Why the Economic Recovery Is Slowing Down

John Kenneth Galbraith, one of the most famous practitioners of the high-minded guessing game known as economics, once noted that in the dismal science, “the majority is always wrong.” How else to explain the fact that so many economists upgraded their growth forecasts for the American economy at the end of last year, often to well above 3%, when the numbers so far this year have come in below 2%? The plunge is due to many things, from higher food and oil prices to supply-chain disruptions in the wake of the Japanese nuclear disaster to a terrible housing market.

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Blame It on Teletubbies

Who wouldn’t love an easy explanation for autism, the heartbreaking brain disorder whose rates have been rising sharply and mysteriously over the past 30 years? History has served up many possibilities, beginning with a now discredited theory put forward by psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, who famously attributed the condition to uncaring “refrigerator moms.” Today autism is thought to involve a genetic vulnerability that’s triggered by an unknown X factor, or factors, in the environment

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China raises financial institution reserves to curb lending, ease inflation

China ordered its banking institutions Friday to maintain back more funds as reserves in its newest transfer to curb lending and cool a spike in inflation The buy raising reserves 0.5% of deposits is the second this kind of move this year by the central financial institution and follows 6 reserve raises in 2010. Reserves […]

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French Red Cross worker abducted in Darfur

Several armed men Thursday abducted a French national working for the Red Cross in Sudan’s volatile Darfur region, the agency said. China has also become the biggest vehicle market in the world this year and car sales expanded an extraordinary 78 per cent last month from a year ago.

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The White House Readies a Stealth Stimulus

White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett was adamant Sunday, when asked if President Obama was considering a so-called “second stimulus” to deal with the rising unemployment rate. “I think it’s too soon, it’s premature to say is a second stimulus needed,” she told David Gregory, the host of NBC’s Meet the Press

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