The nation's largest municipal pension plans are carrying a total unfunded liability of $574 billion, which comes on top of as much as $3 trillion in unfunded pension promises made by the states, according to a report released Tuesday.
The Economist: French Students Striking against their own interest
THE French are having another day of industrial action against President Sarkozy's pensions reforms, which involve raising the minimum retirement age to (gasp) 62. One might expect workers in their 50s to be a bit miffed about this. Everybody else ought surely to reflect on whether a society can afford to let people retire for what might be the last 30 years of their lives. Add in the first 20, which are spent on education, and more than half of the average life will be spent not working.
Perhaps they don't teach maths in French schools. For it seems that children in 300 French high schools are also taking part in the action. Now their motivation might be obvious; they just want to bunk off.
(Another) Warning about the economic effects of "Peak Oil"
The world faces decades of economic turmoil and a vicious cycle of recessions as oil supplies run low and prices spike, according to a Parliamentary research paper.
The paper, The Next Oil Shock, says that known oil reserves would last for another 25 to 32 years, but an oil ''supply crunch'' could occur in 2012 or shortly afterwards as demand rises and supplies fail to keep pace.
It was likely to be followed by a pattern of supply and demand crises.
''While the world will not run out of oil reserves for decades to come, it cannot indefinitely continue to produce oil at an increasing rate from the remaining reserves. Forecasts indicate that world oil production capacity will not grow or fall in the next five years while demand will continue to rise.
''There is a risk that the world economy may be at the start of a cycle of supply crunches leading to price spikes and recessions, followed by recoveries leading to supply crunches.''
NYT: Rising Corn Prices Mean Higher Food Prices
First it was heat and drought in Russia. Then it was heat and too much rain in parts of the American Corn Belt. Extreme weather this year has sent grain prices soaring, jolting commodities markets and setting off fears of tight supplies that could eventually hit consumers’ wallets.
Is Your Dog a Pessimist?
Dogs can be worried and pessimistic just like people, researchers report in a new study in Current Biology. And they aren’t talking about basset hounds: those dogs just look as if they expect the worst.
What the scientists say is that dogs that exhibit anxiety when left home alone by their owners may have bigger problems — they may be in a permanent bad mood.
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