Written by Econintersect
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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.
This feature is published Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in the late afternoon New York time. For early morning review of headlines see “The Early Bird” published Monday through Friday in the early am at GEI News (membership not required for access to “The Early Bird”.).
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Topics today include 18 articles and 8 graphics:​
- The two-year Wells Fargo horror story just won’t end
- 10 Diseases That Could Be Cured in Your Lifetime
- U.S. pensions among the world’s largest funds
- Snatchers get snatched
- The Financial Instability Hypothesis
- The most and least educated U.S. religious groups
- Wind power market to reach 60 GW in 2018, Asia keeps lead
- White House blasts ‘reckless’ Woodward, doesn’t rule out possibility of lawsuit
- George Conway retweets slew of polls showing Trump approval in decline
- Hurricane Florence gaining size, strength on way to the Carolinas
- Tropical Cyclone Update for September 8, 2018 – Storms Approaching Land
- ‘I may never have a normal life again’: Stormy Daniels speaks out in rare television interview
- Company offers to drop Stormy Daniels’ hush-money agreement
- 50 Years of Discretionary Spending
- Sweden faces political impasse after far-right election gains
- More than 30,000 displaced in Syria’s Idlib in latest offensive: U.N.
- Iran ordered to pay $104.7 million over 1996 truck bomb attack: U.S. judge
- North Korea’s Kim asks Trump for another meeting in new letter
- And More
Special notice: Due to staff travel there will be no “What We Read Today Columns” Wednesday and Friday 12 September and 14 September.
Articles about events, conflicts and disease around the world
Global
- Wind power market to reach 60 GW in 2018, Asia keeps lead (Renewables Now) Annual wind power capacity additions in 2018 will reach 60 GW, with 29 GW of that installed in Asia, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) forecasts.
China will remain the main growth driver in the sector. In 2014 it added an “astonishing” 23 GW of new wind power generation capacity and surpassed a cumulative total of 114 GW. According to GWEC, the country is well on the way to reach its 200-GW wind goal well before 2020.
U.S.
- White House blasts ‘reckless’ Woodward, doesn’t rule out possibility of lawsuit (The Hill) The White House on Monday labeled Bob Woodward “reckless” and “careless” after some administration officials refuted claims attributed to them in his new book “Fear: Trump in the White House,” ratcheting up its war of words with the Watergate reporter. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also didn’t rule out a lawsuit against Woodward:
“A number of people have come out and said Woodward never even reached out to corroborate statements attributed to them, which seems incredibly reckless for a book to make such outrageous claims to not even take the time to get a $10 fact-checker to call around and verify that some of these quotes happened. When no effort was made it seems like a very careless and reckless way to write a book,” she added.
- George Conway retweets slew of polls showing Trump approval in decline (The Hill) George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, on Monday retweeted a series of tweets that show President Trump’s approval rating sinking. As of Monday afternoon, Conway, a conservative lawyer, had retweeted seven tweets that cited various polls about Trump’s declining approval.
Conway has frequently criticized Trump throughout his presidency, and retweeted last week’s anonymous New York Times op-ed warning that Trump is a dangerous and amoral leader.
- Hurricane Florence gaining size, strength on way to the Carolinas (ABC News) The National Hurricane Center said on Monday evening that Hurricane Florence is getting bigger and stronger as it makes its way across the Atlantic Ocean and toward the East Coast. It now has maximum sustained winds of 140 mph, making it a Category 4 hurricane. Recent data from a hurricane hunter aircraft showed the size of hurricane force winds has doubled in just the past 12 hours, and there’s no sign the storm has peaked. For frequently updated coverage, see Tropical Cyclone Update for September 8, 2018 – Storms Approaching Land.
- ‘I may never have a normal life again’: Stormy Daniels speaks out in rare television interview (The Washington Post) Adult-film star Stormy Daniels said her safety has been threatened this year as her public profile grows and described feeling scared of “some pissed-off Trump supporter or fan coming after me, doing something stupid” as she pursues two lawsuits against President Trump.
In a rare television interview broadcast Thursday in the Netherlands, Daniels described how her role in the legal and political drama that has ensnared the White House dealt a fatal blow to her marriage and has prompted “hurtful” criticism on social media about her parenting.
