Saturday, January 26, 2013 6:48:55 PM
The widening gap
Jan 3rd 2013, 15:14 by Economist.com
OUR economics editor explains why rising inequality around the world is rapidly becoming a headache for politicians
short video .. http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2013/01/editors-review-2012-economics
=====
Gini out of the bottle
Jan 26th 2013
Deng Xiaoping never said to get rich is glorious. But he did say several times that some people should be allowed to get rich before others. And some have, to the annoyance of others. For the first time in 12 years, China this month officially reported its Gini coefficient for income inequality for 2012 and retrospectively for the past decade. Zero means perfect equality and 1.0 means one person takes all. China scored 0.474 for 2012, having peaked at 0.491 in 2008. Many sceptics (and some substantial research) suggest China's inequality is actually far greater. Whatever the true level, the decision to release the data now shows somebody in the new leadership is paying attention.
From the print edition: China
http://www.economist.com/news/china/21570749-gini-out-bottle
.. as well some evidence that extreme inequality retards economic growth and also mobility (see below) there are other problems .. one, the already wealthy are still, and increasingly, getting a disproportionate share .. two, the existence of extreme inequality does irk many solid citizens doing it particularly hard today .. so we end up with increased stress and anxiety .. and retarded personal growth in population ..
Stress: Constant stress puts your health at risk
Your body's stress reaction was meant to protect you. But when it's constantly
on alert, your health can pay the price. Take steps to control your stress.
By Mayo Clinic staff
Your body is hard-wired to react to stress in ways meant to protect you against threats from predators and other aggressors. Such threats are rare today, but that doesn't mean that life is free of stress.
On the contrary, you undoubtedly face multiple demands each day, such as shouldering a huge workload, making ends meet, taking care of your family, or just making it through the morning rush hour. Your body treats these so-called minor hassles as threats. As a result you may feel as if you're constantly under assault. But you can fight back. You don't have to let stress control your life.
Understanding the natural stress response
If your mind and body are constantly on edge because of excessive stress in your life, you may face serious health problems. That's because your body's "fight-or-flight reaction" — its natural alarm system — is constantly on.
When you encounter perceived threats — a large dog barks at you during your morning walk, for instance — your hypothalamus, a tiny region at the base of your brain, sets off an alarm system in your body. Through a combination of nerve and hormonal signals, this system prompts your adrenal glands, located atop your kidneys, to release a surge of hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol.
Adrenaline increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and boosts energy supplies. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues.
Cortisol also curbs functions that would be nonessential or detrimental in a fight-or-flight situation. It alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes. This complex natural alarm system also communicates with regions of your brain that control mood, motivation and fear.
When the natural stress response goes haywire
The body's stress-response system is usually self-regulating. It decreases hormone levels and enables your body to return to normal once a perceived threat has passed. As adrenaline and cortisol levels drop, your heart rate and blood pressure return to baseline levels, and other systems resume their regular activities.
But when the stressors of your life are always present, leaving you constantly feeling stressed, tense, nervous or on edge, that fight-or-flight reaction stays turned on. The less control you have over potentially stress-inducing events and the more uncertainty they create, the more likely you are to feel stressed. Even the typical day-to-day demands of living can contribute to your body's stress response.
The long-term activation of the stress-response system — and the subsequent overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones — can disrupt almost all your body's processes. This puts you at increased risk of numerous health problems, including:
* Heart disease
* Sleep problems
* Digestive problems
* Depression
* Obesity
* Memory impairment
* Worsening of skin conditions, such as eczema
That's why it's so important to learn healthy ways to cope with the stressors in your life.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress/SR00001
See also:
Corporate Profit Share of GDP Reaches All-Time High Despite Sharia Socialism
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=82274734
Income Inequality May Take Toll on Growth
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=83357230
Tropical Diseases: The New Plague of Poverty
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=78730608
The Great Gatsby Curve
January 15, 2012, 2:34 pm
Alan Krueger, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers — who is not only a colleague of mine at Princeton, but gets a lot of my mail and vice versa — gave a very informative speech .. http://www.americanprogress.org/events/2012/01/krueger.html .. on inequality last week that should have received more press than it did. Much of it was stuff that inequality mavens already know, but he had one striking result that was what I suspected but hadn’t seen demonstrated: a clear negative relationship between inequality at a point in time and intergenerational social mobility.
Below is what he dubs the Great Gatsby Curve. On the horizontal axis is the Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality. On the vertical axis is the intergenerational elasticity of income — how much a 1 percent rise in your father’s income affects your expected income; the higher this number, the lower is social mobility.
[/img]
As he shows, America is both especially unequal and has especially low mobility. But he also argues that because we are even more unequal now than we were a generation ago, we should expect even less social mobility going forward.
more - http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=80526270
Lies, Damned Lies, and Politics
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=71732364
DD - the stat in your
is truly one of the obscenities of our world today ..
