poor countries through learning, international trade, foreign direct investment, student exchange programs and other channels.1
But the cases in which low- or middle-income countries have successfully caught up to high-income countries have been few.
At his news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on the night of several Super Tuesday victories, Republican front-runner Donald J. Trump bragged about the new voters he had drawn into to the party’s nomination process. As heexplained:
Look, we have expanded the Republican Party. When you look at what’s happened in South Carolina and you see the kind of numbers that we got, in terms of extra people coming in. They came from the Democratic Party, or the Democrat Party, and they’re Democrats and they’re longtime Democrats and they were never going to switch and they all switched. And they were independents. And we’ve actually expanded the party.
As a result of this expansion, he concluded, “I think we’re going to win in November.”
Is he right?
In any event, the 2,000 people who packed out the London Palladium for the Guardian’s first live debate on the EU referendum were hungry for both more talk about Europe and, possibly, more pantomime. They booed, whistled, roared, shouted and wanted villains to heckle or applaud. And from the stalls only a few things seemed certain.
1. People hate it when politicians don’t give direct answers. (“Answer the question!” was a favourite heckle).
2. Those who show up for debates have probably already decided in which of the two opposing camps – Brexit or Bremain – they belong.
3. Public engagement on the Europe issue is in fine fettle.
So which side will prevail in June? Will Britain’s fate be decided by trade, the economy, immigration? What about the third of the electorate who are still dithering? And what about the third within each camp who could start dithering again in the next 100 days?
If the Palladium’s clapometer is any guide, the Leave side still has more of the energy and momentum. A louder, more vigorous cheer certainly went up for Brexit than for Bremain when warm-up comedian Andy Zaltzman asked us to declare our hands. Although he got an even bigger cheer when he asked how many would vote for Britain to leave Planet Earth altogether.
Rousseff: Hello.
Rousseff: Lula, let me tell you something.
Lula: Tell me, my love.
Rousseff: It’s this, I am sending Messias [Jorge Rodrigo Araújo Messias, deputy head of legal affairs at the cabinet office] round with the papers, so that we have them, just in case of necessity, that is the terms of office, right?
Lula: Uh-huh. Ok, ok.
Rousseff: That’s all, wait there, he is heading there.
Lula: OK, I’m here. I’ll wait.
Rousseff: Right?
Lula: OK.
Rousseff: Bye.
Lula: Bye, my love.
(2.4m Brazilians took to the streets in horror)
More women than ever use family planning, says the UN, and having one child fewer could dramatically curtail the global population by 2030
The number of women using contraceptives in developing countries has soared to record levels in recent years, such that projections for global population growth could be cut by as much as 1 billion over the next 15 years.
The latest figures by the UN show more women than ever now use family planning, with some poorer regions recording the fastest pace of growth since 2000.
In 2015, an estimated 64% of married women, or women living with a partner, aged between 15 and 49, were using modern or traditional forms of family planning. In 1970, the rate was 36%.
JUST paint it white. That’s what real estate agents say to property owners, who might call in decorators, sign up for Selling Houses Australia or engage their own renovation talents on a property listed for sale.
If only it were that easy. Painting walls white might once have been a default option for homes but now even experts are challenged by choice.
In these days of Pantone perfection, white is no longer a colour. It’s a starting point and by the time most get to end of the colour chart, they realise that there may be 50 shades of grey but there are hundreds of shades of white. And every white tells a story.
Some of that story is told in a book published by Penguin this month called White Rooms by design writers, Karen McCartney and David Harrison. The book presents itself as a guide to using only white in homes.
An entire book devoted to one colour might seem excessive to those who prefer to wander into a hardware store and order a can of white paint but white is serious business to designers across many industries.
DUBAI // A desire for perfect eyebrows or a more grandiose beard means facial hair transplants are in great demand, according to cosmetic surgeons.
Fashion dictates that ladies should have an even, sculpted brow and men a long, bushy beard, but many people struggle to live up to that image.
Men who cannot reach the hirsute heights of their favourite sports or film stars and women who want their eyebrows reshaped or reimagined are keeping the appointment book of Dr Riad Roomi filled.