- Company offers to drop Stormy Daniels’ hush-money agreement (Associated Press) The company set up by Donald Trump’s former personal attorney offered Friday to rescind Stormy Daniels’ hush-money agreement and drop its planned $20 million lawsuit against the porn actress for allegedly violating the deal.
An attorney for Essential Consultants said the company wants Daniels to repay the $130,000 she was paid as part of the nondisclosure agreement, which was signed days before the 2016 presidential election, according to a letter included in a Friday night court filing.
- 50 Years of Discretionary Spending (Twitter)
55 years of U.S. discretionary spending in 60 seconds pic.twitter.com/tTKTjece8H
— Will Geary (@wgeary) September 7, 2018
Sweden
- Sweden faces political impasse after far-right election gains (Reuters) Sweden faces a political impasse after its mainstream center-left and center-right blocs virtually tied in an election on Sunday, while the far-right – which neither wants to deal with – made gains on a hardline anti-immigration platform.
Syria
- More than 30,000 displaced in Syria’s Idlib in latest offensive: U.N. (Reuters) More than 30,000 people have so far fled their homes in northwest Syria since Syrian government and allied forces resumed air and ground bombardments there last week, the U.N. agency coordinating relief efforts said on Monday.
Iran
- Iran ordered to pay $104.7 million over 1996 truck bomb attack: U.S. judge (Reuters) A federal judge in Washington, D.C. on Monday ordered Iran to pay $104.7 million to victims of a June 1996 truck bombing in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. military personnel, though it is unclear when and how the plaintiffs might collect.
North Korea
- North Korea’s Kim asks Trump for another meeting in new letter (Reuters) U.S. President Donald Trump received a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un asking for a second meeting and the White House is already looking at scheduling one, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Monday.
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Other Scientific, Health, Political, Economics, and Business Items of Note – plus Miscellanea
- The two-year Wells Fargo horror story just won’t end (CNN) Wells Fargo can’t wake up from the nightmare that began exactly two years ago. What sounded at first like a run-of-the-mill bank settlement – a $185 million payment to atone for “sales practices” – has morphed into a cascade of scandals that has rocked one of America’s most storied banks to its core. It started in September 2016, when Wells Fargo shocked the nation and announced it had fired 5,300 workers over several years for creating millions of fake accounts. But that was just the beginning as this article recounts.
- 10 Diseases That Could Be Cured in Your Lifetime (Readers Digest) The list:
- Heart Disease
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Leukemia and lymphoma
- Breast cancer
- Lung Cancer
- Colon Cancer
- Ovarian Cancer
- Childhood Epilepsy
- Stroke
- Cystic fibrosis
- U.S. pensions among the world’s largest funds (Employee Benefit Adviser) U.S. pension funds command the greatest share of assets of the world’s 300 largest funds, according to the latest research from Willis Towers Watson’s Thinking Ahead Institute. More than one-third (36.7%) of the $18.1 trillion invested globally in pensions are in 133 U.S. funds, including the $531 billion Federal Retirement Thrift fund for U.S. civil service employees and retirees, the world’s fourth largest pension fund. Five non-public sector funds are among the top 50: Boeing with $122 billion; AT&T with $114 billion; IBM with $104 billion; General Motors with $96 billion; and General Electric with $79 billion.
only 17% of the total $18.1 trillion is invested in company-sponsored pension plans. The bulk of the money (68.6%) is held in sovereign and public sector pension funds, according to the research.
- Snatchers get snatched (Quartz) Alas, our love for flytraps is not enough to save them. In fact, it’s actually what sent them spiraling towards extinction. In nature, they’re only found within 90 miles of Wilmington, North Carolina – and nowhere else on Earth – and as they hit the market the tiny population shrunk.
Today, only 35,000 flytraps remain in the wild. And while poaching has since subsided (the vast majority are grown in greenhouses, including those sold to big box stores) other threats like habitat loss and fire suppression are on the rise. One glimmer of hope for the flytrap remains: The U.S. government is reviewing a petition to list flytraps as endangered, which would grant them federal protection.
- The Financial Instability Hypothesis (Hyman Minsky, Levy Economics Institute) A classic, ignored for years, is now receiving appropriate study. From the conclusion:
- The most and least educated U.S. religious groups (Pew Research Center) Attainment of a four-year college degree in the United States, often regarded as a key asset for economic success, varies by race and gender. But the share of people completing a college education also differs by religion, with members of some faith groups much more educated, on average, than others.
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