Early Headlines: End of Humanity, Ex-King Coal, Bernie Who?, Greece End Game, Australian Housing Boom and More

Early Bird Headlines 21 June 2015

Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.

Global

• A child born today may live to see humanity’s end, unless . . . (Reuters) Humans will be extinct in 100 years because the planet will be uninhabitable, said the late Australian microbiologist Frank Fenner, one of the leaders in the effort to eradicate smallpox during the 1970s. He blamed overcrowding, denuded resources and climate change. Fenner’s prediction, made in 2010, is not a sure bet, but he is correct that there is no way emissions reductions will be enough to save us from our trend toward doom.
• Earth ‘entering new extinction phase’ – US study (BBC News) A report, led by the universities of Stanford, Princeton and Berkeley, said vertebrates were disappearing at a rate 114 times faster than normal. The findings echo those in a report published by Duke University last year. Econintersect: Hey, aren’t we vertebrates?
• Dethroned and dismayed: ex-King Coal (The Economist) Many people told us this would never happen.

U.S.

• New Orleans policeman shot and killed while transporting suspect (Reuters) Suspect was handcuffed behind his back but was apparently double jointed and got his hands to the front, according to Reuters. The officer was shot but not with his service revolver. Econintersect: Isn’t there another possible scenario involving an accomplice?
• Prison break: Police converge on southwestern N.Y. county (CNN) Police are concentrating on an area near the Pennsylvania border in Allegany County, New York after what has been reported as a “credible sighting“.
  
• Scoop: 25 questions the Koch brothers want every 2016 candidate to answer (The Washington Post) The full list is here.
  
• ‘Who the Hell is Bernie Sanders?’ These Southerners want everyone to know. (The Washington Post) Is this a flash in the pan or a lasting candidacy?

  “I think there is a silent majority that maybe don’t even know they agree with Bernie Sanders” http://t.co/FhT39TSBCG

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 21, 2015

Greece

• Greek ELA and ECB… What’s the Rationale? (Constantin Gurdgiev) CG contributes to GEI. The price of getting Greece ejected or pushed out of the euro has now risen once again as ECB (European Central Bank) added to the ELA (Emergency Loan Assistance) provided to Greek banks amidst a bank run that is sapping as much as €800 million per day. Gurdgiev gives three very different possible rationales for this action, which is exactly the opposite with how the ECB handled a similar situation with Ireland a few years ago.
• EU Commission President Juncker: ‘I Don’t Understand Tsipras’ (Der Spiegel) Hat tip to Roger Erickson. EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker remains committed to preventing a Grexit. But he tells SPIEGEL that his patience is wearing thin: “I don’t believe the Greek government’s response has been sufficient.” As to why Juncker and Tsipras and Juncker can’t understand each other, it may be the way their brains are wired – See this article discussed in What We Read Today for yesterday: How Liberals And Conservatives Think Differently (National Journal).
  

Australia

• Behind the boom: How globalization is helping to push up our property prices (The Sydney Herald) Hat tip to Steve Keen. The value of the world’s goods and services exports has ballooned from 25 per cent of global gross domestic product to more than 45 per cent in the past 40 years. That proportion is set to rise above 50 per cent by the end of this decade. Because international trade predominantly takes place between cities, that shift has had a huge impact on urban trading hubs across the world, including Sydney and Melbourne.

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