Month: July 2013

Fed views economic growth as ‘modest’

FINANCIAL TIMES: The US Federal Reserve downgraded its assessment of the economy on Wednesday but made no changes to policy after second-quarter growth came in at an unexpectedly strong annualised rate of 1.7 per cent… The largely unchanged statement suggests the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee is comfortable with its plan to slow asset purchases […]

The cost of ignorance and politics: $14 trillion

HUFFINGTON POST: …So how bad was it? Really, really bad: The economists say a “conservative” estimate of the damage is $14 trillion, or roughly one year’s U.S. gross domestic product. This is based on how much output was lost during the crisis and Great Recession, along with all the damage done to potential future economic growth.

Bradley Manning Found Guilty Of Multiple Counts, Not Guilty Of Aiding The Enemy

HUFFINGTON POST: Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst who laid bare America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by covertly transmitting a massive trove of sensitive government documents to WikiLeaks, has been convicted on 19 of 21 charges, including 5 counts of espionage. He was found not guilty of aiding the enemy, the most serious and controversial charge laid against him.

Scientists Seek to Rein In Diagnoses of Cancer

The recommendations, from a working group of the National Cancer Institute, were published on Monday in The Journal of the American Medical Association. They say, for instance, that some premalignant conditions, like one that affects the breast called ductal carcinoma in situ, which many doctors agree is not cancer, should be renamed to exclude the word carcinoma so that patients are less frightened and less likely to seek what may be unneeded and potentially harmful treatments that can include the surgical removal of the breast.