“The increase in eyebrow transplants is because a lot of women got their eyebrows lasered when it was the fashion to have a narrow eyebrow or had temporary tattoos and killed the hair follicles," said Dr Roomi, plastic surgery and hair restoration surgeon at You New Plastic Surgery. “The follicles are sensitive, if you destroy them they don’t come back."
Full density of a beard cannot be achieved in a single visit, and a patient may require several trips to the doctor. Each hair graft costs Dh10 with some procedures involving up to 2,000 hairs.
“You’re looking at about Dh20,000 for a full beard," said Dr Al Roomi, adding that the number of men opting for beard transplants had doubled in recent years. “The younger generation like beards for fashion," said the doctor, who added that others have religious reasons.
“I had a man who wanted to go to Mecca and wanted a pious look. He had a transplant before he went for his religious duties.
The Alberta Energy Regulator said on Monday it is implementing additional requirements at Canadian Natural Resources Ltd’s Primrose oil sands project after concluding excessive steaming caused a 6,648 barrel bitumen emulsion leak in 2013.
The requirements include permanent limits on the steam volumes the company is allowed to use to extract bitumen from underground reservoirs, and a requirement that CNRL seek approval for each steaming cycle at its Primrose East site.
“The restrictions do amount to a permanent ongoing reduction in the intensity of the company’s operations. The company will not be able to pursue its original operating strategy at Primrose,” Kirk Bailey, executive vice president of operations at the AER said.
CNRL has been operating under steam restrictions at Primrose since the seepage was discovered and in July 2013 company President Steve Laut said the project was producing about 10,000 barrels per day less than previously expected as a result.
Bitumen emulsion – a mixture of bitumen, sand and water – was discovered oozing to the surface at two locations at CNRL’s Primrose project in northern Alberta in May 2013. Two more leaks were discovered over the next month, prompting the AER to impose restrictions on the site and launch an investigation.
Biutmen seepage to the surface as a result of oil sands operations are not permitted under Alberta energy regulations. A number of animals died as a result of the leak, which continued for months, including birds, mammals and amphibians.
The investigation, described by Bailey as one of the most complicated ever undertaken by the AER, concluded the seeps were caused by excessive steam volumes along open conduits such as well bores, natural fractures and faults and hydraulically induced fractures.
Cyclic steam simulation involves injecting high-pressure steam into an oil well to liquefy viscous bitumen so it can flow to the surface.
The AER said it looked at other producers using the same technology for oil sands extraction, such as Imperial Oil , and concluded those projects posed no risk of similar seepages.
After decades of spending billions of dollars to hedge against rising fuel costs, more airlines, including some of the world’s largest, are backing off after getting burned by low oil prices.
When oil prices were rising, hedging often paid off for the airlines, helping them reduce their exposure to higher fuel costs. But the speed of the 58% plunge in oil prices since mid-2014 caught the industry by surprise and turned some hedges into big money losers.
Last year, Delta Air Lines Inc., the nation’s No. 2 airline by traffic, racked up hedging losses of $2.3 billion, while United Continental Holdings Inc., the No. 3 carrier, lost $960 million on its bets.
Meanwhile, No. 1-ranked American Airlines Group Inc., which abandoned hedging in 2014, enjoyed cheaper fuel costs than many of its rivals as a result. “Hedging is a rigged game that enriches Wall Street,” said Scott Kirby, the airline’s president, said in an interview.
Now, much of the rest of the industry is rethinking the costly strategy of using complex derivatives to lock in fuel costs, airlines’ second-largest expense after labor.
The two partners began talks in 2014, four years ahead of the expiration of the 20-year partnership agreement that became Motiva, the sources said.
Saudi wanted to take all three Motiva refineries and acquire Shell's chemical plant in Norco, Louisiana, but Shell refused to give up the Norco chemical plant and adjoining Motiva refinery that supplies it, they said.
"They want to acquire refineries," one of the sources said. "They want to get into chemicals. They want to expand and Shell doesn't."
Shell's reluctance to give up the refineries and chemical plant underscores the financial and strategic value of the plants as it pushes ahead with a large $30 billion asset sale program.
Shell expects to complete the split some time this year pending necessary regulatory approvals, according to an internal memo from John Hollowell, chief executive of Shell Midstream Partners, Shell's pipeline master limited partnership.
The companies intend to start running their respective independent businesses "as quickly, efficiently and safely as possible", it said.
