A reduction in U.S. consumption, increased savings and the adoption of flexible exchange rates in Asia would trigger global instability, according to a Conference Board analysis released today.

Says Gail Fosler, Executive Vice President and Chief Economist of The Conference Board: “Not only would these actions not have the intended effect but they would add to global instability and further slow an already disturbing slowdown in long-term global growth.”

The analysis app

Researchers from the University of Chihuahua in Mexico report that immune systems of patients with asthma responded differently to a common laboratory challenge, depending on whether their white blood cells had been obtained during a time when they were suffering from common season allergic rhinitis or when they were free of such allergic symptoms.

The study was presented by Dr. Irene Leal-Berumen on Saturday, April 2, at The American Association of Immunologists scientific sessions during

Nandapurkar: We welcome the chance to argue our case in Chicago

The fully-electronic futures and options exchange Eurex US has filed its second amended antitrust complaint against the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The amended complaint was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Eurex US had filed an antitrust action against the two exchanges on October 14, 2003 for repeated anticompetitive behavior and unla

Up to 60 percent of “ecosystem services” that support life on earth, such as food, water and climate regulation, are crumbling at an unsustainable rate, members of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) project report here today (March 30). Designed to assist global policy-makers, MA is the first international study to appraise the status of Earth’s diverse ecosystems and their associated impact on human well-being.

Stephen Carpenter, a zoology professor at the University o

Clearstream has been rated as the leading global provider of Tri-Partite Repo services to the international securities market for 2005 by the closely-watched annual survey undertaken by the respected Global Custodian magazine. The survey conducts a detailed review of a wide range of service elements ranging from collateral optimization through to reporting and communications.

For the fourth time in the last five years, Clearstream has achieved the highest overall scores and has increased

A new Report published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) examines the changes that have taken place in banking in the European Union over the last few years. The authors of the third title in CEPR’s Monitoring European Deregulation (MED) series ‘Integration of European Banking – The Way Forward’ note that perhaps the most significant development that has taken place in this sector has been the launch of the Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP).

The goal of the

The global landscape for science and technology is changing, with increased competition for resources and recognition. That’s beginning to look like bad news for the innovative edge the United States has long enjoyed.

“Will the United States own the technology of the future? Probably not all of it, and only if we compete harder to maintain our current position,” said Diana Hicks, professor and chair of Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Public Policy.

The U.S. economy, which finally posted job gains last year after three straight years of job losses, will add another 4 million jobs through 2006, say University of Michigan economists.

“The economy lost 2.7 million payroll jobs from February 2001 to May 2003, but by 2004 the ability of employers to tease more and more output out of fewer workers had about had it,” said Saul Hymans, U-M professor emeritus of economics. “That plus renewed business confidence in the strength of

Companies wanting to use the Internet to recruit new employees should spotlight the geographic location of positions on their Web sites and include terms used by searchers, rather than site designers or human resource professionals, say Penn State researchers.

“Users’ primary interest when looking for jobs is location, but company Web sites typically don’t highlight geographical information,” said Jim Jansen, assistant professor of information sciences and technology. “Lo

Home to some of the world’s largest forest products companies, Finland is committed to staying at the front of this sector and others where it is particularly strong, according to a recent study by the country’s National Technology Agency, Tekes.
Introducing new product and business concepts in traditional industries has been identified as one of Finland’s key six application focus areas in the future.

As leaders in the forest products sector, Finnish companies face some to

A recent study in The Journal of Finance finds that the way the stock market reacts to unemployment news conveys information about the state of the economy.

Stock prices rise on average on announcement of higher than anticipated unemployment during economic expansions, This is because unemployment news itself is a bundle of three primitive types of news: the level of future interest rates, the growth of corporate earnings and dividends in the future, and the expected return on stocks.

Companies in America’s fast-growing retail and wholesale trade sector have been the major drivers of U.S. productivity growth since 1995, and the transformation of U.S. retailing is a major reason the U.S. maintains a substantial productivity lead over Europe.

A comprehensive study by The Conference Board, released today, shows that more than 50% of America’s productivity growth lead over Europe is due to gains in retail and wholesale trade.

The transformation of U.S.

Recently, there has been a massive growth, in many countries, in public-private partnerships for the provision of public service infrastructure, such as, roads and health care facilities. Research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council confirms the potential benefits of partnerships, but also identifies circumstances under which more traditional forms of procurement are preferable.

The project, conducted by Professor John Bennett and Professor Elisabetta Iossa, Brunel B

In most countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, few reliable data are available relating to employment, unemployment and the conditions in which occupations are practised. This is in spite of the fact that societies base their economies on work and that reduction of poverty remains the main objective of economic policies. The existing information in any case results from different concepts and methods of analysis peculiar to each national statistics institute, which prevents comparison at the scale

Dr. Peter Hurd initially thought the idea was “a pile of hooey”, but he changed his mind when he saw the data.

Hurd and his graduate student Allison Bailey have shown that a man’s index finger length relative to ring finger length can predict how inclined that man is to be physically aggressive. Women do not show a similar effect.

A psychologist at the University of Alberta, Hurd said that it has been known for more than a century that the length of the index finger

The Vestas Group has received an order to supply and commission 67 units of V80-1.8 MW wind turbines for a 120 MW wind power project near Abilene, Texas from Buffalo Gap Wind Farm LLC, a project company developed by SeaWest Holdings, Inc. The wind power plant will be commissioned by 31 December 2005. The parties have entered into a turbine supply agreement and a warranty, maintenance and service agreement. Recently, AES Corporation, a major international power company headquartered