Jan 3rd 2013, 15:14 by Economist.com
OUR economics editor explains why rising inequality around the world is rapidly becoming a headache for politicians
short video .. http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2013/01/editors-review-2012-economics
=====
Gini out of the bottle
Jan 26th 2013
Deng Xiaoping never said to get rich is glorious. But he did say several times that some people should be allowed to get rich before others. And some have, to the annoyance of others. For the first time in 12 years, China this month officially reported its Gini coefficient for income inequality for 2012 and retrospectively for the past decade. Zero means perfect equality and 1.0 means one person takes all. China scored 0.474 for 2012, having peaked at 0.491 in 2008. Many sceptics (and some substantial research) suggest China's inequality is actually far greater. Whatever the true level, the decision to release the data now shows somebody in the new leadership is paying attention.
From the print edition: China
http://www.economist.com/news/china/21570749-gini-out-bottle
.. as well some evidence that extreme inequality retards economic growth and also mobility (see below) there are other problems .. one, the already wealthy are still, and increasingly, getting a disproportionate share .. two, the existence of extreme inequality does irk many solid citizens doing it particularly hard today .. so we end up with increased stress and anxiety .. and retarded personal growth in population ..
Stress: Constant stress puts your health at risk
Your body's stress reaction was meant to protect you. But when it's constantly
on alert, your health can pay the price. Take steps to control your stress.
By Mayo Clinic staff
Your body is hard-wired to react to stress in ways meant to protect you against threats from predators and other aggressors. Such threats are rare today, but that doesn't mean that life is free of stress.
On the contrary, you undoubtedly face multiple demands each day, such as shouldering a huge workload, making ends meet, taking care of your family, or just making it through the morning rush hour. Your body treats these so-called minor hassles as threats. As a result you may feel as if you're constantly under assault. But you can fight back. You don't have to let stress control your life.
Understanding the natural stress response
If your mind and body are constantly on edge because of excessive stress in your life, you may face serious health problems. That's because your body's "fight-or-flight reaction" — its natural alarm system — is constantly on.
When you encounter perceived threats — a large dog barks at you during your morning walk, for instance — your hypothalamus, a tiny region at the base of your brain, sets off an alarm system in your body. Through a combination of nerve and hormonal signals, this system prompts your adrenal glands, located atop your kidneys, to release a surge of hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol.
Adrenaline increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and boosts energy supplies. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues.
Cortisol also curbs functions that would be nonessential or detrimental in a fight-or-flight situation. It alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes. This complex natural alarm system also communicates with regions of your brain that control mood, motivation and fear.
When the natural stress response goes haywire
The body's stress-response system is usually self-regulating. It decreases hormone levels and enables your body to return to normal once a perceived threat has passed. As adrenaline and cortisol levels drop, your heart rate and blood pressure return to baseline levels, and other systems resume their regular activities.
But when the stressors of your life are always present, leaving you constantly feeling stressed, tense, nervous or on edge, that fight-or-flight reaction stays turned on. The less control you have over potentially stress-inducing events and the more uncertainty they create, the more likely you are to feel stressed. Even the typical day-to-day demands of living can contribute to your body's stress response.
The long-term activation of the stress-response system — and the subsequent overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones — can disrupt almost all your body's processes. This puts you at increased risk of numerous health problems, including:
* Heart disease
* Sleep problems
* Digestive problems
* Depression
* Obesity
* Memory impairment
* Worsening of skin conditions, such as eczema
That's why it's so important to learn healthy ways to cope with the stressors in your life.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress/SR00001
See also:
Corporate Profit Share of GDP Reaches All-Time High Despite Sharia Socialism
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=82274734
Income Inequality May Take Toll on Growth
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=83357230
Tropical Diseases: The New Plague of Poverty
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=78730608
The Great Gatsby Curve
January 15, 2012, 2:34 pm
Alan Krueger, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers — who is not only a colleague of mine at Princeton, but gets a lot of my mail and vice versa — gave a very informative speech .. http://www.americanprogress.org/events/2012/01/krueger.html .. on inequality last week that should have received more press than it did. Much of it was stuff that inequality mavens already know, but he had one striking result that was what I suspected but hadn’t seen demonstrated: a clear negative relationship between inequality at a point in time and intergenerational social mobility.
Below is what he dubs the Great Gatsby Curve. On the horizontal axis is the Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality. On the vertical axis is the intergenerational elasticity of income — how much a 1 percent rise in your father’s income affects your expected income; the higher this number, the lower is social mobility.
[/img] As he shows, America is both especially unequal and has especially low mobility. But he also argues that because we are even more unequal now than we were a generation ago, we should expect even less social mobility going forward.
more - http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=80526270
Lies, Damned Lies, and Politics
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=71732364
DD - the stat in your
is truly one of the obscenities of our world today ..
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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