What We Read Today 10 November 2014

Econintersect: Every day our editors collect the most interesting things they find from around the internet and present a summary “reading list” which will include very brief summaries (and sometimes longer ones) of why each item has gotten our attention. Suggestions from readers for “reading list” items are gratefully reviewed, although sometimes space limits the number included.

• Xi and Abe in landmark meeting (Demetri Sevastopulo, Financial Times) After an icy two years of disputes over islands in the East China Sea Japan and China have “agreed to disagree” and have moved on to have a meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Xi Jinping, the top leaders of the two countries.

• China’s Xi, Japan’s Abe hold meeting (Xinhua.net) The official Chinese government news agency quotes China’s President Xi Jinping:

” … stable and healthy development of Sino-Japanese ties is in line with fundamental interests of people in both countries as well as the common aspiration of the international community.”

• How well does the CPI measure individuals’ health care burden? (Jonathan Bernstein, Sober Look) Bernstein says that CPI estimates of household medical expenses have likely understated the costs for some time. The estimation of CPI-Med to be 5.825% of total consumer expenditures has two implications: (1) About 2/3 of medical expenses (17% of GDP) are employer paid; and (2) those who do not have employer paid health care have inflation seriously underestimated to the extent that medical inflation exceeds overall inflation. In the second case the last few years have had medical inflation relatively close to overall inflation so the impact has been less than 6-10 years ago when medical inflation sometimes doubled overall inflation. Bernstein says the value of CPI-MED in coming years will reflect how quickly employers transfer more and more health care costs to employees.

• Recent articles about Scotland Independence and Similar Movements

Catalonia vote: 80% back independence – officials (BBC News)

Can new powers for Scotland really be delivered within promised timescale? (The Conversation)

• Articles about problems, conflicts and disease around the world

Ebola

Fast-spreading killers: how Ebola compares with other diseases (The Conversation)

Why It’s Not Enough to Just Eradicate Ebola (NBC News)

Syria

Lebanon army arrests Syria rebel commander (Al Arabiya News)

Syria activists say government air raids kill at least 21 in ISIS-held town (Associated Press, Fox News)

Iraq

Iraqi officials say IS leader wounded in airstrike (Associated Press, Yahoo! News)

Obama signals ‘new phase’ against Islamic State in Iraq (BBC News)

Ukraine

Mounting fears of full-scale conflict in Ukraine (AFP, Yahoo! News)

Nervous Kazakhstan ‘sensitive’ about Ukraine question (BBC News)

Russia

In Ukraine, the start of a new Cold War that Russia can’t win (The Conversation)

Brazil

Brazil drought linked to Amazon deforestation (BBC News) Video.

Mexico

Protesters set fire to Mexican palace as anger over missing students grows (The Guardian)

There are 14 articles discussed today ‘behind the wall’.

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